New lease of life for Senegal’s railways

After a lengthy period of neglect, Senegal’s railways are preparing to shake off their lethargy in the Thiès region, 70 kilometres from Dakar.

After several years of silence, the train whistled this Tuesday 27 February in the city of Thiès, nicknamed “The Railways City.” The sound awakened indescribable chills among the retired railway workers seated in the official gallery of the brand new Thiès station. These veterans, who witnessed the golden age of Senegalese rail transport, when trains ran from Dakar to Bamako, were among the main guests at the ceremony to officially launch the resumption of passenger
transport by train on the Thiès – Diamniadio route, a distance of around 35 kilometres.

Just as some of them stopped praying their rosary, listening to the mythical sound that the shrill noises of the PA systems couldn’t even drown out, others looked on wistfully as the new generation of railway workers busied themselves with various tasks. They couldn’t miss this event because they had to come, if only for their “deceased colleagues
and those who are ill,” maintains Manar Sall, representative of the railway workers from ‘Grands Trains du Senegal’ (GTS, SA), the public company that manages passenger and freight rail transport.

This resumption of passenger transport by train is part of the overall revival of the railways in Senegal. After a period of lethargy lasting several years, this is being achieved through the refurbishment of railway lines, which has been underway for several months now by workers from the Société nationale des chemins de fer du Sénégal (Senegal National Railway Company, CFS), under the impetus of Managing Director Malick Ndoye. The first phase concerns the Dakar-Tambacounda route (east), while the second will extend as far as the town of Kidira, on the border with Mali.

A “railway history”

New train sets are also being acquired by the authorities for the transport of people and goods. The aim is to speed up socio-economic development by keeping Malian trucks, which come to the Senegalese capital by the hundreds every day to stock up on various products and commodities, in the Tambacounda region, and by drastically reducing
the number of accidents recorded on the road. Ten trains will run daily between Thiès and Diamniadio, with fares ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 CFA francs.

“This is a great day for the people of Thiès,” says Babacar Diop, the mayor of the city whose “identity is linked to the railway.” “Thiès is a railway city. Railway workers wrote its history. Since I became mayor of this locality (in January 2022), the only complaint I made to President Macky Sall was that the railway should be rehabilitated” so that traffic could resume, providing a livelihood for a number of related activities, explains Mr. Diop, an opponent of the current
regime and unsuccessful candidate in this year’s presidential election.

“This 27 February 2024 is a great day, because it marks the permanent rail connection between the department of Thiès and the capital Dakar, via the emblematic Diamniadio station. What a joy for the people of Thiès!” enthused Pape Amadou Ndiaye, Minister attached to the Minister of Land Transport and Opening-up in charge of Railway Development, and
no less a political leader of the party in power in the city.

A “symbolic” train station

Dressed all in white and cheered on by several of his supporters who had turned out for this official reception, which had the air of a political meeting about it, he triumphantly recalled the construction of the Regional Express Train (TER) by the outgoing Head of State, “a modern, fast, safe and structuring mass transport infrastructure.” The Minister went on to emphasise that “President Macky Sall’s vision is to make Thiès once again the city of the rail industry and the centre
for training in rail transport jobs.”

Optimistic about the future, he notes that “this beautiful railway station is the symbol of the renaissance of Senegal’s railways.” “The challenges of resuming traffic and the problem of the mobility of people and goods in urban, suburban and interurban areas remain a major priority for the government. Since 2012, the State has been stepping up its efforts to revive the railways,” Mr. Ndiaye said.

DL/ac/fss/abj/APA