Rail transport in Myanmar Rail transport in Myanmar Rail transport in Myanmar involves a railway network that is run by Myanmar Railways, a state-owned railway company under the Ministry of Rail Transportation. The first railway, in the then British colony of Lower Burma, opened in 1877 between Rangoon (Yangon) and Prome (Pyay), a distance of 163 miles (262 km). Unusually for a British colonial railway, it was built to metre gauge. Subsequent development was to the same gauge, and by the early 20th century a network of almost 2000 miles (3200 km) operated in Lower and Upper Burma. The Burma Mines Railway was a
Communist insurgency in Myanmar led by trade union leaders Thakins Lwin and Chit Maung, and dubbed 'crypto-communists' or 'red socialists' by the Rangoon press. They tried unsuccessfully to bring the communists back into mainstream politics, and in 1956 formed an alliance called the National United Front to contest the election on a 'peace ticket' winning 35% of the vote though only a small number of seats. The politburo's decision to fight 'for the very existence of our party' at a clandestine central committee meeting in April 1948 in Rangoon was confirmed the following month by the full plenum of the CC at Hpyu 120