Narrow-gauge railways in Asia

1,050 mm

(3 ft 511⁄32 in) narrow gauge.

China

Some of

Shiping

. Built in 1915, its final 72-kilometre-long (45 mi) section was closed in 1990.

Hong Kong

Blue-green locomotive in a museum — Preserved Kowloon-Canton Railway locomotive

In

KCR network

.

India

India's oldest narrow gauge railway station opened in 1863 by Maharaja Khanderao Gaekwad. Dabhoi railway station also known as Gaekwads Railway Station or Baroda State Railway features the oldest narrow gauge line (Dabhoi to Karjan or Miyagam) in the world build in 1950s.

India has five narrow-gauge railways: the metre-gauge Nilgiri Mountain Railway, the 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) Kalka–Shimla Railway and Kangra Valley Railway and the 2 ft (610 mm) Darjeeling Himalayan and Matheran Hill Railways.^[1] These Mountain railways of India are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and avoided conversion to broad gauge under Project Unigauge.

Indonesia

Indonesia had a number of narrow-gauge railways including KRL and supporting industry, primarily sugarcane plantations in Java. Sugarcane production has been declining, and the railways are now largely closed or used for tourism. Most of the country's active railways use the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge.

Japan

Modern electric train — JR East express train

Except for the high-speed

Hankyu Railway, Toei Asakusa Line, Tokyo Metro's Ginza Line and Marunouchi line

, use standard gauge.

Tokyo's Keio Corporation network and the Toei Shinjuku subway line, which have through service, use an unusual 1,372 mm (4 ft 6 in) gauge. This gauge is also used on the Tokyo and Hakodate tramways.

Japan adopted 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) as a standard narrow gauge for small, forestry and industrial lines. Most of these narrow-gauge lines were abandoned, and only four remain in operation: the

Kintetsu Hachioji Line, Sangi Railway and Kurobe Gorge Railway

.

Malaysia

Star LRT light rail operators in Kuala Lumpur and the privately-operated Express Rail Link to Kuala Lumpur International Airport

.

In

Crocker Range via Beaufort. Steam locomotives

are also used on this route.

Philippines

Except for the 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

Line 3 systems in Metro Manila, the Philippine National Railways (PNR) uses a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) track gauge. The PNR has one line (from Manila to the southern Luzon city of Legazpi), but only operates commuter rail service in Metro Manila. Until the 1980s, a more-extensive network ran north to San Fernando in La Union

province.

A number of industrial narrow-gauge steam railways are operated by the sugarcane industry, concentrated on the islands of

Panay. The Visayas region is the hub of the sugarcane lines, and some mills (such as La Carlotta Milling

in Negros) run charter trains for tourists.

Abandoned lines remain on the islands of Cebu (abandoned in the 1950s or 1960s), Mindanao and Panay (closed in the 1990s). Panay Railways operated a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) rail line from Roxas City and Iloilo City until the mid-1980s.

Taiwan

regauged

to 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) when it was interconnected.

A 2 ft 6 in (762 mm), narrow-gauge Alishan Forest Railway stretches 72 kilometres (45 mi) and connects Chiayi to the mountain resort of Alishan. The line is primarily a tourist attraction. On 7 September 2006, the Taiwanese government announced a plan to update to standard gauge.^[2]