Rail transport in Liberia



Railways in Liberia comprised two lines from the port of Monrovia in the northeast, and one line from the port of Buchanan in the centre. The lines were built principally to transport iron ore. By 2010, only the Bong mine railway was operational but the Lamco Railway was rebuilt by Arcelor Mittal 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.

Mano River Railway (1N)
The gauge Mano River railway primarily carried freight, but had very limited passenger service between Monrovia, 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 2009. It had intermittent service to the following places:
 * 🇱🇷 Monrovia Port
 * Louisiana
 * Sheshe
 * Harrisburg
 * Careysburg
 * Kolata
 * Motobli
 * Yapagua
 * Bong Mine

This railway is.

Lamco Railway (3S)
The Lamco railway was originally built to take iron ore 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 Arcelor Mittal from Tokadeh to the coast and was put back into service in 2011. This railway is.

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.

Simandou-Didia
In 2010, BSG Resources planned to build a cross-border line to export iron ore from mines near Simandou North (in Guinea) via the Liberian port of Didia. 51% of BSGR is now owned by Vale. This line parallels the Lamco Railway for a considerable distance.

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