Rail transport in Mali

Mali has one railroad (the Dakar–Niger Railway), including 729 kilometers in Mali, which runs from the port of Koulikoro via Bamako to the border with Senegal and continues on to Dakar. The Bamako-Dakar line, which has been described as dilapidated, was owned by a joint company established by Mali and Senegal in 1995, with the eventual goal of privatization. In 2003, the two countries sold a 25-year concession to run the rail line to a Canadian company, which has pledged to upgrade equipment and infrastructure.

The Malian portion of the railroad carried an estimated 536,000 tons of freight and 778,000 passengers in 1999. The track is in poor condition, and the line is closed frequently during the rainy season. The line is potentially significant because it links landlocked Mali to the port of Dakar, increasingly of interest for Malian exports in the face of the disruption of access to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, as a result of civil conflict in that country beginning in late 2002. In the early 2000s, there also were plans to construct a new rail line between Bamako and Kouroussa and Kankan in Guinea.^[1]

As of 2013, passenger services in Mali were being offered three days between Bamako and Kayes via Kati and Diamou.^[2]

The portion of track between Bamako and Koulikoro has been out of service since at least 2005, and satellite imagery shows numerous bridge and roadbed washouts that would need to be repaired before it would be navigable once again.

In May 2018, Service on the passenger train line that links Bamako with the west of the country was halted due to poor maintenance. Five years later on 9 June 2023, the line was reopened after a renovation that approximately cost $10 million.^[3]

Technical

Gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)
Brakes: The railway uses vacuum brakes.^[4]
Couplers: Buffers and chain, European.^[5] - see loco CC2286.^[6]
Couplers: Norwegian for some vehicles from India.
Axleload 15 tonnes ^[7]

Railway links with adjacent countries

Algeria - no - potential break of gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)/1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Niger - no railways
Burkina Faso - no - same gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)
Côte d'Ivoire - no - same gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)
Guinea - no - same gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) also 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Senegal - yes - same gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)
Mauritania - no - break of gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)/1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)