Sitting in the shade in front of his restaurant, Dior Amar overcomes boredom by looking nostalgically at the deserted rails. Once upon a time, travelers and traders stopped to eat thiep, thiéré or chicken sandwiches in his stall ideally located next to Tambacounda station, in eastern Senegal . “The whole economy of the city revolved around the train,” grumbles the restaurateur installed for thirty-five years. But since its shutdown in 2018, I have been bankrupt, I hardly have any more clients.”
Inaugurated in 1924, the colonial road which ran between Dakar and Bamako declined slowly for lack of maintenance. Privatized in 2003, taken over by the authorities of Senegal and Mali with the creation of the two-state Dakar Bamako Ferroviaire structure in 2016, the line could finally resume service in the coming months if the projects launched on the Senegalese side are successful.