Rail transport was first launched in
British Burma on 2 May 1877 with the opening of the
Rangoon (Yangon) to
Prome (Pyay) line by
The Irrawaddy Valley State Railway. Unusually for a British colonial railway, it was built to . Subsequent development was to the same gauge, though the Burma Mines Railway opened in 1906 operated on a separate gauge. In 1884, a new company,
The Sittang Valley State Railway, opened a line along the
Sittaung River from Yangon to the town of
Toungoo (Taungoo) via
Pegu (Bago). After the annexation of
Upper Burma following the
Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885, the Toungoo line was extended to
Mandalay in 1889. Following the opening of this section, the
Mu Valley State Railway was formed and construction began on a railway line from
Sagaing to
Myitkyina which connected Mandalay to
Shwebo in 1891, to
Wuntho in 1893, to
Katha in 1895, and to
Myitkyina in 1898. Extensions into southern Myanmar began in 1907 with the construction of the Bago-Mottama line. Passengers had to take a
ferry over the
Thanlwin River (Salween River) to
Mawlamyaing. In 1896, before the completion of the line to Myitkyina, the three companies were combined into the
Burma Railway Company as a state owned public undertaking. In 1928, the railway was renamed
Burma Railways and, in 1989, with the renaming of the country, it became Myanma Railways. The Japanese invasion during the
Second World War caused considerable damage to the rail network. In 1942, the country had (route-km) of
metre gauge track, but the Japanese removed about and, by the end of the war, only (route-km) was operational in four isolated sections. The Japanese were also responsible for the construction of the
Thailand - Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, using the labour of Allied prisoners of war, many of whom died in the attempt. The "Death Railway" link with Thailand fell into disuse after the war and the section of this line in Burma was permanently closed. Attempts at rebuilding the network began in the 1950s following Burmese independence. By 1961 the network extended to , and then remained constant until the opening of a line from Kyaukpadaung to Kyini in October 1970. In 1988, there were 487 operational railway stations over a long network. Since coming to power in 1988, the
military government embarked on a railway construction program and, by 2000 the network had grown to (track-km) divided into 11 operating divisions. Between 1994 and 1998, the Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway in peninsular Myanmar was completed. With the construction of the
road/rail bridge across the
Ye River in 2003 and the
Thanlwin Bridge in 2008, the Southern peninsula became fully integrated into the Myanmar's railway network. Also in 2008/9, the Ayeyawady Valley route was extended north along the west bank of the river towards Pakokku in the far north of the country. The Kyangin-Okshippin (Padang) section of Kyangin-Thayet railway was opened in March 2008 and the Okshippin-Kamma railway section was opened in March 2009. In 2016 a tram route opened in
Yangon, on a former heavy rail freight route through the city streets. Rolling stock is a three car train purchased second hand from Hiroshima, Japan; it is the first , and a
third rail was added to the line to accommodate it. ==Lines==