Rail transport in Libya

Despite sporadic extensions during World War II, Libya's pre-independence railway network remained significantly limited due to prioritizing road infrastructure and political instability under the Kingdom of Italy and subsequent regimes.

In summer 1941, the Italians started to build a Tripoli-Benghazi railway, but their defeat in World War II meant that work only progressed a few kilometres.

The coastal railway had reached Sidi Barrani by October 1941 and Tobruk by December 1942, 640 km (400 mi) west of El Alamein.

Though dismantled post-war, the Western Desert Extension's construction during WWII underscores the strategic value of a north-south Libyan rail link, highlighting potential for future development beyond Egypt's existing network.

China Railway Construction Corporation has contracts to start work in June 2008 on a 352 km route between Sirte and Khoms, to be finished by 2013.

[7] In August 2010, RZD awarded Ansaldo STS and SELEX Communications a contract to install signalling, telecoms, power, security and ticketing systems which is expected to take three years.

[14] On 10 June 2007 a contract was signed with American General Electric Co. for supply of locomotives and training of Libyan nationals in operational and maintenance work.