Ghana
Naa afoncia / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
Ghana faces the Gulf of Guinea across 239,567 km², with over 35 million people and its capital at Accra. Ivory Coast lies to the west, Burkina Faso to the north and Togo to the east. The land shades from coastal savanna and lagoon through tropical forest — the gold and cocoa country around Kumasi — to the dry northern plains, and it is split down the middle by the Volta, dammed at Akosombo in 1965 to form Lake Volta, the largest man-made reservoir by surface area in the world. The Prime Meridian passes through Tema, just east of Accra, which makes Ghana the country nearest the point where it meets the equator.
The colonial network is 1,067 mm Cape gauge, roughly 1,300 km of it, and it was laid entirely in the south: the mountains north of Kumasi were the barrier, and the railway never crossed them. Most of it is dormant and under long-running rehabilitation, and none of it has ever joined a neighbour's network. The newer development is a 97.7 km standard-gauge line from Tema harbour to Mpakadan, inland to the edge of Lake Volta — the first phase of an eastern corridor intended eventually to reach Burkina Faso. It opened in November 2024 and has carried passengers since October 2025.
Rail journeys in Ghana
Good to know
Why does Ghana's old railway not reach the north?
Because of the hills. The Cape-gauge system was built to serve the gold, manganese, bauxite and cocoa country of the southern forest, and it stopped at the barrier range north of Kumasi. Everything beyond has always travelled by road. Extensions to Paga on the Burkinabè border and a branch from Tamale to Yendi have been proposed repeatedly and not built.
What is at Mpakadan?
The inland harbour at Akosombo on Lake Volta. The new railway from Tema was built to reach the lake so that cargo can transfer between rail and the Volta's inland water transport, and it crosses the river on a bridge built for it. It is the first completed piece of the planned eastern corridor.
Does Ghana's railway connect to Togo or Ivory Coast?
No. There are no rail links between the main Ghanaian system and any neighbouring network, although the Togolese Lomé–Aflao line runs partly through Ghanaian territory. Every rail journey in Ghana today begins and ends inside the country.
Are there rail passes for Ghana?
No. Ghana belongs to no pass scheme and has no national multi-journey ticket. Tickets are bought for the individual train, and with the network in the state it is in, most intercity travel in Ghana is by road rather than rail.