The United States has the world's longest railway network,
followed by China and India. Railway-technology.com profiles the 10 largest
railway networks in the world based on total operating length.
United States - 250,000km
The US rail network, with an operating route length over
250,000km, is the biggest in the world. Freight lines constitute about 80% of
the country's total rail network, while the total passenger network spans about
35,000km.
The US freight rail network consists of 538 railroads (seven
Class I railroads, 21 regional railroads, and 510 local railroads) operated by
private organisations. Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway are among the
largest freight railroad networks in the world. The national passenger rail
network Amtrak comprises of more than 30 train routes connecting 500
destinations across 46 American states.
A plan is in place to build a 27,000km national high speed rail
system in four phases by 2030. Construction of the California high-speed
rail, the country's first high-speed rail project, was well underway
by the beginning of 2014. Three more high-speed projects including the Midwest
high-speed rail line connecting Chicago with Indianapolis or St. Louis, Texas
high-speed rail, and the Northeast High-Speed Corridor are under development.
China - 100,000km
China's rail network, with a route length of over 100,000km,
ranks as the second biggest rail network in the world. The extensive network,
operated by state-owned China Railway Corporation, carried 2.08 billion
passengers (the second highest after Indian Railways) and 3.22 billion tonnes
of freight (the second highest after the US railway network) in 2013.
Rail is the principal mode of transport in China. The country's
rail network consists of over 90,000km of conventional rail routes and
approximately 10,000km of high-speed lines. The total rail network of the
country is targeted to exceed 270,000km by 2050.
The rapid expansion of China's high-speed rail network in recent
years makes it by far the largest in the world. The 2,298km Beijing - Guangzhou high
speed line is the world's longest
high-speed railway line. The total length of China's high-speed rail
network is projected to reach 50,000km by 2020.
Russia - 85,500km
Russia's whole network, operated by state-owned monopoly Russian Railways (RZD),
runs for over 85,500km. In 2013, the network carried 1.08 billion passengers
and 1.2 billion tonnes of freight - the third highest freight volume after the
US and China.
The Russian railway network incorporates12 main lines, many of
which provide direct connections to the European and Asian national railway
systems such as Finland, France, Germany, Poland, China, Mongolia and North
Korea. The Trans-Siberian Railway (the Moscow-Vladivostok line), spanning a
length of 9,289km, is the longest and one of the busiest railway lines in the
world.
RZD introduced the Sapsan high-speed rail service between St.
Petersburg and Moscow in 2009, but it has not proved successful due to sharing
existing lines with low-speed train operations. A dedicated high-speed corridor
between the two cities has been planned with a proposed investment of $35bn.
RZD expects to have 2,500km of high-speed rail between Moscow and Kiev, Minsk
and Kursk by 2015.
India - 65,000km
The Indian nationwide rail network, the fourth longest in the
world, is owned and operated by state-owned Indian Railways and includes an
operating route length of more than 65,000km. The network carried about eight
billion passengers (the highest in the world) and 1.01 million tonnes of
freight (fourth highest in the world) in 2013.
The Indian railway network is divided into 17 zones and operates
more than 19,000 trains per day, including 12,000 passenger trains and 7,000
freight trains. The national railway operator plans to add 4,000km of new lines
by 2017, as well as significant gauge conversion, doubling and electrification
of its existing aging lines. It also plans to add 3,338km of exclusive freight
network by 2017 with the implementation of Eastern & Western Dedicated Freight
Corridors (DFC), two of the six identified dedicated freight
corridors in India.
Six high-speed corridors have also been identified for
implementation in the country. The 534km Mumbai-Ahmedabad
high-speed link is being advanced as a pilot project with an
estimated investment of $9.65bn.
Canada - 48,000km
Canada's 48,000km of rail lines makes its national network the
fifth longest in the world. Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific
Railway (CPR) are the two major freight rail networks operating in the country,
while Via Rail operates the 12,500km intercity passenger rail service. Algoma
Central Railway and Ontario Northland Railway are among the other smaller
railways providing passenger services to certain rural areas in the country.
Three Canadian cities - Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver - have
extensive commuter train systems. In addition, the Rocky Mountaineer and Royal
Canadian Pacific offer luxury rail tours to view the scenic beauty of certain
mountainous areas in the country.
