Rail transport in Brunei did not play an important role during the development of

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

Narrow gauge railway of Brooketon Colliery

Brooketon Colliery Brooketon Colliery, formerly known as Muara Coal Mine, was one of the underground coal mines in Brunei. Location The Brooketon Colliery is located in Serasa. It is located to the north of the roundabout where Jalan Muara meets the Muara–Tuton ...

in the sub-district

Serasa Kampong Serasa is a village in Brunei-Muara District, Brunei, near the port town Muara. The population was 3,200 in 2016. It is home to Serasa Ferry Terminal, the country's primary international ferry terminal. Geography Kampong Serasa is l ...

operated a 2.5 km long

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

with the unusual gauge of from the colliery to the deepwater harbour near Muara. Wooden rails were used, until steel rails were laid,Rozan Yunos
''Before the Oil, it was Coal. The History of Brooketon Coalmine in Muara.''
Published in Brunei Times, Issue of 14 April 2007; Downloaded on 29 April 2017. so that two

0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...

steam locomotives of Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. could be used. The locomotive with the serial No 696 was built in 1891 and had an inner frame, a wheel diameter of , outer cylinders with a capacity of and a height of only , to be used in the high mine shaft. She had the name ''MARGUERITE REINE'' after Sir Charles Brookes' French wife Margaret de Windt. An identical Barclay locomotive with the serial No 815 was built in 1897 and was named ''BROOKETON''. It was despatched in January 1898 from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. The rail track was nearly completely lifted, but there are some mine shafts, overgrown remains of tracks and locomotives, which are protected under the ''Antiquities and Treasure Trove Act of Brunei Darussalam''. The department of museums of Brunei plans, to exhibit them in an open-air museum, to support eco-tourism. Between 1888 and 1924 approximately 650.000 t of Brooketon coal was transported, which was on high demand by the steam boats during their stop-over on the lucrative trip from India to China.''Brunei Darussalam, a guide.''
Brunei Shell Group of Companies, 1992/2000. Downloaded on 29 April 2017. The colliery and its railway were decommissioned by 1924.
Downloaded on 29 April 2017. During World War II the Japanese operated the coal mine once again for local use.

Narrow gauge railway Seria–Badas

Since the 1930s existed a long narrow gauge railway with a gauge of mit 600 mm from

Seria Seria () is a town in Belait District, Brunei, about west from the country's capital Bandar Seri Begawan. The total population was 3,625 in 2016. It was where oil was first struck in Brunei in 1929 and has since become a centre for the countr ...

to Badas.''The Far East and Australasia 2003.''
34th Issue, Europa Publications, Taylor & Francis Group. p. 225.''The Europa World Year Book 2004.''
Volume 1, Europa Publications, Taylor & Francis Group. S. 904. The alignment of the railway with wooden rails was built by the British Malayan Petroleum Company (BMP, now Brunei Shell Petroleum), to transport water from a pumping station in Badas, which was operated by George William Percival Clark at the Sungai Belait River, to Seria.See also Seria#Rail. It was subsequently used, to transport pipeline tubes. The employees of BMP hid during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the most important parts of the railway from the Japanese, who consequently couldn't operate it. After liberation by the 9th Division of the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

the hidden parts re-appeared in July 1945, and the railway was quickly re-commissioned, to transport two 25-pound

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

s and their ammunition to Badas, to disperse Japanese troops, which were still in the area. According to some reports, the railway was still being used in 1999. The tracks are still ⁽²⁰¹³⁾ in use for transporting trees and as a walkway.

Industrial railway of Brunei LNG

In the

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

loading pier of

Brunei LNG The Brunei LNG (BLNG) is the LNG plant in Lumut, Brunei. It is the largest oil and gas producer in the country. Moreover as of 2006, Brunei has been the 4th largest oil producer in Southeast Asia and the 9th largest LNG producer in the world. ...

(BLNG) plant in

Lumut, Brunei Kampong Lumut () or commonly known as Lumut, is a coastal settlement in Belait District, Brunei, about from the district town Kuala Belait. The total population was in 2016. History Archaeological evidence found in Lumut suggests that human ...

, a

Joint Venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

of the government of Brunei (50%), Shell Overseas Trading (25%) and

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

(25%), a

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

industrial railway is used with the unusual gauge of 1533 mm ( in). Bemo Rail of

Warmenhuizen Warmenhuizen ( West Frisian: ''Wermehúze'') is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Schagen, and lies about 8 km northwest of Heerhugowaard. An agricultural community. The area surrounding the t ...

in the Netherlands laid the track onto the pier for transporting workers and equipment to the platform, which is 4 km away from the coastline, at which tankers can be filled with LNG, because they cannot come closer to the coast because the water is very shallow. Bemo also supplied two battery operated rail vehicles made in 1993 and 1997/98, as well as a motorless passenger car and some flat cars for tools. The locomotives get their energy from batteries and are explosion proof, for instance with stainless steel wheels. They can transport 10 passengers each. The original description was RCE-15 (Rail Car Electric, 15 kN (1,5 t) pulling force). Now it has been renamed to BRE-15 (Bemo Rail Electric). The maximum speed is 15 km/h. In 1999 the first locomotive was equipped, similarly to the second locomotive, with an AC asynchron motoro instead of the DC motor. Two older explosion proof rail cars and trailers were delivered by

Alan Keef Alan Keef Ltd is a British narrow gauge railway engineering company which manufactures, overhauls, and deals in narrow gauge locomotives, rolling stock and associated equipment. The Limited Company was formed in 1975 at Cote, Bampton, Oxon, ...

in England.

Trans Borneo Railway

The long Trans Borneo Railway is still being planned.

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

and

Kalimantan Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

shall be connected, investing a budget of 33 billion US Dollar. Thereby coal, timber and other agricultural produce could be transported from the

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...

of Borneo to the harbour in Bandar Seri Begawan, and from there to world-wide destinations.

Mass rapid transit

Initial plans for a metro in Brunei have so far not been completed. The government of Brunei invited the

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n government-owned company Prasarana Malaysia on 18 April 2017, to develop a concept for a metro network.Daniel Khoo
''Prasarana eyes development of Brunei metro system.''
18 April 2017. Downloaded on 29 April 2017.

Gallery

File:25 pounder gun on the Seria railway in Borneo (AWM 111520).jpg, Flatcars being used to transport an Australian

Ordnance QF 25-pounder Short The Ordnance QF 25-pounder Short was an Australian variant of the British Ordnance QF 25-pounder field gun/howitzer. The gun was developed by modifying the 25-pounder's design to improve its mobility during jungle warfare. Development began in 1942 ...

in Seria, 1945. File:Badas railway station shed (AWM 115585).JPG, Food rations being loaded up by Australians at Badas railway station in 1945. File:Kuala Balai 18 February 2023 17.jpg, A decommissioned and abandoned

round-topped boiler A round-topped boiler is a type of boiler used for some designs of steam locomotive and portable engine. It was an early form of locomotive boiler, although continuing to be used for new locomotives through to the end of steam locomotive manufact ...

in Kuala Balai. File:Seria 18 February 2023 05.jpg, A restored round-topped boiler on display at Seria Energy Lab. File:Topographic map of Brunei CIA 1984.jpg, Road and railway networks of Brunei in 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rail Transport In Brunei