Commentary

By Ing. Dr. Albert Forde
Director-General, Sierra Leone Railways Development and Regulatory Authority
In February 2025, the Government of Sierra Leone, through Parliament enacted the Sierra Leone Railways Development and Regulatory Authority Act, 2025. The Act established the Sierra Leone Railways Development and Regulatory Authority, with key mandates to develop and regulate a national railway system and cable car transport. In August, I was appointed as the Director-General by His Excellency the President, and approved by Parliament on Wednesday, 15th October.

To understand the rationale behind His Excellency`s vision of reintroducing a national railway system, it is important to look back on history. A booklet authored by Anthony Coulls, entitled “Sierra Leone Railway Adventure”, which is published by Holne Publishing, provides detailed information on the planning and development of our colonial era national railway system.

Extracts from that booklet are shared in this article. According to Coulls, in the British Colonial period, there were a number of early proposals for a railway. The first of these, dated from 1872 and including a proposed trans-Sahara railway, never came to fruition. However, in 1893 a proposal for a line from Freetown promoted by the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, was accepted and work began. But the tropical climate among other obstacles, caused many difficulties which needed to be overcome before the initial surveys could be completed. Unusually for such a long length of railway, it was constructed to 2 feet 6-inch gauge and never varied from that throughout its operation. In the Railway industry, a gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the two rails of a train track, with the most common standard being 1,435 mm (or 4ft and 8.5 inches), also known as “Standard Gauge”. The gauge of 2 feet 6 inches was chosen in order to keep construction costs to an absolute minimum, limiting the need for major civil works.

Construction of the colonial era railway network commenced from Water Street (now Wallace-Johnson Street), Freetown, in 1896 and the first section of railway was opened to Wellington, seven miles away, by March 1897 with much ceremony and decorated trains. Subsequent openings, were: Waterloo, about 15 miles out in April 1898; Songo 32 miles in 1899; Rotifunk at 56 miles in1900; Bo in 103 miles out in 1903, and Baima 220 miles distant from Freetown in 1905. In 1907, the final destination of Pendembu was reached at 227 miles from Water Street and there the main line stopped, despite aspirations of carrying on over to the border into neighboring Liberia. A branch was built between 1914 and 1916 from Bauya Junction to Makeni and Kamabai, with a length of 104 miles, bringing the total route mileage to 331 miles. This was later cut back to Makeni in 1930.

A comparative report showed that among the West African states, the railway in Sierra Leone was the cheapest. Some features of the railway's construction was over 130 viaducts across rivers and gorges, with one, the Orugu bridge, outside Freetown being a steel trestle built on a curve. A further line of 5 and half miles length was bult in 1903, known as the Mountain railway, connected by rail from the docks and Water Street Station, this climbed from a station at Cotton Tree, Freetown to Hill Station, at 748 ft above sea level.

This line allowed Europeans to live on the more rarified air above Freetown heading towards Leicester Peak, but it was closed in 1929 as surveys in the late 20s had already shown it to be losing money against road competition. The Sierra Leone government railway settled down to a steady existence throughout the first part of the 20th century, bringing goods, minerals and produce down from upcountry to the markets of Freetown and taking other materials and imports up country from the docks of the city. There was even a travelling post office service.

In 1930, the Sierra Leone Development Company (DELCO) started work on a 3ft 6 in gauge line from the coast at Pepel to the Marampa iron ore mines, a distance of 52 miles. This railway was invented for only goods traffic and never operated a passenger service. It was also geographically isolated from the government lines and a different gauge.

The railways assumed increased importance in World War 2. Apart from moving food and resources from the interior to the coast, the railway was also important in supporting fighting in North Africa. Fighter aircrafts were transported in kit form to Pendembu, where they were assembled and flown on to Egypt. Freetown was an important deep-water harbour and bunkering station for both military and civilian ships. A map of the colonial era railway lines is shown below.

Additional photos of the railway infrastructure (tracks, viaducts, stations) and rolling stock/trains are available in the Old Photos of Sierra Leone Page on Facebook. According to Coulls, an arguably misguided government policy, allied to the conditions associated with investment by World Bank saw the staged closure of the railway from 1968 onwards with formal complete closure in 1974, although trains continued to operate on an unofficial basis so long as the tracked existed, until mid-1975.

The loss of the railway had an immediate effect on the national economy given the poor condition of the road network- a poor substitute in moving people, goods, and products around the country. It is interesting to note that on his retirement in 1985, the then president of Sierra Leone, Siaka Stevens declared in a BBC interview his greatest regret in office was the closure of the railway. My next article will focus on the strategic relevance and urgency, and the benefits of reintroducing a national railway system for the transport of both people and goods.