Railways were first developed in the area surrounding Cape Town and later in Durban around the 1840s. The first line opened in Durban on 27 June 1850. The initial network was created to serve the agricultural production area between Cape Town and Wellington. The news that there were gold deposits in the Transvaal Republic moved the Cape Colony Government (supported by British Government) to link Kimberley as soon as possible by rail to Cape Town as part of the colonial dream. The
Central South African Railways (
CSAR) was from 1902 to 1910 the operator of public railways in the
Transvaal Colony and
Orange River Colony in what is now
South Africa. During the
Anglo-Boer War, as British forces moved into the territory of the
Orange Free State and the
South African Republic, the Orange Free State Government Railways, the
Netherlands-South African Railway Company and the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway were taken over by the Imperial Military Railways under Lieutenant-Colonel Sir
Percy Girouard. After the war had ended, the Imperial Military Railways became the Central South African Railways in July 1902, with Thomas Rees Price as general manager. With the creation of the
Union of South Africa in 1910, the CSAR was merged with the
Cape Government Railways and the
Natal Government Railways to form the
South African Railways, which is now Transnet Freight Rail. == Operations ==