n 28 October 2026, CMA CGM ran its first dedicated container train from the Port of Mombasa to the Nairobi Embakasi Inland Container Depot.
The train has 54 wagons, carries up to 108 TEU and will start with one trip a week, bringing in imports only for now. The company says it may add more trains and a return service later. It launched the service with Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Railways Corporation.
One train a week sounds small. What matters more is what it shows about where the big shipping lines now want to do business.
For a long time a shipping line's job ended at the quay. Once a box came off the ship, it passed to a clearing agent, a trucker, a rail operator and a warehouse, each with its own contract, its own delays and its own costs. Now the biggest carriers want to run the whole journey, from the ship to the cargo owner's door.
CMA CGM IS BUILDING AN INLAND NETWORK ACROSS AFRICA
The Kenya train is part of a bigger plan. CMA CGM says it moved 108,000 TEU through its Africa intermodal network in 2025, a figure that includes North Africa and the Indian Ocean, and that 36 per cent of it went by rail or barge.
In the same year it opened new dedicated rail corridors in Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, plus new routes into the Democratic Republic of Congo and to Gweru in Zimbabwe. The group says it now operates in 38 African countries and reaches more than 320 inland destinations.
MSC AND AGL ARE TESTING THE SOUTHERN ROUTES
MSC completed its purchase of Bolloré Africa Logistics in December 2022, and the business now operates as Africa Global Logistics (AGL). Africa Ports & Ships reports that in May this year a first trial rail run linked Durban with Zambia's Copperbelt and the DRC.
The train took containers north and came back with export cargo, including copper and timber. It is not yet a regular, scheduled service.
PIL IS LINKING THE SEA ROUTE TO RAIL IN SOUTH AFRICA
Pacific International Lines (PIL) announced its Ubuntu Express on 28 April 2026, with the first sailing leaving Shanghai on 28 May.
The service calls at Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Shekou and Singapore before reaching Durban and Cape Town. PIL now moves boxes between Durban and Johannesburg by rail under a single through bill of lading. It also offers onward transport to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and Lesotho.
EUROPE SHOWS WHERE THIS COULD GO
In Europe this shift has gone much further. MSC's rail company MEDWAY runs more than 700 train departures a week with a fleet of over 150 locomotives and 4,800 railcars.
CMA CGM, which has owned CEVA Logistics since 2019, completed its purchase of Freightliner, a British rail freight company, in January 2026.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR AFRICA
For cargo owners and procurement teams, one contract from the ship to the inland depot can mean fewer handovers, clearer tracking and one party responsible when something goes wrong. The real test will be price and reliability, and whether shippers still have a choice of carriers on these routes.
For ports and railways, shipping lines bringing their own volumes is a chance to get more use out of tracks and inland depots that have often stood half empty. That only works if access is fair and tariffs are transparent.
For East Africa, the Mombasa to Nairobi train is a start. The real gains for Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and eastern DRC will come when services like this run along the full Northern and Central Corridors.
The direction is clear. The companies that own the ships increasingly want to own the route inland as well. African governments, port authorities and shippers need to decide now how to make sure that benefits trade across the continent and does not just concentrate control.
