🇿🇦 Country
Train routes in South Africa
7 routes · classic 2 · night train 1 · scenic 1 · mountain 1 · luxury 2
7 routes cross South Africa in the World Train Map atlas. The longest is the The Blue Train at 1,600 km; the fastest is the Gautrain, running up to 160 km/h; the oldest line dates to 1890. Every route links to its facts, photo and story, and to the interactive world map.
Open the world railway map →Classic (2)
- Gautrain
South Africa’s 160 km/h Electrostars dive under Sandton’s bank towers, stitching Johannesburg to Pretoria in under an hour.
Wikipedia ↗ - Shosholoza Meyl Trans-Karoo
The classic Trans-Karoo run: a night and a day across the semi-desert heart of South Africa from the Highveld gold city down to Table Bay.
Wikipedia ↗
Night train (1)
- Shosholoza Meyl
The last affordable long-distance sleeper in South Africa: an overnight economy train across the Free State Highveld and Stormberg to the Indian Ocean at East London.
Wikipedia ↗
Scenic (1)
- Southern Line
From Muizenberg the rails run on a False Bay sea wall so close to the surf that winter swells spray the carriage windows at Kalk Bay.
Wikipedia ↗
Mountain (1)
- Flying Dutchman Funicular
Africa’s only commercial funicular, named for the ghost ship said to haunt Cape Point, lifts visitors 87 m toward the 1859 lighthouse.
Wikipedia ↗
Luxury (2)
- The Blue Train
A five-star hotel on rails: butlers, marble bathrooms and the Karoo semi-desert rolling past for 1,600 km.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rovos Rail
“The Pride of Africa”: teak-panelled suites through the bushveld to the smoke that thunders.
Wikipedia ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence
Cross-border lines continue into
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