Abidjan-Ouagadougou railway

rdf:langString Abidjan-Ouagadougou railway

rdf:langString The Abidjan-Niger Railway is a 1,260-kilometre (780-mile) single-track metre gauge line in francophone West Africa that links Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The railway, like others on the continent, was constructed by the colonial power to encourage economic development in the region, although detractors would claim that it was to exploit the region solely for their own advantage. Although the railway was once the predominant transporter of passengers in the region, by 2000 it was facing strong competition from road transport. Now, the railway's main role is servicing international freight traffic (petroleum products, containers, fertilizers, grain, clinker, cement, cotton etc) to and from Burkina Faso and the north of Côte d'Ivoire.