The Italian colonial railways started with the opening in 1888 of a short section of line in Italian Eritrea, and ended in 1943 with the loss of Italian Libya after the Allied offensive in North Africa and the destruction of the railways around Italian Tripoli. The colonial railways of the Kingdom of Italy reached before WWII.
The construction of railways in the African Italian colonies (Eritrea, Libya and Somalia) did not have, for various reasons, a great development compared to that promoted by other European countries on the same continent.
The first rail lines were built mainly for war needs in the absence of efficient means of communication in the occupied territories, after the conquests of Eritrea and Libya. However, were quite limited in the first decades of occupation.In 1940 the amount of railways in operation, between Italian East Africa and Libya, amounted to 1,556 km of which, however, the 693 km of the Italian section of the Railway Djibouti-Addis Ababa were pre-existing and built by the French Empire for Ethiopia.
The railways were built by Italy from the outset with little potential, because built with narrow gauge rails and with light metal type, and were never of great economic importance because isolated from the lines of neighboring states. Indeed, the choice of a gauge, different from the meter gauge usually used in Africa, contributed to this effect.Today most of these Italian colonial railways have disappeared: those of Somalia after the British occupation in 1941–1945. The Libyan ones were suppressed in the 1960s, but in the same decade the Eritrean railway between Italian Asmara and Massawa was reactivated after long neglect of trafficking.
In 1940 there were some projects of new colonial railways in the Italian Empire:
Two international projects were studied for decades, but never done because of excessive financial difficulties:
All these projects were stopped by the WW2 defeat of Italy.
In 1940 the Italian colonial railways had 1,561 km and were the following:
| Railway name | Km | Years when built | Colony | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Addis Abeba–Gibuti | 684 kmOnly Ethiopia section | 1902-1917 | Africa Orientale Italiana (Ethiopia) | |
| Asmara–Biscia | 227 km | 1914–1932 | Africa Orientale Italiana (Eritrea) | |
| Bengasi–Soluch | 56 km | 1926 | Italian Libya | |
| Bengasi–Barce | 108 km | 1914–1927 | Italian Libya | |
| Massaua–Asmara | 118 km | 1901–1911 | Africa Orientale Italiana (Eritrea) | |
| Massaua–Saati | 26 km | 1886–1887 | Africa Orientale Italiana (Eritrea) | |
| Mogadiscio–Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi | 113 km | 1924–1927 | Africa Orientale Italiana (Somalia) | |
| Tripoli–Tagiura | 21 km | 1912 | Italian Libya | |
| Tripoli–Vertice 31 | 90 km | 1912–1915 | Italian Libya | |
| Tripoli–Zuara | 118 km | 1912–1919 | Italian Libya | |
| Ferrovie coloniali italiane (Italian colonial railways) | 1,561 km |
With the above railways there were some decauville railways, like: