According to the railway transport news portal Railway Supply, Gabon’s government and the Société d’exploitation du Transgabonais (SETRAG) have reached an agreement for the second phase of upgrading the Trans-Gabon Railway.
This 648 km railway connects Libreville, the capital on the Atlantic coast, with Franceville in the southeastern part of the country.
The upgrades will take place along the stretches from Ndjolé to Alamba and from Mvengué to Franceville.
As part of the modernization, new rails weighing 60 kg/m will be installed, replacing the old 50 kg/m rails, and wooden sleepers will be replaced with two-block concrete ones.
The total cost of the project is 359 billion CFA francs ($580 million). Of this, the Gabonese government will provide 130 billion CFA francs, while SETRAG will contribute the remaining 220 billion CFA francs. The work is scheduled for completion by 2028.
Moreover, the Gabonese government will support the purchase of new passenger trains.
The first phase of the modernization project, which is nearing its end, focused on rebuilding the section from Owendo port, south of Libreville, to Ndjolé in the central part of Gabon.
During this phase, 300 km of existing tracks were updated, and 225 km of new rails were installed, with the initial phase costing 230 billion CFA francs. SETRAG has a 30-year concession to manage both freight and passenger services on the Trans-Gabon Railway, extending to 2035.
Passenger trains run four days a week on this route, and the schedule includes 17 freight trains weekly.
In 2022, the railway served 248,000 passengers and transported 10.9 million tons of cargo.