Railway stations in Niger

There is currently one railway in Niger, built between 2014 and 2016 between Niamey and Dosso by the French Bolloré conglomerate. The objective was to connect Niamey to the rail network in Benin and thus to the coast. But competing commercial interests by several parties resulted in endless litigation and the connection to Benin never materialized. So the 145 km Niamey-Dosso stretch now lies orphaned and unused, with the tracks ending in the middle of nowhere some 6 km south of Dosso. After several years of neglect the tracks are already damaged to such an extent in some places, that they have become unusable.[1][2][3][4] At the Niamey Terminus Station, the rails are kinked to such an extent by the summer heat that the train would not be able to leave the station (see image).

Railway map of Benin including the never built rail link to Niger
Niamey, terminus station
Niamey, airport station
Guesselbodi station
Kouré station
Kodo station
Koygorou station
Dosso station
End of the tracks, 6 km south of Dosso

A rail connection from Maradi into Nigeria is being considered.

Maps edit

Built, but not operational edit

Built and operational edit

in Benin edit

  • (1,000 mm (3 ft 3+38 in) gauge) [8][9]
  •   Cotonou (0 km) - port in Benin[10]
  •   Parakou (438 km) - railhead in north

Proposed edit

From Parakou (Benin), to Dosso (Niger) edit

From Nigeria edit

From Côte d'Ivoire via Burkina Faso edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "EXTENDING FROM BENIN TO NIGER". Railways Africa. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  2. ^ See: Bollore's Niger-Benin rail project in jeopardy after rival wins court order, Reuters, 27 Nov. 2015.
  3. ^ See: Niger, Benin Seek Resolution of Rail Project Dispute Archived 2021-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, Railbus.com, 9 Oct. 2019.
  4. ^ See: Elusive Connections: The Precarious Materiality of a Railway Project in Niger, by Gabriella Körling (Nomadit), 2018.
  5. ^ (in French) "Inauguration of the first train station in Niamey" (Radio France Internationale)
  6. ^ "A 80 Year-long Wait: Niger Gets its First Train Station" (Global Voices Online)
  7. ^ "First railway in Niger" (RailwaysAfrica)
  8. ^ UN
  9. ^ "BENIN RAILWAY EXTENSION - Railways Africa". www.railwaysafrica.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-06.
  10. ^ http://www.railwaysafrica.com/blog/2011/09/china-benin-rly-extension/
  11. ^ [1] (informationng.com)
  12. ^ "Connecting Niger to Côte d'Ivoire" Archived 2014-03-23 at the Wayback Machine (railwaysofafrica.com)

External links edit

  Media related to Train stations in Niger at Wikimedia Commons