Rail transport in Myanmar

Rail transport in Myanmar consists of a railway network with 960 stations. The network, generally spanning north to south with branch lines to the east and west, is the second largest in Southeast Asia, and includes the Yangon Circular Railway which serves as a commuter railway for Yangon, the principal commercial city in Myanmar. The quality of the railway infrastructure is generally poor. The tracks are in poor condition, and are not passable during the monsoon season. The speed of freight trains is heavily restricted on all existing links as a consequence of poor track and bridge conditions. The maximum speed for freight trains has been quoted as , suggesting that commercial speeds on this section could be as low as . The network is run by Myanma Railways (မြန်မာ့ မီးရထား, mjəma̰ míjəthá; formerly Burma Railways), a state-owned railway company under the Ministry of Rail Transportation. In the 2013-14 fiscal year, Myanma Railways carried about 60 million passengers (35 million in the circular railway and 25 million inter-city travelers) and 2.5 million metric tons of freight. Its rolling stock consisted of 384 locomotives, 1,600 passenger railcars, and 3,600 freight wagons. The network has steadily increased in size, from nearly in 1988 to in 2015. Myanma Railways is undertaking an ambitious expansion program that will add another to its network, making it spread in to including extensions to Myeik in the south, Kyaingtong in the east, Sittwe in the west. History of rail transport in Myanmar 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).