Rail transport in Fiji
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.
Cane trains
Tramways have been used to transport sugar cane from the fields to the mill since 1876, when a 2.4 km horse tramway was constructed on the Selia Levu estate, on the island of Taveuni. The Holmhurst Mill on Tavenui had tramways from 1882 of narrow gauge. A tramway was also built on Mago Island.Most cane tramways were of gauge, on the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Steam engines were used, later replaced with diesel engines. Most of the mills and tramways were built by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, 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 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.
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 from 1986 and also to Sigatoka.