Dakar-Niger Railway
The
Dakar-Niger Railway connects
Dakar, (
Senegal) to
Koulikoro, (
Mali). It serves many cities in Senegal (including
Thiès) and Mali (including
Kayes,
Kita,
Kati,
Bamako). The line covers a course of 1,287 km of which 641 km lies in Mali.
Construction work on the Dakar-Niger Railway began at the end of the
19th century under the French general
Gallieni, commander of
French Sudan.
The railroad connected the
Niger River with the port of
Dakar, allowing the transport of
raw materials across the globe. The line was completed at the beginning of the 20th century, the Kayes-Koulikoro section being inaugurated in
1904, but the final section of line did not open until
1924.
In
1947, the railroad workers went on a several-month
strike to obtain the same rights as the French railwaymen. The successful strike was celebrated as a turning point in the anti-colonial struggle by Senegalese writer
Ousmane Sembène in his
1960 novel
Les Bouts de bois de Dieu.
With the independence of
Mali and
Senegal, after the break-up of the
Mali Federation, control of the railroad was divided between two national organisations, the
Régie des Chemin de fer du Mali (RCFM) and the
Régie Sénégalaise.
An agreement between Senegal and Mali in
1962 determined the common exploitation of the line by the two railway companies.
The difficulties of management and the lack of investment have led to a degradation of the infrastructure and
rolling stock and numerous delays. In
October 2003, Senegal and Mali entrusted the management of the network to a Franco-Canadian consortium,
Transrail.
In spite of Transrail's obligation to maintain a passenger service, Transrail intends to concentrate on the transport of
goods. Many stations have been closed and the numbers of connections reduced, creating difficulties for isolated communities.
"Tableau comparative des exportations par rail"
[ Jean-Claude Faur: La mise en valeur ferroviaire de l'AOF (1880-1939). Paris: Université de Paris, 1969 (=Thesis)] No sources are given for any of this data, which shows the numbere of tons of different products exported in various years:
| Product | 1924 | 1934 | 1952-3 | 1955-6 | | Shelled peanuts | - | 7,422 | 7,250 | - |
| Peanuts in shells | 4,125 | 1,990 | 55,000 |
147,900 |
| Gum arabic | 936 | 1,196 | 1,000 | 1,500 |
| Karité | 416 | 2690 | 9,750 | - |- | Animal skins | 787 | 841 | 10,000 | - |
| Cotton | - | 185 | - | 18,200 |
| Millet | 236 | - | - | 850,000 |
*
Transport in Mali*
Transport in Senegal*
Ousmane Sembène,
Les bouts de bois de Dieu,
Plon,
1960, ISBN 0435909592.
*
The Railway line of Dakar-Niger by Christian Derosier (French language)
