Railways
There are 84 kilometres (52 mi) of railway in Sierra Leone, of which all is of a narrow 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge. Sierra Leone no longer has any common carrier railroads, as the 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge Sierra Leone Government Railway from Freetown through Bo to Kenema and Daru with a branch to Makeni closed in 1974. The country does not share rail links with adjacent countries, Guinea and Liberia.
The existing railroad is private and operated from 1933 until 1975 by the Sierra Leone Development Company's iron ore mines at Marampa, 66 km (41 mi) east-northeast of the port at Pepel. It is now used on a limited basis. Tecsbacos, the mining company, is reported in 2006 to have problems of theft and obstruction in operating the railway. In May 2008, an extension of this line to Tonkolili with conversion to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge) upgrade to carry 25,000 t (24,605 long tons; 27,558 short tons) per year was under consideration. Further details of the project were announced in October 2010; Dawnus planned to construct 50km of new line, and refurbish 67km of existing line.
Talks started with Russia in 2006 to seek help to rebuild railways in the country, although choice of gauge is problematic, since the original 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge is obsolete.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Sierra Leone
Famous quotes containing the word railways:
“There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)