Guinea builds West Africa`s longest railway tunnel - 11.6km through solid rock

Guinea has built West Africa's longest railway tunnel. 11.6 kilometres through the mountains of Kindia, carved in less than three years.

President Mamadi Doumbouya travelled through it on October 12, 2026, aboard the inaugural passenger train of the Transguinean Railway. The tunnel is the centrepiece of a 650-kilometre double-track corridor—more than 1,300 kilometres of rails—designed to carry iron ore from the Simandou deposits to the port of Morébaya .‌‌

The scale is staggering. 205 bridges. Four tunnels. The Colomo II viaduct stretches 2.1 kilometres across 64 spans.

Another viaduct has piers reaching 64 metres, the highest on the network. 1,170 culverts. 26 wildlife passages. 29 overpasses .‌

This is not just mining infrastructure. The railway is designed to carry passengers. Modern stations will be built along the route. Farmers will reach markets. Goods will move.

Tourism will follow. The government's stated goal is to connect inland communities to the coast, not just extract ore from them .‌

The project sits inside the Simandou 2040 Development Plan, adopted into law in March 2026.

It is a 15-year framework with 122 megaprojects and 36 major reforms, backed by over $200 billion in planned investment. The first phase alone—2025 to 2030—commits $65 billion to infrastructure, energy, agriculture, education, and tourism .‌

Guinea is not just digging a tunnel. It is building the architecture of a different economy.