The Ghana Railway Company Limited says it has completed rehabilitation works on the Takoradi to Tarkwa railway line in the Western Region.

“Several successful test runs with the Ghana Railway Development Authority” have also been conducted, the company said in a statement on Saturday.

“In the light of this GRCL will provide free passenger service from Takoradi to Tarkwa on Tuesday, 28th, Thursday, 30th and Friday, 31st January, 2020,” the statement said.

“The train will depart from Takoradi station to Tarkwa at 6:15am and depart from Tarkwa station to Takoradi at 3:00pm each day.”

The company also said it will begin commercial service on February 5, 2020.

“We wish to also indicate that currently, the Western line is being developed and occasionally there will be the need for GRCL to stop operations to enable the contractor do some civil works on the line.

“The general public will be duly informed when such occasion arises,” GRCL said.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Railway Workers Union have asked the government to prioritise the Western Rail Line from Tarkwa to Dunkwa.

The union said “in April 2019 the public was made aware that a contract has been signed for the Revamping of the Western Rail Line from Tarkwa to Dunkwa. To date, we are yet to see real signs of the start of that contract.”

The workers argue that the railway company survives mainly by “haulage of commodities such as Bauxite, Manganese, Cocoa, etc. on the Western Rail Line (Takoradi to Awaso).” They added that anything short of revamping the particular route would not sustain operations of the company.