Trains across West Africa
NaN routes and 4 operators across 5 countries Fares and travel times below come from the same engine that answers the search box.
1,636 Trains routes run across West Africa, reaching 75 places in 5 countries through 4 operators On the 16 busiest of them, priced on October 8, 2026, the cheapest fare is €15.19 and the fastest trip is 1h 18m door to door. A median route runs 165 km.
Trains in West Africa, in numbers
What we actually sell, counted rather than claimed.
- 1,636Routes we sell
- 409Corridors
- 75Places served
- 5Countries
- 4Operators
- 1,416Domestic routes
- 220Cross border routes
- 0Routes out of the region
- 165 kmMedian route
- 843 kmLongest route
How the modes compare across West Africa
Every mode measured on the same 16 corridors in West Africa, priced on October 8, 2026 for one passenger.
| Mode | Corridors priced | From | Door to door | CO2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Train | 16 | €50.12 | 2h 45m | 14.1 kg |
| Flight | 1 | €92.18 | 4h 39m | 209.1 kg |
The corridors that matter in West Africa
Ranked by how much service runs, then priced. The country and city pages carry the rest.
| Route | From | Fastest | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ijebu Ode to Ibadan train | €15.19 | 1h 20m | 62 km |
| Alimosho to Abeokuta train | €15.19 | 1h 18m | 61 km |
| Abeokuta to Ibadan train | €16.29 | 1h 23m | 67 km |
| Uyo to Owerri train | €25.63 | 1h 48m | 111 km |
| Calabar to Owerri train | €30.03 | 2h 9m | 155 km |
| Kaduna to Abuja train | €37.19 | 2h 9m | 163 km |
| Makurdi to Abuja train | €41.59 | 2h 17m | 186 km |
| Ikare to Warri train | €46.54 | 2h 33m | 223 km |
| Umuahia to Makurdi train | €53.69 | 2h 56m | 271 km |
| Makurdi to Zaria train | €79.54 | 4h 13m | 386 km |
| Ikot Ekpene to Kaduna train | €103.19 | 5h 53m | 595 km |
| Enugu to Kano train | €113.64 | 5h 41m | 628 km |
| Zaria to Aba train | €116.39 | 6h 45m | 669 km |
| Ouagadougou to Abidjan train | €118.59 | 6h 33m | 825 km |
| Yamoussoukro to Ouagadougou train | €127.39 | 7h 6m | 741 km |
| Owerri to Kano train | €128.49 | 6h 55m | 743 km |
Countries in West Africa
Every country in West Africa we sell in, most routes first.
| Country | Routes | Places | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | 924 | 43 | 1 |
| Côte d’Ivoire | 400 | 16 | 1 |
| Benin | 268 | 14 | 1 |
| Burkina Faso | 260 | 16 | 1 |
| Mauritania | 4 | 2 | 1 |
When to book in West Africa
The same search run at seven lead times across 3 corridors in West Africa.
- €193.393 days
- €177.997 days
- €128.4921 days
- €81.1945 days
- €128.4984 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Across the routes we sampled the typical fare is lowest around 45 days ahead, at €81.19.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and most expensive lead time is 58 percent. At the most expensive point the typical fare is €193.39, 3 days out.
How far people travel to get here
Every origin we sell by Trains, grouped by how far it is in a straight line.
| Distance | Routes | Share | Nearest of them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 200 km | 924 | 56% | Ebute Ikorodu, 40 km |
| 200 to 600 km | 500 | 31% | Abengourou, 200 km |
| 600 to 1,500 km | 212 | 13% | Banfora, 600 km |
Rail operators
The carriers with the largest networks inside West Africa.
Train destinations
Other ways to travel across West Africa
Common questions about Trains across West Africa
How many Trains routes does Orlero sell across West Africa?
1,636 of them, across 5 countries reaching 75 places through 4 operators
How much does travelling by Trains cost in West Africa?
On the 16 busiest Trains corridors in West Africa, priced on October 8, 2026, the lowest fare is €15.19 and the median is €50.12.
Is Trains the fastest way across West Africa?
On the corridors we priced, train takes a median of 2h 45m door to door, against 4h 39m by Flight. Both figures include reaching the terminal and leaving it at the other end.
Which countries in West Africa have Trains routes we sell?
Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mauritania.
Who runs the Trains services in West Africa?
Nigerian Railway Corporation, Sitarail, Bénirail, Société nationale industrielle et minière, among 4 carriers we sell across West Africa.
When should I book travel across West Africa?
Fares on the corridors we sampled bottom out about 45 days before departure. Booking then rather than 3 days ahead was 58 percent cheaper on this sample.
How far apart are the places we sell in West Africa?
The median route runs 165 km in a straight line and the shortest is 40 km. The longest we sell is 843 km, from Dabou to Ouagadougou.
Where these numbers come from
Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance on this page are real and come from open data. Where a corridor has a filed timetable the departure times are real too, and ferry fares are the prices the operators publish themselves.
Where no operator publishes a fare for a corridor, the price here is our own estimate, worked out from the real distance and the real operator through a fare curve that follows lead time, day of the week and season. It tells you roughly what the journey costs. It is not a seat anyone has agreed to sell, and the payment step will not take it.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares
- Regions
- A region is a set of countries, and a route counts for it when either end is inside it. Countries are grouped from their ISO code alone, so the map grows with the data and nothing here is drawn by hand.
- The sample
- Fares, travel times and carbon are measured on the 16 highest ranked corridors in this region, spread across it rather than taken from the top, so the figures describe the region and not its busiest country.