Takoradi-Kojokrom railway line resumes service after years of deterioration

After years of neglect that left sections of the $165 million Kojokrom-Takoradi railway line dormant and deteriorating, the line has resumed services.

Eight months after The Fourth Estate drew attention to the state of the line, the Ministry of Transport revived it, much to the relief of thousands of commuters in Sekondi-Takoradi.

Speaking to journalists in Kojokrom last Thursday, the Minister for Transport, Joseph Bukari Nikpe, said the line had been fully renovated on the orders of President John Mahama.

“We have ensured that we have repaired and revamped that rail line, and our intention is for us to relaunch it tomorrow so that it will continue to provide passenger services to the people in and around the Takoradi to Kojokrom municipalities,” he said.

Rusted Dreams: $165M Kojokrom-Takoradi railway project left to decay

The announcement comes on the back of The Fourth Estate’s report in August 2025, which highlighted the deterioration of the railway line. At the time of the visit to Kojokrom, the team met a station buried in silence. The metal mesh seats at the station had rusted. Weeds were creeping over the roof of the building. And spiders had woven detailed cobwebs. At the Sekondi station, the rail tracks had been overrun by weeds. The premises had been turned into a playground. And sections of the station’s roof had ripped off. The residents yearned to hear the whistling and the humming of the trains once again.

At the time, authorities were uncertain about the timelines for the resumption of service.  

The spokesperson for the Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA), Sahadatu Alhassan, told The Fourth Estate that the shutdown was due to issues between GRDA and the Ghana Railway Company. She, however, would not give details.

When pressed for the exact time the line will be operationalized, she said “no matter how many times you bring back this question, what I would say is we are working on it and everything will be resolved. You will see it run again; when, I cannot say, but we are doing our best.”

However, eight months later, things have changed rapidly.  

Miss Alhassan confirmed to The Fourth Estate that the government had indeed relaunched the rail line yesterday.

“As I’m speaking to you, we are having a free ride from Kojokrom to Sekondi. Passenger service will begin on Monday,” she said.

The authority had been silent about the matter until last Thursday, when the Minister disclosed that apart from renovating the train stations and the rail lines, they had also settled the rail workers’ salary areas.

“As we talk today, we have been able to pay eight months of those salary arrears that we inherited and we are working hard; by the end of this month, we are going to clear the rest of the arrears for all our railway workers,” he said.

The Takoradi-Kojokrom line is part of the Western Railway line, which used to be the major route for the transportation of passengers and bulk commodities such as manganese, bauxite, and cocoa to the Takoradi Port for export.

Currently, only two railway lines are active in Ghana. The Takoradi-Kojokrom line and the Tema-Mpakadan line, which was completed in 2024.