The story
In 1844, Governor-General of Novorossiya and Bessarabia Count Mikhail Vorontsov has developed a project of a railway, connecting Odesa and Parcani village by the Dniester. Odesa-Kyiv railway company proposed to connect Odesa and Kyiv with a branch to Parcani via Tiraspol. According to the decree of Nikolay I, the construction was sponsored by government funds.
In 1871 a bridge over the Dniester was constructed. On 28 August 1871, the railway linking Tiraspol with Chișinău was officially opened. This date is recognized as the date of establishment of Moldovan Railways. The line, connecting Bessarabia to the Black Sea and the railway network of Ukraine and Russia became the basis for future development.
On 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1872 a Russian diplomat agent, Ivan Alekseevich Zinov'ev and the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gheorghe Costaforu signed a rail junction convention, which was ratified on 21 January [O.S. 9 January] 1873. On 1 June 1875, the line Chișinău-Cornești-Ungheni was opened (the Chișinău-Cornești railway was built between 1871 and 1873) and connection to Romania was established. The Eiffel Bridge was opened on 21 April [O.S. 9 April] 1877, just three days before the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878).
In the first months of the war the Tighina-Basarabeasca-Reni-Giurgiulești line was hastily built; it opened in November 1877.
In 1893-1894 the Lipcani-Ocnița-Otaci, Ocnița-Bălți and Bălți-Florești-Rîbnița-Cobasna lines started operation.
During World War I, in 1917, the Bălți-Ungheni section was built, which finally connected the Northern and the Southern lines.
In the early 1920s, as Moldova had united with Romania, the tracks were converted to standard gauge. In the interwar years the Basarabeasca-Cantemir and Revaca-Căinari lines appeared.
After World War II Moldova became part of the Soviet Union and the rail network reverted to broad gauge. During the Soviet era the Cantemir-Cahul line was built (1971).
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In 2004, all property in Transnistria was taken over by the newly formed Transnistrian Railway (PŽD, Pridnyestrovskaja železnaja doroga).
In 2005, the Revaca-Căinari railway was reconstructed (it was destroyed in 1944) to bypass Transnistrian controlled Bender and reconnect the southern lines with the main network. In 2007-2008 the Cahul-Giurgiulești line was constructed.
From Wikipedia’s article on Calea Ferată din Moldova, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4