Railways in

Bénin

A freight train in the yard at Cotonou in 2013.
The locomotive is CC1301, one of three Co-Co diesel electrics purchased from India in 2008.
The livery is that of OCBN, the operator at the time.

The first railway in what was then Dahomey was opened in 1906 between the port of Cotonou and Ouidah, a distance of 47km. The gauge chosen was metre gauge, typical for a French colonial railway of the time. The main line was extended in stages to reach Parakou (437km from Cotonou) by 1936. When other lines were built, the original line became know as the Northern Line. The other lines were the Eastern Line from Cotonou to Pobé (107km) and the Western Line, a branch from the Northern Line at Pahou to Ségboroué (33km). The newer lines were closed in the latter half of the 20th century, leaving only the Northern Line open until the reopening of a short stretch of the Eastern Line from Cotonou to the capital, Porto Novo, in 1999. In 2014, work started on the construction of a 574km extension of the Northern Line from its terminus at Parakou to Miamey in Niger, but was abandoned the following year.

During the 21st century, various organisations have held the concession for operating the remaining extant railways. At present, it appears that the railways are in goverment control, pending the award of a new concession.

In addition to the metre gauge network, several 600mm gauge railways were opened in the 1920s and 1930s, either as isolated industrial railways or as feeders to the metre gauge network. All had closed by the late 1940s or early 1950s.