Rail transport was first introduced in Burma in May 1877, when Lower Burma was a colony of the United Kingdom and a part of British India, with the opening of the Rangoon to Prome line by The Irrawaddy Valley State Railway.
With the annexation of Upper Burma, the railway was extended by 220 miles from Toungoo to Mandalay, the fallen capital of the Ava kingdom with the extended railroad opening in 1889.