There are a number of systems of transport in Sierra Leone, a country in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

, which possess road, rail, air and water infrastructure, including a network of highways and several airports. Just like Great Britain, Sierra Leone used to drive on the left hand side of the road. In March 1971, Sierra Leone had a change-over and started to drive on the right hand side of the road. By law, it is forbidden to import and register cars with the steering wheel on the right hand side in Sierra Leone, but the in 2012 the government was failing at enforcing this law.

Railways

There are 84 kilometres (52 mi) of

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, of which all is of a narrow gauge. Sierra Leone no longer has any common carrier railroads, as the gauge

Sierra Leone Government Railway :''This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series'' The Sierra Leone Government Railway operated in Sierra Leone from 1897 to 1974. It was unusual in that it formed a national railway system constructed solely to a Narrow ...

from

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

through Bo to

Kenema Kenema is the third largest city in Sierra Leone (after Freetown and Bo, Sierra Leone, Bo), and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province, Sierra Leone, Eastern Province. It is the capital of Kenema District and a major economic center of ...

and

Daru Daru is the capital of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea and a former Catholic bishopric. Daru town falls under the jurisdiction of Daru Urban LLG. The township is entirely located on an island that goes by the same name, which is loca ...

with a branch to

Makeni Makeni is the largest city in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. The city is the capital of Bombali District, and is the economic center of the Northern Province. Makeni is the fifth largest city in Sierra Leone by population. The city of M ...

closed in 1974. The country does not share rail links with adjacent countries,

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

and

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

. The existing railroad is private and operated from 1933 until 1975 by the Sierra Leone Development Company's

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

mines at

Marampa Marampa Mines is the site of an hematite iron ore mine based in the town of Lunsar, Port Loko District,

, 66 km (41 mi) east-northeast of the port at

Pepel Pepel is a coastal town in the Port Loko District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Port Pepel has a port in the Sierra Leone River used for shipping bulk iron ore via the mining company African Minerals. Railway Pepel is connec ...

. 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 Tonkolili District is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Magburaka. The other major towns include Masingbi, Yele, Mile 91, Bumbuna, Yonibana, Matotoka. Mathora, Magbass and Masanga. To ...

with conversion to (standard gauge) upgrade to carry per year was under consideration. Further details of the project were announced in October 2010;

Dawnus Dawnus was a British construction company. Established in 2001 the company grew rapidly in the early 2000s but collapsed into administration in 2019. The company had operations in the United Kingdom and West Africa. History Dawnus was founded ...

planned to construct 50 km of new line, and refurbish 67 km 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 gauge is obsolete.

Walking

Because of widespread poverty, high petroleum prices and a large portion of the population residing in small communities, walking is often the preferred method of transportation in Sierra Leone.

Highways

There are 11,700 kilometres (7,270 mi) of

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

in Sierra Leone, of which 936 km (582 mi) are paved. When construction and reconstruction of roads and bridges in the country is complete, the

Trans–West African Coastal Highway The Trans–West African Coastal Highway or TAH 7 is a transnational highway project to link 12 West African coastal nations, from Mauritania in the north-west of the region to Nigeria in the east, with feeder roads already existing to two landloc ...

will cross Sierra Leone, connecting it to

Conakry Conakry (; ; sus, Kɔnakiri; N’ko: ߞߐߣߊߞߙߌ߫, Fula: ''Konaakiri'' 𞤑𞤮𞤲𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤭𞤪𞤭) is the capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its p ...

(

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...

(

), and 11 other nations of the

Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political union, political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an ...

(ECOWAS).

Water

There are 800 km (497 mi) of

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

s in Sierra Leone, of which 600 km (373 mi) are navigable year-round. Major ports of Sierra Leone include:

Bonthe Bonthe is a coastal town located on Sherbro Island in Bonthe District in the southern Province of Sierra Leone. The town lies on the eastern shore of Sherbro Island, on the Sherbro River estuary. Bonthe is about 60 miles south-west of Bo and 187 ...

and

Queen Elizabeth II Quay Queen Elizabeth II Quay, also known as QE II Quay () and by residents as the Deep Water Quay, is a locality in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It is located on a promontory called Fourah Point (also known variously as ''Farran'' Point, ''Farren'' Point ...

in Freetown represents the country's only deep water port facility capable of berthing large-hulled cargo or military vessels. The country possesses a merchant marine of two cargo ships exceeding 1,000 GT.

Airports

There are ten airports in Sierra Leone, of which one has paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s (the length of which exceeds ). Of the remaining airports, all of which having unpaved runways, seven have runways of lengths between ; the remaining two having runways of shorter length. There are two

heliport A heliport is a small airport suitable for use by helicopters and some other vertical lift aircraft. Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff areas and may also have limited facilities such as fuel or hangars. I ...

s in the country.

References

External links

UN Map of Sierra Leone
{{Africa in topic, Transport in