The first railway in what was then the Haute Volta region of French West Africa opened in 1934, with the arrival at Bobo-Dioulasso of the metre gauge railway from Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire. The line was extended in stages to Ouagadougou, which it reached in 1954.
After the two countries gained independence in 1960, the railway was jointly administered by the two governments. The situation prevailed until 1994, when a concession for the entire railway was awarded to a private operator, Sitarail.
In the 1980s, work began on an extension of the line from Ouagadougou to Tambao, but to date this has only been completed as far as Kaya. There is a proposal by Africarail for a new line, which would link with the extended Sitarail line at Dori and run to Niamey, the capital of Niger. There, it would join the extended railway from Bénin.
