Rail transport in Fiji moves cut sugar cane to crushing mills. Also, there used to be two horse-drawn street tramway systems, some other passenger systems, an underground mine system, and some tramways on construction projects. There are multiple other modes of

transport in Fiji Modes of transport in Fiji include rail, road, water, and air. The rail network is mainly used for movement of sugar cane. Suva and Lautoka are the largest seaports. There are 122 km of navigable inland waterways. There are two international ...

Cane trains

Tramways have been used to transport sugar cane from the fields to the mill since 1876, when a 2.4 km (1.5 mi) horse tramway was constructed on the Selia Levu estate, on the island of

Taveuni Taveuni (pronounced ) is the third-largest island in Fiji, after Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, with a total land area of . The cigar-shaped island, a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is situated east of Vanua ...

. The Holmhurst Mill on Tavenui had tramways from 1882 of

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

. A tramway was also built on

Mago Island Mago Island (pronounced ) is a volcanic island that lies in the northwest sector of Fiji's northern Lau Group of islands. One of the largest private islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island has an area of . The island is privately o ...

. Most cane tramways were of gauge, on the main islands of

Viti Levu Viti Levu (pronounced ; ) is the largest island in Fiji. It is the site of the country's capital and largest city, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population. Geology Fiji lies in a plate tectonics, tectonically complex area betwe ...

and

Vanua Levu Vanua Levu (pronounced , , ), formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of and a population of 135,961 . Geology Fiji lies in a tectonic ...

Steam engines A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

were used, later replaced with

diesel engines The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the die ...

. Most of the mills and tramways were built by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR), an Australian-owned company, and were transferred to the Fiji Sugar Corporation in 1973, when CSR withdrew from Fiji. Many lines were on road reserve provided by the government; combined road-rail bridges were common. Some passenger services were provided, such as the famous Free Train from 1915, with one or two trains a week from Lautoka to Kavanagasau and Rarawai on the Rarawai–Kavanagasau Light Railway. In 1988, according to ''Cane Train'', there was 645 km (401 mi) of permanent cane railway in Fiji, for the Lautoka and Rrawai, and Penang mills on Viti Levu, and the Labasa, on Vanua Levu. As of 2020 over 300 km is currently operating. Image:Fiji Sugar Locomotive 22 crossing the Sigatoka bridge.jpg, Locomotive no. 22 crossing Sigatoka bridge with a long train of empty wagons, near the end of the South Coast line. Image:Fiji Sugar Locomotive 21 at Nadi Back Road crossing.jpg, Locomotive no. 21 crossing Nadi Back Road into the cane fields with a few empty wagons. The main line runs parallel to the road on left. Image:Fiji Sugar Locomotive 11 enters Lautoka with full load.jpg, Locomotive no. 11 entering Lautoka with a long train of approximately 45 loaded wagons.

Passenger lines

In the 1970s, a holiday resort on Malololailai Island, Nadi Bay, built a short tramway from the air strip to the resort complex, using gauge equipment from the Fiji Sugar Corporation. The Coral Coast Railway Company, on Viti Levu, has operated return trips for visitors from Yanuca Island to Natadola Beach ( towards Nadi) from 1986 and also to

Sigatoka Sigatoka (, ) is a town in Fiji. It is on the island of Viti Levu at the mouth of the Sigatoka River, for which it is named, some 61 kilometres from Nadi. Its population at the 2017 census was 17,622. It is the principal urban centre for the pro ...

Horse tramways

In 1884, the Levuka Tramway Company operated a gauge tramway along the streets of Levuka to connect warehouses with the wharves. Similar tramways were laid in the new capital of Suva in the 1880s and were put on an official footing in 1891. Both were horse-operated, with the help of manpower.

Mine railways

The Emperor Gold Mine, at

Vatukoula Vatukoula (, meaning "gold rock" in Fijian) is a gold mining settlement in Fiji, 9 km inland from the Town of Tavua on the island of Viti Levu. Colonial history Vatukoula may be viewed historically as the cradle of the modern gold mining i ...

, in northern Viti Levu, used gauge tramways underground, with 21 battery-electric locomotives.

Construction tramways

Tramways were built for reclamation at Suva and Lautoka, airfield construction at Nadi (1941–1942), tunnelling for the Suva sewerage system and for the 1980s Monasavu hydroelectric scheme in the centre of Viti Levu.

References

* ''Cane Train: The Sugar-cane Railways of Fiji'' by Peter Dyer and Peter Hodge (1988:

New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society The New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Inc is a society of railway enthusiasts, based in Wellington. It was incorporated in 1958. The society archives are in the ''Thomas McGavin Building'' on Ava railway station's former goods yard i ...