[5][7][8] The ceremony was attended by the Nigerien president Mahamadou Issoufou, along with the presidents of Benin, Thomas Boni Yayi, and Togo, Faure Gnassingbé; and Vincent Bolloré, chairman of the French group Bolloré.

[6] The group set up the structures for the reception of invited guests, and a section of 500 m of track for the circulation of the inaugural train, consisting of a diesel locomotive and some passenger cars.

[9] But no trains have ever circulated here,[10] and some parts of the track were already so badly eroded by 2019 (by water) that the entire line has become unusable.

Further down the line, but still within the city limits, an accident with a fuel truck in May 2019 damaged the rails to such an extent that trains would not be able to pass that location (see image).

Another future project would provide the construction of a line from Ouagadougou, the Burkinabé capital, that will link Niamey to Abidjan, in Ivory Coast.