Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso jointly own SITARAIL, a transnational railway. The line was one of the first in Africa to be awarded as a concession to the private sector in 1995 and is a key conduit for transport of bulk freight to and from landlocked Burkina Faso. Between 2000 and 2005, Sitarail and the other West African railway concession—Transrail—were by far the strongest performing concessions on a wide range of operational indicators, including productivity of labor, locomotives, and rolling stock. Traffic density on Sitarail was close to 500,000 tonne-kilometers per route-kilometer, which was by far the highest in the region (although still low in absolute terms). Between 1995 and 2000, during the first five years of the concession, the volume of freight almost tripled from 300 million to 800 million tonnes annually.

For information on Cote d'Ivoire Railway Company Contact details, please see the following link: 4.2.10 Cote d'Ivoire Railway Company Contact List 

Travel Distance Matrix

Note: The information provided in the above table has been taken from the old DLCA and amended to match the structure of the new LCA.

Railway Companies and Consortia

SITARAIL is a consortium jointly owned by the governments of CI and Burkina Faso, each 15%, the Railway Employees Trust Fund 3% and a French/Danish business group (freight operators SDV, SAGA and MAERSK, consultancy bureaux SYSTRA and TRANSURB ) for 67%. The initial concession, which operates both passenger and freight services, was awarded in March 1983, became effective in August 1995 and has a duration of 15 years.

Capacity Table

Note: The information provided in the above table has been taken from the old DLCA and amended to match the structure of the new LCA.

Key Route Information

Key Stations

Bouake railway station:

Bouake was before 2002 an important railway station. All local factories and warehouses had their own private railway siding. With the disappearance of trade and industry the railway sidings are not served anymore and totally overgrown. Transit  (loading/unloading) must therefore be done at the Bouake railway station. There is a special siding with loading/discharging quay, which can accommodate 8 wagons simultaneously. No shunting locomotive is stationed in Bouake.

Small locomotive and wagon maintenance works are carried out. A recovery wagon mounted with a 20 MT capacity crane is available. The railway grid has 6 tracks of 900 meters.

Ferkessédougou railway station:

This railway station is being developed as a fully equipped dry port and transit point for goods destined for the cities of Korhogo, Boundiali , Odienné and the northern part of the country but also as a  very promising interface for import and export goods into and from Mali. The freight station is operated by SAGA – SDV.  A 40 MT container reach stacker and a 12 MT capacity forklift are permanently stationed in Ferkessédougou. There is a container yard – 200 m x 60 m. The container yard needs resurfacing. Various shipping lines offer export reefer transport (export of mangoes in the season). A generator with 6 plugs and 4 Gensets are readily available. Two very large covered warehouses are being refurbished in order to accommodate large import and export consignments (1 warehouse with 7 x 350 m² compartments - 1 warehouse with 5 x 350 m² compartments) Estimated storage capacity: 10 to 12.000 MT bagged cargo)

BURKINA FASO by RAIL from ABIDJAN