Three men hold on to the back of a moving matatu, Guinea, 2014.
Transport in Guinea is composed by a variety of systems that people in the country use to get around as well as to and from domestic and international destinations. The railway from Conakry to Kankan ceased operating in the mid-1980s.[1] Most vehicles in Guinea are 20+ years old, and cabs are any four-door vehicle which the owner has designated as being for hire. Domestic air services are intermittent. Conakry International Airport is the largest airport in the country, with flights to other cities in Africa as well as to Europe.
Locals, nearly entirely without vehicles of their own, rely upon these taxis (which charge per seat) and small buses to take them around town and across the country. There is some river traffic on the Niger and Milo rivers. Horses and donkeys pull carts, primarily to transport construction materials.
Iron mining at Simandou (South) in the southeast beginning in 2007 and at Kalia in the east is likely to result in the construction of a new heavy-duty standard gauge railway and deep-water port. Iron mining at Simandou (North) will load to a new port near Buchanan, Liberia, in exchange for which rehabilitation of the Conakry to Kankan line will occur.[citation needed]
total:
1,086 km
standard gauge:
279 km 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge
metre gauge:
807 km 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge (includes 662 km in common carrier service from Kankan to Conakry)[2]
This 125 km long Standard Gauge railway connects bauxite mines at Boffa with a new port at Boké, both places in the north of Guinea.
A Joint Venture has already launched the $US 3bn Boffa – Boké Project which a 125 km line from the Dapilon River Terminal to new mining areas of Santou II and Houda.[3] There are 2 tunnels.
The heavy duty Transguinean Railways is about 650 km long and would be 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (standard gauge). It goes from iron ore mines in the south east and bauxite mines in the north to a new port a Matakong.[7]