Canada, however, does not have a single high-speed line on its
railway network. Many high-speed lines such as Toronto-Montreal,
Calgary-Edmonton and Montreal-Boston have been proposed, but none of these have
progressed beyond preliminary studies as of January 2014.
Germany - 41,000km
State-owned Deutshe Bahn dominates
Germany's 41,000km railway network, accounting for about 80% of the total
freight traffic and 99% of the long-distance passenger traffic.
More than 150 private railway companies apart from Deutshe Bahn
operate on the network, providing regional passenger and freight services. The
S-Bahn serves major suburban areas, while the Hamburg Cologne Express (HKX) is
the major long-distance passenger operator after Deutshe Bahn.
The German railway network had more than 1,300km of high-speed
railway track operational as of mid-2013 and more than 400km of new high-speed
line under construction. Deutshe Bahn opened high-speed services, under the
name InterCity Express (ICE),
for the first time in 1991. The high-speed network, operated at speeds up to
320km/h, now connects major German cities and neighbouring countries such as
France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria.
Australia - 40,000km
The Australian railway network is the world's seventh longest at
more than 40,000km. Most of the railway network infrastructure is owned and
maintained by the Australian government either at the federal or state level.
The majority of the trains on the network are, however, operated by private
companies.
Aurizon (formerly QR National), Genesee and Wyoming Australia,
and Pacific National are among the major freight operators on the network.
Great Southern Railway, NSW TrainLink and Queensland Rail are the leading
long-distance passenger rail operators. Metro Trains Melbourne,
Sydney Trains, V/Line and Adelaide Metro operate commuter passenger services in
major suburban areas. In addition, a number of private mining railways operate
in the country.
The Australian railway network does not have a high-speed line
yet. A high-speed rail network connecting Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and
Melbourne is proposed to be built with an estimated capital cost of $114bn, but
the first phase of the 1,748km high-speed network will not be realised before
2035.
Argentina - 36,000km
Argentina's current rail network spanning over 36,000km in
length ranks the eighth largest in the world. Argentina used to have about
47,000km of rail network at the end of the Second World War, mostly operated by
British and French-owned railway companies. But the decline of profits and the
rise of highway construction in the subsequent decades reduced the network to
the 36,000km of line that exists today. The railway companies operating on the
network were nationalised in 1948 with the creation of the state railroad
corporation Ferrocarriles Argentinos.
The Argentinean railway was privatised between 1992 and 1995
with the grant of concessions to different private companies for operating six
divisions of the formerly state-owned rail network. Cities such as Buenos
Aires, Resistencia and Mendoza offer extensive suburban passenger services, as
well as the long distance passenger lines in the country.
The much talked-about Argentine high-speed railway is not a reality yet. An
announcement was made in 2006 to develop a 310km high-speed line between Buenos
Aires and Rosario. The project was, however, not implemented as of 2013. A
second high-speed line stretching 400km between Rosario and Cordoba has also
been proposed.
France - 29,000km
At 29,000km, the French railway network is the second biggest in
Europe and the ninth biggest in the world. The French railway network is
predominantly passenger-centric and more than 50% of the country's lines are
electrified. State-owned Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF)
is the principal railway operator in the country.
The country's high-speed long distance passenger services are
known asTrain à Grande Vitesse
(TGV) and the standard long-distance passenger services are
branded Intercités. The short and middle distance passenger rail services are
known as Transport Express Régional (TER). The network offers linkages to
adjacent countries such as Belgium, Italy and the UK.
France was one of the early adopters of high-speed rail
technology; SNCF brought into operation the TGV high-speed rail in 1981. The
country's current high-speed network exceeds a length of 1,550km. The Tours-Bordeaux high-speed
rail project, which is due for completion in 2017, will add
another 302km into the network.
Brazil - 28,000km
The first railway line in Brazil became operational in 1984. The
railway network was nationalised in 1957 with the creation of Rede Ferroviária
Federal Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA). The country's railway network was divided
into different services to be operated by a range of private and public
operators by 2007.
The 28,000km network is predominantly freight-focussed and
includes major iron ore rail lines. The country's passenger rail services are
mostly concentrated in urban and suburban areas. Eight Brazilian cities have
metro systems, São Paulo Metro being
the biggest among them.
In 2012, the Brazilian government announced the construction of
10,000km of new lines comprised of freight and high-speed passenger lines by
2042. A 511km high-speed rail link between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro has
been planned for development in the country, but the project is yet to take
off.
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