Railways
There are 622 kilometres of railway in Burkina Faso, of which 517 km run from Ouagadougou to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; and 105 km from Ouagadougou to Kaya. All of the railways in the country are of the narrow 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge. Only one adjacent country is connected to Burkina Faso via rail, Côte d'Ivoire, a country in which the same one-metre gauge is employed.
A rail link connects Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso with the port of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire: the line from Ouagadougou to the Nigerien capital Niamey stops at Kaya. Google Earth images dated 15/2/07 show construction continuing for approx. 100 km northeast towards Dori. Instability in Côte d'Ivoire in 2003 forced a rerouting of rail freight from the Abidjan corridor to ports in Togo, Benin, and Ghana via the road network. A proposed rail link between Ouagadougou and Pô in Burkina Faso and Kumasi and Boankra in Ghana, has been discussed with Ghanaian officials, and feasibility studies are being undertaken to explore this possibility, which would provide rail access to the inland port of Bonakra.
Burkina Faso and Ghana use different rail gauges and this break-of-gauge can be overcome to a greater or lesser extent with a number of methods.
In 2006, an Indian proposal surfaced to link the railways in Benin and Togo with landlocked Niger and Burkina Faso. Additionally, a Czech proposal also surfaced to link Ghana railways with Burkina Faso. The manganese deposits near Dori are one source of traffic. Burkina Faso would also be a participant in the AfricaRail project.
Railways in Burkina Faso employ a coupling of two buffers and screw chain,, and either air or vacuumbrakes.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Burkina Faso
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“There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)