The history of rail transport in Namibia began with a small mining rail line at Cape Cross in 1895. The first major railway project was started in 1897 when the German Colonial Authority built the 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge Staatsbahn (State Railway) from Swakopmund to Windhoek. By 1902 the line was completed.
Parallel to this government initiative, the Otavi Mining and Railway Company (O.M.E.G.) was established. It built another 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge line, the Otavibahn, from Swakopmund to Tsumeb via Otavi between 1903 and 1906, and a branch from Otavi to Grootfontein in 1907/08. The German colonial railway was taken over by the Railways of South Africa after World War I, and linked into the network of South Africa.
After the independence of Namibia, TransNamib holdings took control of the national rail network, which, by that time, had long since been converted to 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge. TransNamaib has shown phenomenal growth and currently the railway network in Namibia has stretch through our country with a length of 2 687 km.
In 2005, an 89 km section of new Northern Railway from Tsumeb to Oshivelo was opened by then President Sam Nujoma, as part of the “Northern Extension” of the railway link from Kranzberg to Otavi. Construction on the project’s second phase, a 59 km stretch from Ondangwa to Oshikango on the Angolan border was completed in 2010.