The Gare de Bobo-Dioulasso is the city's railway station, a French colonial building of the late 1930s with a long covered platform and a distinctive pink-and-white façade. The line — the Abidjan–Ouagadougou railway — once linked the landlocked countries of West Africa to the Ivorian coast and is still in use, though service has been intermittent for years.
Even when no trains are running, the station is worth a short visit for the architecture and the strange quiet of a railway hall used to handling much more. The forecourt outside is shaded and a good spot for an early-morning coffee from one of the small kiosks.