QR also owns and maintains rolling stock, in addition to approximately 6,600 kilometres (4,101 mi) of track and related infrastructure.

As adequate river transport was already established between the capital Brisbane and the then separate settlement of Ipswich, the railway commenced from the latter locality and the initial section, built over the relatively flat, easy country opened to Bigge's Camp, at the eastern base of the Little Liverpool Range, on 31 July 1865.

Called the Main Line, the only significant engineering work on that section was the bridge over the Bremer River to North Ipswich.

Built by the Queensland Government to the unusual (for the time) gauge of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in), the line largely followed the alignment surveyed by a private company, the Moreton Bay Tramway Company, which had proposed to build a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge horse-drawn tramway but had been unable to raise funds to do so beyond an initial start on earthworks.

The adoption of a narrow gauge was controversial at the time and was largely predicated by the government's desire for the fastest possible construction timeframe at the least cost.

The decision was made to electrify with the 25 kV AC railway electrification system as used on the Brisbane suburban network.

[7] In March 2002, Queensland Rail purchased Northern Rivers Railroad and rebranded it Interail, fulfilling a long-held ambition of expanding beyond its state borders.

[8][9] In March 2003, Queensland Rail entered the Hunter Valley coal market when Interail commenced a contract from Duralie Colliery to Stratford Mine.

Under the revised arrangements Queensland Rail Limited retained assets and liabilities and staff were transferred to the QRTA.

[17][18] In November 2013, five labour unions commenced legal proceedings in the High Court of Australia alleging that the QRTA was subject to the federal industrial jurisdiction rather than the state system.

[18] In April 2015, the court ruled the QRTA was subject to the Fair Work Act 2009 and the federal industrial relations jurisdiction.

[26] Note: from 1 July 1991 the position of Commissioner for Railways ceased to exist, replaced by a Chief Executive Officer, reporting to a board of Directors.

[42] QR operates urban and interurban rail services throughout South East Queensland as part of the Translink network.

Electric multiple units have been purchased from Walkers Limited, Downer Rail and Bombardier Transportation, the latter of two which are still present in Queensland to this day.

With the closure of many rural branch lines in the 1990s there was excess motive power on the QR and it was chosen to standardise by using Clyde based diesel locomotives.

In June 2021 QR announced that it had shortlisted 3 applicants (Alstom, CAF and Downer Rail) to manufacture 20 (later expanded to 65) new electric multiple units.