Algoma Central Railway and Ontario Northland Railway are among the other smaller railways providing passenger services to certain rural areas in the country. 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. The 534km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed link is being advanced as a pilot project with an estimated investment of $9.65bn.Ĭanada’s 48,000km of rail lines makes its national network the fifth longest in the world. Six high-speed corridors have also been identified for implementation in the country. 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. 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. 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 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 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 world’s longest metro and subway systems India: 65,000km 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. 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. 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. Russia’s whole network, operated by state-owned monopoly Russian Railways (RZD), runs for over 85,500km. The total length of China’s high-speed rail network is projected to reach 50,000km by 2020. The 2,298km Beijing – Guangzhou high speed line is the world’s longest high-speed railway line. The rapid expansion of China’s high-speed rail network in recent years makes it by far the largest in the world. The total rail network of the country is targeted to exceed 270,000km by 2050. The country’s rail network consists of over 90,000km of conventional rail routes and approximately 10,000km of high-speed lines.
Rail is the principal mode of transport in China.