Following the large demands of
tobacco prior to the industry success in 1880, there was a great demand for lands for the tobacco plantation. The process to transport the produce was hardened due to lack of transportation. In 1894, following the appointment of a director and managing director for the
North Borneo Chartered Company; the involvement of
William Clark Cowie become crucial for the establishment of railway systems in
North Borneo. Construction of the then North Borneo Railway began in 1896 under the command of engineer
Arthur Joseph West with his assistant Gounon Lulus, a member of the
Murut people from Keningau. It was originally intended primarily for the transport of tobacco from the interior to the coast for export. The first line built was a 32 kilometres track from Bukau River, north to
Beaufort, and south to the port of
Weston. At the same time as this, work began on another line from Beaufort to
Jesselton (now known as Kota Kinabalu), which was completed in 1903, running mostly near or beside the coast. With the completion of these works the network routes covered some 193 kilometres. However, the network was almost entirely destroyed during the
World War II. Motive power was mostly converted
jeeps. In 1949, the North Borneo Railway embarked on an ambitious programme to rehabilitate the network and improve service, and they did so again in 1960. However, in 1963 the decision was made to close the Weston branch line, and in 1970 the Melalap extension from Tenom was also closed to traffic. The high costs of operation of the lesser used routes and the competition from the many newly built roads made their situation increasingly untenable. In 1974, the main part of the line was also cut from Kota Kinabalu back to
Tanjung Aru.
Modernisation Valley in 2014. The line was closed in 2007 for maintenance and repair. As part of the works undertaken during 2006 and 2007, about 52,530 and 76,600 concrete sleepers were introduced for Sector 2 and 1 of the Tanjung Aru-Tenom section, for better train operation. This replacement mirrors the trend of changing from wooden sleepers as earlier carried out by
Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) two decades earlier at Kerdau-Jerantut and Sungai Yu-Tumpat lines. These sleepers were manufactured in
Peninsular Malaysia by the same
local manufacturer. The section Tanjung Aru-Beaufort reopened on 21 February 2011, and the trip now takes 2 hours and 15 minutes as the
coaches can run at a speed of up to 80 kilometres/hour compared to 50 kilometres/hour previously. There are a total of 15 stations between Sembulan and Tenom, namely: :Secretariat –
Tanjung Aru – Putatan – Kinarut – Kawang –
Papar – Kimanis – Bongawan – Membakut –
Beaufort – Saliwangan Baru – Halogilat – Rayoh – Pangi –
Tenom In 2015, a total of
RM27.99 million has been allocated by the state government to improve and upgrade the state railway, the provisions include the acquisition of
diesel multiple units (DMUs) train set from
Japan and a
tamping machine for the areas from Beaufort to Tanjung Aru. Additional DMUs from
India cost RM8 million purchased in 2016 was delivered in early 2017 for the use in Beaufort to Tenom areas. The state railway have since collaborated with KTMB and the country
Human Resource Ministry for staff training and new methods of operations including for the track maintenance. A new headquarters and main station for the railway have also been constructed in Tanjung Aru as part of the
Aeropod. On 15 September 2017, around RM101 million allocation by the federal government through
Transport Ministry has been approved for three projects to upgrade the railway lines from Halogilat in Beaufort to Tenom with three new DMUs. Despite some modernisation have been carried out in the past, the train service in Sabah remain in poor condition until 2018 in contrast to modern train service in Peninsular Malaysia. This had been addressed by the State Infrastructure Development Minister Peter Anthony who admitted the train service in Sabah is really far behind compared to its Peninsular counterparts and become an embarrassment to the state with some of the equipment are nearly a hundred years old which should have been sent to the museum, blaming the situation as one of the cause from the failure of the previous state government in administering the locomotive service. The minister stated that the State Ministry under the new government plans to conduct a study to upgrade the state train service to make it in par with its West Malaysia counterparts. The minister had also urged the
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the Railway Department (SRD) for their failure to modernise the state train systems with the new state government promised under their new Key Performance Index (KPI), the railway system and its infrastructure will be developed, including having quality trains with better comfort with the requests for funding from the federal government will be forwarded to connecting Melalap, Beaufort and expanding the rail network to Tuaran, Kudat, Pitas until Tawau in the eastern coast of Sabah.
Leisure and tourism service A train for
tourism called North Borneo Railway was also established from Kota Kinabalu to Papar passing through Putatan, Kinarut and Kawang. The train is operated by the Kinabalu Heritage Tours & Car Rental Sdn Bhd management.
Line extension plan On 17 September 2015, it was announced that the railway line in Sabah will be extended to cover the northern and east coast areas, mainly to major towns of
Kudat,
Sandakan and
Tawau. On 21 March 2017, around RM1 million has been allocated for the project study. Once the project is complete, there is also a proposal to connecting the rail networks of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia with the provinces of
Kalimantan in
Indonesia that will be called as "Trans-Borneo Railway", as Indonesia were currently developing the railway network on their side. On 25 November 2017, the
Sabah State Legislative Assembly approved the Railways Enactment 2017 as a replacement of the 103-year-old Railways Ordinance that had been enforced since 1914, giving a passage to extend the railway line coverage to the whole state including for the implementation of Trans-Borneo Railway which will be enforced from 2 January 2017. Following the change of government, Sabah Chief Minister
Shafie Apdal has assured that the railway service will be upgraded and expanded to Kudat in two to three years from 2018 after financial stability with the railway tracks and its coaches will be changed with the railway system to become as the second main land transportation network after
Pan Borneo Highway. As a response to an opposition assemblyman question on 6 August 2019 regarding line extension plan including the development of rural infrastructure, State Infrastructure Development Minister Peter Anthony explained that RM2 million has been set aside for a 12-month feasibility study for the Kudat railway project, which takes off in 2020. He added that it has been time that Sabah should have a proper public transportation system, comparing the
transportation in Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur which have an extensive system unlike in Sabah that has been left too much under the previous administration. == Administrative aspects ==