Railways in

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 Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

comprised two lines from the port of

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

in the northwest, and one line from the port of Buchanan in the centre. The lines were built between 1951 and 1964 principally to transport iron ore. All three lines closed down, two due to the effects of the two Liberian Civil Wars (1989–1996 and 1999–2003). The Bong Mine Railway recommenced operations in 2003. The Lamco Railway was rebuilt by

Arcelor Mittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourg-based multinational steel manufacturing corporation, headquartered in Luxembourg City. It is ranked second on the list of steel producers behind Baowu, and had an annual crude steel production of 58 million ...

and put back into service in 2011 as far as Tokadeh, Nimba County, allowing export of iron ore from the company's mine on the Guinean border via the Port of Buchanan.Railways in Liberia, http://sinfin.net/railways/world/liberia.html

History

Infrastructure

Mano River Railway (1N)

The gauge Mano River railway primarily carried freight, but had very limited passenger service between

, Mano River terminal, Brewerville, Klay, Tubmanburg and Mano River Mine. These are now disused, due to exhaustion of the iron ore deposits on the line.

Bong mine railway (2C)

The Bong Mine railway was damaged during the civil war and reopened in 2003 by 2007 or 2009. It had intermittent service to the following places: * Monrovia Port and capital city. * Louisiana * Sheshe * Harrisburg * Careysburg *

Kolata Kolata is the traditional folk dance of the state of Karnataka, located in Southern India on the western coast. Unlike its North Indian counterpart Dandiya Ras, it comes in two forms. First, it is performed with coloured sticks and usually involv ...

* Motobli * Yapagua * Bong Mine This railway is .

Lamco Railway (3S)

The Lamco railway was originally built to take

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 f ...

from Mount Nimba - Yekepa Train station and Tokadeh to the port of Buchanan, for export. It fell into disuse and was damaged during the civil war, but has recently been rebuilt by

from Tokadeh to the coast and was put back into service in 2011. This railway is .

Proposals

* In 2010, BSG Resources planned to build a cross-border line to export iron ore from mines near

Simandou Simandou is a range of hills located in the Nzérékoré and Kankan regions of southeastern Guinea, in the country's mountainous, forested ''Guinée Forestière'' region. At the southern end of the range the site of a large iron ore deposit is ...

North (in

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

) via the Liberian port of Didia. 51% of BSGR is now owned by

Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municip ...

. This line parallels the Lamco Railway for a considerable distance. * In 2022 a short extension across the border into Guinea to serve iron ore deposits there was proposed. This is being promoted by High Power Exploration which has an agreement with the Guinean government to develop the Nimba Iron Ore Project. Its Liberian subsidiary Ivanhoe Liberia intends to agree shared access to the railway line between Buchanan and Tokadeh, rebuild a line from there to Yekepa abandoned in 1992 and build a new line 2–3 km from Yekepa to the border. This would join a short section of new railway within Guinea to reach the mine.

Accidents

In January 2006, there was an accident on the Bong Mines railway; a train travelling from the mine to Monrovia collided with a makeshift wooden trolley used by locals (known as a "Make-away"). Two were killed.

Maps

UN Map

References

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