Zambia Railways is the national railway of Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

, one of the two major railroad organizations in Zambia, which may also be referred to as Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ). The other system is the binational TAZARA Railway (TAZARA) that interconnects with the ZR at Kapiri Mposhi

Kapiri Mposhi

Kapiri Mposhi is a small town in Zambia. Located north of Lusaka, it stands on the Great North Road and is significant for the railway connection between Zambia Railways line from Kitwe to Lusaka and Livingstone and western terminal of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority from Dar-es-Salaam since...

 and provides a link to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...

.
The gauge

Rail gauge

Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...

 Cape gauge

Cape gauge

Cape gauge is a track gauge of between the inside of the rail heads and is classified as narrow gauge. It has installations of around .The gauge was first used by Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl and the first line was opened in 1862.- Nomenclature :...

 ZR network was built during British colonial rule as part of the vision of the Cape-Cairo railway

Cape-Cairo railway

The Cape to Cairo Railway is an uncompleted project to cross Africa from south to north by rail. This plan was initiated at the end of the 18th century, during the time of colonial rule, largely under the vision of Cecil Rhodes, in the attempt to connect adjacent African possessions of the British...

 but the economic spur was to access the mines of Central Africa.