This note focuses on rail projects with private participation, that reached financial closure in 1990-1997, surveying regional trends, types of private participation, and project size. Through database analysis, the paper reveals that operations, and management contracts - including leases and concessions - are more common than green-field projects, or divestitures -, and, that private participation is more common for freight, than passenger services, with Latin America leading the new wave of private railway projects. It further illustrates the continued trend to private participation among the different regions, revealing the importance of establishing flexible contracts, and setting clear re-negotiations, or other adjustment mechanisms in advance. Experience from developed countries convey lessons with different models of private involvement, such as the benefits of splitting infrastructure provision from service operation, which often fostered reforms, and, may possibly offer one solution to access pricing issues, when facing vertically integrated companies, concessioned with open access requirements.