On 24 November 2025, the agreement for the Transgabonais modernisation and safety programme (programme de modernisation et de sécurisation, PMS) was signed in Libreville during the official visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, in the presence of Gabonese President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema.
The programme has a budget of 203 million euros: a 173 million euro sovereign loan from the French Development Agency (Agence française de développement, AFD) and a 30 million euro grant from the European Union (EU) under its Global Gateway strategy. It follows the upgrade programme (programme de remise à niveau, PRN) launched in 2016.
According to AFD, the PMS aims to make the infrastructure more reliable and safer, increase capacity and improve passenger services, in particular by upgrading critical structures and strengthening institutional capacity. The country's only railway, the Transgabonais links Libreville to Franceville over about 648 kilometres, carries more than 300,000 passengers a year and several million tonnes of freight, and connects the port of Owendo to the mining and forestry areas of the interior.
