Strategic railway

A military railway is established or operated not as a strategic measure, but for tactical, training or logistical purposes.

As its name suggests, the Kanonenbahn was intended primarily to facilitate the movement of soldiers and materiel, including cannons, from central Prussia towards eastern France, during an era of diplomatic tension and warfare between the two countries.

Although most of the world's strategic railways had been constructed, not always to completion, by the end of World War II, a number of additional strategic railways were built and operated in eastern bloc countries during the Cold War.

Progressive changes in military technology, combined with the always high cost of constructing heavy rail systems, make it much less likely that a strategic railway would be constructed in the 21st century than in the 19th or 20th century.

However, western and Indian observers have accused China of having military-strategic goals when constructing the Qinghai–Tibet railway or another high speed rail line through sparsely settled territory to Ürümqi in the region of Xinjiang.