Orphan Road

Great article in today's NYT about the challenges facing Congo's state-owned rail line.

In large swaths of Congo, a vast country the size of Western Europe, roads are impassable or nonexistent, large riverboats no longer ply the waterways and air travel is prohibitively expensive, leaving many people to rely on an increasingly dangerous railway system long past its prime.

Fresh from its first democratic elections in nearly 50 years and still struggling to emerge from civil war, Congo is trying to get its trains running again. But it has a long way to go.

My bet? You'll see maglev running between New York and Chicago before Congo has a rail system up to the standards of the late 19th century.