This is a list of countries by rail usage. Usage of

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

may be measured in tonne-kilometres (tkm) or passenger-kilometres (pkm) travelled for

freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...

and passenger transport respectively. This is the number of tonnes or passengers multiplied by the average distance of their journeys in kilometres.

Overview

Almost 10,000 billion freight tonne-kilometres are travelled around the world. Roughly one quarter of these are travelled in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, another quarter in China, and a third in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. Of the 3,000bn passenger-kilometres travelled across the world, 1,346bn and 1,150bn of these are travelled in China and

alone. Thus China and India contribute almost half of world's passenger travels. 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. 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 High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, line ...

with 257bn pkm representing 72% of total world high-speed rail passenger traffic.

Passenger rail

These figures do not include

metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban ...

railway systems; see '' Lists of rapid transit systems'' for metro rail statistics.

Passenger-kilometres of rail transport per year

''Countries with more than five billion passenger-kilometres (pkm) travelled per year. Unless otherwise specified, data come from th
Railway Statistics 2015 Report
by the

International Union of Railways The International Union of Railways (UIC, french: Union internationale des chemins de fer) is an international rail transport industry body. History The railways of Europe originated as many separate concerns, and there were many border chang ...

(UIC).''

Passengers carried in rail transport per year

''Countries with more than 20 million passengers per year. Unless otherwise specified, data come from th
Railway Statistics 2019 Report
by the

.''

Passenger modal share for rail

The

modal share A modal share (also called mode split, mode-share, or modal split) is the percentage of travelers using a particular type of transportation or number of trips using said type. In freight transportation, this may be measured in mass. Modal share ...

of railway transport (excluding tram & metro) as compared to other modes of transport, based on Passenger-km.

Passenger rail by passenger-kilometres per capita

''Countries with more than five billion passenger-kilometres travelled per year.''

Freight rail

Tonne-kilometres of rail transport per year

$Bahnfracht-EU 2003$ ''Countries with more than one billion tonne-kilometres (tkm) travelled per year. Unless otherwise specified, data come from th
Railway Statistics 2014 Report
by the

.''

Tonnes carried in rail transport per year

''Countries with more than ten million tonnes carried per year. Unless otherwise specified, data come from th
Railway Statistics 2014 Report
by the

.''

Freight modal share for rail

The

carried by rail of all freight in a given country.

Freight rail by tonne-kilometres per capita

Brief railway statistics by country

References

{{Portal bar, Transport, Companies, Lists

Usage The usage of a language is the ways in which its written and spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers", as opposed to idealized models of how a languag ...

Rail usage *