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List of railway companies

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ2143750 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is an incomplete list of the world's railway operating companies listed alphabetically by continent and country. This list includes companies operating both now and in the past.

In some countries, the railway operating bodies are not companies, but are government departments or authorities.

Particularly in many European countries beginning in the late-1980s, with privatizations and the separation of the track ownership and management from running the trains, there are now many track-only companies and train-only companies.

Africa

Union of African Railways (UAR)

Southern African Railway Association (SARA), which represents:

CFB (Benguela railway, in Angola)

Botswana Railways

Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) (Mozambique Railway)

Malawi Railways

TransNamib

Swaziland Railway

TAZARA (Tanzania/Zambia Railway Authority)

Zambia Railways

National Railways of Zimbabwe

Tanzania Railways Corporation

Central East African Railway in Malawi

Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway

Metrorail (South Africa)

Transnet Freight Rail (South-Africa)

Algeria

Algerian Railways (SNTF)

Angola

Benguela Railway

Moçâmedes Railway

Luanda Railway

Gunza-Gabala line

Benin

Benin Railways (Benirail & Bolloré Railways since 2014)

Botswana

Botswana Railways (BR)

Burkina Faso

Abidjan-Niger Railway (SITARAIL)

Cameroon

Cameroon National Railways Authority (REGIFERCAM)

Côte d'Ivoire

Abidjan-Niger Railway (SITARAIL)

Republic of the Congo

Congo-Ocean Railway (CFCO)

Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)

Due to civil war, a significant portion of the railway system of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not presently functioning.

Congo Railway (CNC)

Matadi-Kinshasa Railway

Djibouti

Ethio-Djibouti Railways

Egypt

Egyptian Railways

Eritrea

Eritrean Railway

Ethiopia

Ethio-Djibouti Railways

Gabon

Gabon State Railways (OCTRA)

Ghana

Ghana Railways & Ports (GRP) (Ghana's rail system is largely derelict)

Ghana Railway Company

Guinea

Guinea Railway

Kenya

Kenya Railways

Rift Valley Railways Consortium

Africa Star Railway Operation Company Limited

Lesotho

South African Railways (SAS/SAR)

Liberia

Bong Mining Co

Lamgo JV Operating Co

Madagascar

Madarail

Fianarantsoa-Côte Est railway

Malawi

Malawi Railways (Central East African Railway)

Mali

Dakar-Niger Railway

Mauritania

S.N.I.M.

Mauritius

(Doesn't have railway system but light rail Metro Express (Mauritius))

Morocco

Office National des Chemins de Fer (ONCF): national railway office.

Mozambique

Mozambique State Railways (Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique) (CFM)

Beira Railroad Corporation

Namibia

TransNamib

TransNamib

Nigeria

Nigerian Railway Corporation

Senegal

Dakar-Niger Railway

South Africa

Blue Train (South Africa) (Tour trains)

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa

Transnet Freight Rail

Gautrain (Modern High Speed Trains)

Sudan

Sudan Railways

Gezira Light Railway

Eswatini

Eswatini Railways (Swaziland Railway)

Tanzania

Tanzania Railways Corporation

TAZARA Railway

Togo

Togo Railways (RCFT)

Although Togo has railways in place, no trains have run on them for many years.

Tunisia

Tunisian National Railways (SNCFT)

Uganda

Rift Valley Railways Consortium

Uganda Railways Corporation

Zambia

Zambia Railways

TAZARA Railway

Mulobezi Railway

Maamba Colliery Railway

Njanji Commuter Line

Zimbabwe

National Railways of Zimbabwe

Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway

(There are no railways in Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, and Somalia.)

Asia

Afghanistan

Afghanistan has only 24.6 km of railway which are railheads from neighbouring countries. Iran and Turkmenistan plan to help Afghanistan build a rail network that would enable Iran and Turkey to link up with Central Asia.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh Railway

Dhaka Metro Rail

Myanmar

Myanma Railways

China

China Railway (CR, 中国铁路 Zhōngguó Tiělù)

China Railway High-speed (CRH, 中国高速铁路 Zhōngguó gāosù tiělù)

Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Co.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “List of railway companies” as wikimedia list article. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2014—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where List, railway and companies can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as wikimedia list article. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2143750. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2014.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “List of railway companies” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.