History of rail transport in Mozambique

In the 1870s, there were initial plans to link the then Lourenço Marques – now Maputo – by railway line with the area around Johannesburg in South Africa.

The planned line would have provided the independent Boer republics in the north of South Africa with access to a port.

[clarification needed] On 1 March 1890, Mozambique's first railway line was opened between Lourenço Marques and Ressano Garcia.

In connection with the opening of this line, the Gaza Empire in southwestern Mozambique was immediately subjugated by the Portuguese, because it endangered the safety of the rail traffic.

It connects Maputo, in Mozambique, to the city of Somabhula, in Zimbabwe, allowing interconnection with the Beira-Bulawayo railway.

In the province of Zambézia, a 120 km (75 mi) long line was built from Quelimane on the Indian Ocean north to Mocuba.

All of Mozambique's colonial railways were operated initially by chartered companies, for which the lines were one of their main sources of income, alongside the collection of taxes and profits from agriculture.