The Southern Province Railway was a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) narrow gauge rail network in Tanzania, which was operated only for a few years in the middle of the 20th Century.

In order to transport the crops, in 1949 the Overseas Food Cooperation put the line Ruo - Nachingwea in operation, it was extended a year later to Lindi on the Indian Ocean.

This extension was partly laid on a former 18 km long 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) feldbahn, constructed in 1921, which ran from a sisal plantation in Lindi to Narunyu.

When the Overseas Food Cooperation ran into financial difficulties in 1952, the railroad was merged with the East African Railways and expanded to a network.

Passenger traffic existed between Mtwara and Nachingwea for which a second hand Diesel Motorized Units of the former Kenya and Uganda Railways was used.