This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2016)
Length of rail network divided by area of country
This is a list of countries by rail usage. Rail usage may be measured in tonne-kilometres (tkm) or passenger-kilometres (pkm) travelled for freight and passenger transport respectively. This is the number of tonnes or passengers multiplied by the average distance of their journeys in kilometres.
Almost 10,000 billion freight tonne-kilometres are travelled around the world. Roughly one quarter of these are travelled in the United States, another quarter in China, and a third in Russia. Of the 3,000bn passenger-kilometres travelled across the world, 1,158bn of these are travelled solely in India. The average Swiss person travels 2,430 km by train each year, almost 500 more than the average Japanese person (the Japanese having the second-highest average kilometres travelled per passenger in the world).
In 2014 there were around 1 million kilometres of railway in the world (a decrease of 3% compared to 2013). Of this, 350,000 km were in Europe and mainly used for passenger service, 370,000 km were in North America and mainly used for freight, and 230,000 km were in Asia and used for both freight and passenger service.[1] In America and Europe, there are many low cost airlines and motorways which compete with rail for passenger traffic, while Asia has seen a large growth in high-speed rail with 257bn pkm representing 72% of total world high-speed rail passenger traffic.[1]
Amtrak had 30.8 million passengers in the year 2014-15.[30] Among regional systems that report to the American Public Transportation Association, there were 3.945 billion metro/subway riders, 529.6 million commuter rail riders, and 489.8 million light rail/streetcar riders in 2015.[31]
^Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics; Australian Railway Association (November 2015). "Trainline 3, Statistical Report"(PDF). bitre.gov.au. p. 6. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
^ abc"Mobility and Transport: Pocket Statistics 2014"(PDF) (Official publication) (in English, German, French, and Italian). Switzerland: Federal Office for Statistics. July 30, 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
^Derval Cummins, Booz and Company (2009). "Rail Freight in Ireland"(PDF). Engineers Ireland. p. 22. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
^ ab"Mobility and Transport: Key figures" (web page) (in English, German, French, and Italian). Switzerland: Federal Office for Statistics. October 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-14.