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Ministry of Trade, Transport & Tourism

PO Box 715, Conakry

[топ]Key personnel

Minister: I Sylla
For map see entry for Senegal.

Chemin de Fer de la Guinee (ONCFG)

PO Box 581, Conakry

[топ]Key personnel

Director: M К Fofana
Gauge: 1,000 mm; 1,435 mm Route length: 662 km; 175 km

[топ]Organisation

The railway links Kankan and the limit of navigability of the Upper Niger at Kouroussa with the port of Conakry. Crossing the Fouta Djalon mountains on gradients as steep as 2.9 per cent, and with curves of 100 to 150 m radius, it was lightly laid, without ballast, and has consequently deteriorated badly with rising axleloads. Some renovation of track and rolling stock has been carried out under foreign aid programmes.

The government’s aim is to reconstruct the entire railway, regauging it to standard gauge. As part of this scheme, a 134 km standard-gauge line was built in 1974 with technical and financial aid from the USSR. Running from Conakry to Kindia, the line parallels the metre-gauge line for almost its entire length and is used exclusively for the transport of bauxite from mines at Kindia. The line is operated jointly by ONCFG and the Societe de Bauxite de Kindia (SBK), its sole user. From Dabola, at Km 442 on the metre-gauge line, a branch line of some 140 km runs north to bauxite mines near Tougue. This line is jointly operated by ONCFG and the Societe de Bauxite Dabola-Tougue (SBDT).

[топ]Passenger operations

Passenger operation's using railcars between Conakry and Kankan ceased towards the end of the 1980s due to a lack of spare parts for rolling stock and poor track conditions. A limited passenger service has been run between Conakry and Kindia by attaching a passenger
coach to a freight train twice-weekly but in many cases passengers are simply carried in a freight wagon. The total number of passengers carried in 1998 totalled around 50,000.

[топ]Freight operations

Freight operations are confined to the 442 km Conakry— Dabola section of the main line; east of Dabola there was in 2000 no traffic due to the poor state of the line’s infrastructure. One daily train conveys bauxite from the mines at Tougue to Dabola, where the ore is transferred to metre-gauge wagons for movement to the port at Conakry. While bauxite accounts for around 80 per cent of traffic, iron ore, uranium, diamonds, graphite, chalk and gold are also transported. From Kindia to Conakry only bauxite is carried. Trains on this line are more frequent, and loading also takes place at Debele, about midway on the route. Loadings from Tougue and Kindia total some 4 million tonnes annually.

[топ]New lines

With assistance from Slovakian Railways, the 140 km Dabola—Tougue line was completed in 1998, using second-hand rails from the Slovakian network. Additional projects include rebuilding the entire Kindia—Dabola— Kankan main line as a standard-gauge system. New lines from Kankan towards the border with Burkina Faso in the north and Ivory Coast in the south are also projected, although no steps have been taken towards their construction. Most of these projects date back to 1958 to 1984. During this period, in 1974, a new station was built at Simbaya, on the outskirts of Conakry, but never used for passengers. Adjacent USSR-built workshops are responsible for the maintenance of standard-gauge rolling stock.

[топ]Traction and rolling stock

The metre-gauge traction fleet consists of 30 main line diesel locomotives and several small shunters, although in 1999 only two Alsthom locomotives built in 1982 and two General Motors machines dating from 1986 were serviceable, together with a pair of two-axle French-built shunters. Two former Czech Railways Class 710 locomotives were acquired in 1998 and converted to metre gauge at Nymburk workshops in the Czech Republic. These are exclusively used on services to Dabola.
Standard-gauge locomotives for the line to Kindia consist of 13 USSR-built ====Type ТЕМ 2T six-axle machines====
acquired in 1998. In July 1996, the Czech company Prime International obtained 18 former Czech Railways Class 770 and 771 diesel locomotives and 35 Falls-type freight wagons from Slovakian Railways originally purchased for a subsequently cancelled contract with Islamic Iranian Republic Railways. One of the locomotives and several of the wagons were lost in a storm during shipment: those vehicles which reached Guinea were in 2000 stored out of use at Simbaya. Three of the locomotives eventually entered service on the Dabola—Tougue line.

None of ONCFG’s 16 metre-gauge railcars was serviceable at the end of 1999 and scrapping of most was reported to be imminent. Of 20 bogie passenger coaches, no more than five remained usable. Some 200 of the fleet of 500 freight wagons were serviceable, some of which were tank wagons that included eight-axle examples imported from Congo during the 1980s.
On the standard-gauge line to Kindia, most of the freight wagons are four-axle vehicles built in the USSR. Wagons regauged for metre-gauge operation are used on the Dabola—Tougue line.

[топ]Industrial railways

From Conakry, the metre-gauge Chemin de fer Conakry— Fria (CFCF) line runs parallel to the ONCFG main line for 30 km before diverging to the north to Fria, 142 km from Conakry. Owned by SBK and opened in 1960, the line serves Fria bauxite mines and its aluminium plant. It is single-track, with 46 kg/m rails on steel sleepers. Rolling stock comprises three Alsthom 820 kW diesel-electric locomotives and 61 50 tonne wagons. The line carries some 900,000 tonnes of bauxite annually.

Also operated by SBK is the Chemin de fer de Boke (CFB), located around 250 km northwest of Conakry. This standard-gauge line runs 136 km from the port of Kamsar via Boke to Sangaredi. Moving more than 12 million tonnes of bauxite annually from the mines at Sangaredi, at the foot of the Peul hills, it is the country’s most important carrier of this commodity. Built by a consortium of European contractors and opened in 1973, the line has UIC 60 kg/m continuously welded rail laid on steel sleepers. As well as bauxite, around 50,000 tonnes of other merchandise and 150,000 passengers are carried annually in five trains a week in each direction. The railway owns 17 US-built diesel locomotives, 460 ore wagons, 39 other freight wagons and three passenger coaches.