Rail transport in Burkina Faso

Train station in Koudougou, Burkina Faso.

There are 622 kilometres of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in) gauge railway in Burkina Faso which run from Kaya to the border with Côte d'Ivoire. As of June 2014 Sitarail operates a passenger train three times a week along the route from Ouagadougou to Abidjan.^[1]

Burkina Faso is landlocked but the railway to Abidjan provides rail access to a port. Links to railways in Ghana and the port of Takoradi have been repeatedly proposed.^[2][3][4]

Stations

Gare de Bobo-Dioulasso

Gare de Banfora

The following towns of Burkina Faso are served by the country's railways:

• Niangoloko
• Banfora
• Peni
• Bobo-Dioulasso
• Sala
• Koudougou
• Bingo
• Ouagadougou - national capital
• Ziniaré
• (service suspended)
• Kaya terminus

Construction resuming

• (for 3MTpa manganese - 2014)
• Kaya - terminus ^[5]
• Dori (approx. 100 km of the extension from Kaya to Dori visible on Google Earth dated 15/2/07)
• Markoye
• Tambao manganese ^[6] - near Niger/Mali borders ^[7][8]

Proposed

2011

• On 31 November 2011, a agreement was signed to build a new international railway connecting Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin.^[9]

2014

• Pan African Minerals to develop the Tambao manganese project at a cost of up to $1 billion. The manganese mine is in the north of Burkina Faso, near the border with Niger and Mali, containing perhaps 100 million tonnes of the metal, used in steel production. The Tamboa project is an integrated project with a mining component and an infrastructure component, notably through the roads, railway and the port...," said Romanian billionaire Frank Timis. The project will happen in the next three years and will require investment of nearly $1 billion." ^[10][11]

Maps

• UN Map
• UNHCR Map

See also

• Rail transport in Ghana; Ghana Railway Corporation
• Transport in Burkina Faso
• West Africa Regional Rail Integration

References

1. European Rail Timetable, Summer 2014 Edition, (journey time is 43 to 48 hours)
2. "Railway Gazette: Essential renewals must pave the way for ambitious expansion strategy". Retrieved 2010-10-22.
3. "Railway Gazette: News in Brief". Retrieved 2010-10-22.
4. "2008-01-01". Retrieved 2010-10-22.
5. Times Atlas of the World 2007 p85
6. RailwayAfrica July 2009, p9
7. UNHCR Map shows extension to Tambao
8. http://www.railpage.com.au/f-p1929682.htm#1929682
9. http://www.railwaysafrica.com/blog/2012/01/railway-to-link-west-african-states/
10. http://www.railpage.com.au/f-p1913774.htm#1913774
11. Reuters

External links