Riding the TransGabonies railway from Libreville to Franceville

After completing my amazing expedition in Ivindo and packrafting down the Djidji river (New post about that soon). I found myself in Libreville with a week or so to kill before heading over to my next amazing adventure in Rwanda. 

Libreville is supposed to be a really good hub for acquiring onwards visas for other central and West African countries so I headed of to the Cameroon embassy (apparently the easy one) to apply for a visa. Long story but eventually rejected after 2 and a half days of trying. 

I decided to take a break from visa applications and hop on to the TransGabonies railway for a trip up to Franceville. 

Acquiring a ticket for the train. 

You have 3 main options. 

1. Visit the Setrag ticket office in Libreville. 

Accessed of Boulevard de l'independance. 

Upon seeing the main La Poste building on the left hand side of the road (If heading away from the airport and towards centre ville). 

La Poste building 

 Turn of the main road in to Rue Langford and the Setrag ticket office is located down the second side street on the right.

Setrag office (2nd side Street on the right) 

I found the staff at the ticket office in town to be very rude and unhelpful. I had a much better response talking to staff at the ticket office at the train station. 

2. Visit the Setrag ticket office at the Owendo train station (located approximately 8Km outside the centre of Libreville)

3. Contact or visit a local tour operator and have them arrange for you.

Owendo station 

Setrag ticket office located at Owendo station. (Staff much friendlier) 

Whilst waiting for the train I popped in to the restaurant situated just above the ticket office (The only one).
I ordered a cheese burger and after about 15 mins a women came out and apologised that they had ran out of rolls for the burger and asked if it was okay if they just served it on a plate without a roll. Which was fine and she very kindly gave me a free salad and selection of starters to apologise.

My free salad and starter selection (very nice) 

My bun free burger also very nice 

Pre train meal 

I finished my meal just as the boarding processes began for the train.
There are apparently 3 seating options on the train VIP, 1St class & 2Nd class.
I had asked for 2nd but apparently that was sold out despite the fact that once boarded you could have fitted a jumbo jet full of passengers in to the spare seats in 2nd class. I obviously stood out as the only white person there and they took the opportunity to make me pay the higher price for first.

Despite catching 2 trains I'm still not entirely sure what VIP class was as I couldn't find any sign of it on either train.

Each train had 2 different types of first class each with good and bad points and one type of second class seating as well as a dining car and baggage storage carriages.

Type 1 of First class (wide seats good leg room and fold out tables for working and eating) although the aircon was not as good as the other type 

Type 2 First class 6 seat compartments. Tables only available at window seats, a little less leg room but the aircon definitely worked better and was quieter and more bug free with door closed 

Dining car. Overpriced and although I didn't eat in here looked average to poor quality at best 

Second class. Looked perfectly acceptable and was probably just as comfortable as either 1St class options 

Boarding was completed promptly and the train departed Libreville exactly on schedule at 19:00.

Setrag decided to remove all day trains earlier in the year and this is disappointing as a large part of the journey passes through beautiful scenery and along the banks of rivers. I paddled past parts of the track towards the end of my packrafting adventure.

Now with the only option being a night train you pass by all the beautiful scenery and lovely little riverside towns in almost complete darkness meaning that you get little to no views.

I settled in to my full 6 seat First class cabin that I had been allocated for the first leg of my journey and made myself comfortable in an attempt to get some sleep for at least part of the 12-13 hour journey.

I'm not sure where the time was lost as we never actually broke down or seemed to stop for longer than necessary at any of the stations but at approximately 05:00 it became apparent that we were some 2 hours behind schedule.

Franceville only 2 Hours 15mins late 

Franceville stadium. Sadly no matches on during the time I was there as not really anything else to do in Franceville

Arriving in Franceville 2 Hours and 15 mins later than expected. Although not really disappointed as it soon became apparent that there isn't really anything to do in Franceville and the only main benefit I could see is that it would provide a good location from which to aquire a ride and cross the land boarder in to the Congo.

So after a day exploring what little there was to explore in Franceville I decided I might as well catch the train back again that evening and return to Libreville.

The return journey to Libreville again left on time but as with the previous journey was a little over 2 Hours and 30 mins late arriving in to Owendo station.

Omar Bongo plaque 

Timetable from March 2016 

 Timetable with effect from July 2016 (Below)

So sadly unless you really need to get to Franceville I wouldn't recommend taking the train.

At £80/$110 US for a 2nd class return to Franceville and £110/$160 US for a 1St class return I just don't feel it's worth it unless they reinstated a day train so you can enjoy the view.