History of rail transport in Myanmar

The 163-mile (262 km) line, following the Irrawaddy River, was built over a three-year period with labour imported from India (particularly the areas affected by the Bihar famine of 1873–74).

[1]: 26  With the annexation of Upper Burma, the railway was extended by 220 miles (350 km) from Toungoo to Mandalay (the fallen capital of the Ava kingdom) in 1889.

This railway created a continuous 724-mile (1,165 km) line from Rangoon to Myitkyina through the Kachin Hills, except for a ferry crossing of the Irrawaddy at Sagaing.

[7][8] The track rises in a continuous 1:40 gradient, and the viaduct (designed by Alexander Rendel & Sons and built by the Pennsylvania Steel Company) was considered an engineering marvel at the time.

[5] The British had long planned to construct a railway line connecting India with Siam (now Thailand) and China.

Since Yunnan was in Chinese hands under Chiang Kai-shek, they looked for a southern route to Burma from Thailand and settled on a line from Ban Pong to Thanbyuzayat across the mountains separating the two countries.

The Japanese built the lines with Allied prisoners of war, and an estimated 15,000 POWs and 150,000 others died during the construction of the 245-mile (394 km) railway – about 675 deaths per mile.

This began an upsurge in construction and track-doubling, and Myanmar Railways operated 11 divisions over 5,068 kilometres (3,149 mi) of track by 2000.

[11] The railway had a total length of 5,125 kilometres (3,185 mi) in December 2008, including the Yangon-Mandalay line's double-track section.