North Borneo Railway

Sabah State Railway (SSR)
Train at Beaufort station.
Overview
Status	Operational
Locale	Kota Kinabalu
Stations	15
Website	railway.sabah.gov.my
Operation
Opened	1896
Owner	State Government of Sabah Ministry of Infrastructure Development
Operator(s)	Sabah State Railway
Depot(s)	Tanjung Aru
Technical
Line length	134 km (83 mi)
Track gauge	1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
Operating speed	80 km/h (50 mph)
Route map Sembulan Tanjung Aru Putatan Kinarut Kawang Papar Kimanis Bongawan Membakut Beaufort Saliwangan Weston Halogilat Rayoh Pangi Tenom Melalap

Sabah State Railway (SSR) is a railway system and operator in the state of Sabah in Malaysia. It is the only rail transport system operating on the island of Borneo. The railway consists of a single 134 km line from Tanjung Aru, near Kota Kinabalu, to the town of Tenom, in the Interior Division. It was formerly known as North Borneo Railway.

Construction of the then North Borneo Railway began in 1896 under the command of engineer Arthur J. West with his assistant Gounon, a member of the Murut people from Keningau. The railway was built by workers who were brought in from Japan, led by Akira. It was originally intended primarily for the transport of tobacco from the interior to the coast for export. The first line built was a 32 km track from Bukau River, north to Beaufort, and south to the port of Weston. This was then extended with a further 48 km route in 1903 to Tenom, the works for which was completed in 1905. The line was extended again in 1906 with a further 16 km from Tenom to Melalap.

At the same time as this, work began on another line from Beaufort to Jesselton (now known as Kota Kinabalu), which was completed in 1903, running mostly near or beside the coast. With the completion of these works the network routes covered some 193 km. However, the network was almost entirely destroyed during the Second World War. In 1945, 24 Australian Infantry Brigade Group members operated the railway. Motive power was mostly converted jeeps.

In 1949, the North Borneo Railway embarked on an ambitious programme to rehabilitate the network and improve service, and they did so again in 1960. However, in 1963 the decision was made to close the Weston branch line, and in 1970 the Melalap extension from Tenom was also closed to traffic. The high costs of operation of the lesser used routes and the competition from the many newly built roads made their situation increasingly untenable. In 1974, the main part of the line was also cut from Kota Kinabalu back to Tanjung Aru.