Transport > Railways > A note: Countries Compared
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DEFINITION:
This entry states the total route length of the railway network and of its component parts by gauge: broad, dual, narrow, standard, and other.
| COUNTRY | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Brazil | in addition to the interurban routes itemized above, Brazil has 247.8 km of suburban railway consisting of 170.8 km of 1.600-m gauge (75 km electrified) and 77 km of 1.000-m gauge (1999 est.) |
| Canada | Canada has two major transcontinental freight railway systems: Canadian National (privatized November 1995) and Canadian Pacific Railway; passenger service is provided by the government-operated firm VIA, which has no trackage of its own (2000 est.) |
| Cote d'Ivoire | an additional 600 km of this railroad extends into Burkina Faso, ending at Kaya, north of Ouagadougou (2000 est.) |
| Cuba | in addition to the 4,807 km of standard-gauge track in public use, 7,162 km of track is in private use by sugar plantations; about 90% of the private use track is standard gauge and the rest is narrow gauge (2000 est.) |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | severely reduced route-distance in use because of damage to facilities by civil strife (2000 est.) |
| Djibouti | Djibouti and Ethiopia plan to revitalize the century-old railroad that links their capitals by 2003 (2001 est.) |
| El Salvador | length of operational route is reduced to 283 km by disuse and lack of maintenance (2001 est.) |
| Eritrea | links Ak'ordat and Asmara with the port of Massawa; nonoperational since 1978 except for about a 5 km stretch that was reopened in Massawa in 1994; rehabilitation of the remainder and of the rolling stock is under way (2001 est.) |
| Ethiopia | in 1998, Djibouti and Ethiopia announced plans to revitalize the century-old railroad that links their capitals and since then Ethiopia has expended considerable effort to repair and maintain the lines; in 2001, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to build a line from Ethiopia to Port Sudan (2000 est.) |
| Fiji | belongs to the government-owned Fiji Sugar Corporation (1995) |
| Germany | since privatization in 1994, Deutsche Bahn AG (DBAG) no longer publishes details of the track it owns; in addition to the DBAG system there are 102 privately owned railway companies which own approximately 3,000 to 4,000 km of track (2001 est.) |
| Guatemala | much of the railway is inoperable (2001 est.) |
| Guyana | all dedicated to ore transport (2001 est.) |
| Haiti | privately owned industrial line; closed in early 1990s (2001 est.) |
| Holy See (Vatican City) | a spur of the Italian Railways system, serving Rome's Saint Peter's station (2001 est.) |
| Hong Kong | connects to China railway system at Hong Kong-China border (2001) |
| Hungary | Hungary and Austria jointly manage the cross-border, standard-gauge railway connecting Gyor, Sopron, and Ebenfurt (Gysev railroad) which has a route length of about 101 km in Hungary and 65 km in Austria (2001) |
| Iran | broad-gauge track is employed at the borders with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan which have broad-gauge rail systems; 41 km of the standard-gauge, electrified track is in suburban service at Tehran (2001) |
| Kenya | the line connecting Nairobi with the port of Mombasa is the most important in the country |
| Lebanon | entire system is unusable because of damage in civil war (2001) |
| Liberia | in 1989, Liberia had three rail systems owned and operated by foreign steel and financial interests in conjunction with the Liberian Government; one of these, the Lamco Railroad, closed in 1989 after iron ore production ceased; the other two were shut down by the civil war; large sections of the rail lines have been dismantled; approximately 60 km of railroad track was exported for scrap (2001) |
| Libya | Libya has had no railroad in operation since 1965, all previous systems having been dismantled; current plans are to construct a 1.435-m standard-gauge line from the Tunisian frontier to Tripoli and Misratah, then inland to Sabha, center of a mineral-rich area, but there has been little progress; other plans made jointly with Egypt would establish a rail line from As Sallum, Egypt, to Tobruk with completion originally set for mid-1994; Libya signed contracts with two private companies - Bahne of Egypt and Jez Sistemas Ferroviarios of Spain - in 1998 for the supply of crossings and pointwork (2001) |
| Liechtenstein | owned, operated, and included in statistics of Austrian Federal Railways (2001) |
| Mali | linked to Senegal's rail system through Kayes (2001) |
| Mauritania | owned and operated by government mining company (2001) |
| Nauru | gauge unknown; used to haul phosphates from the center of the island to processing facilities on the southwest coast (2001) |
| Nepal | all in Kosi close to Indian border (2001) |
| Nicaragua | carries mostly passengers from Chichigalpa to Ingenio San Antonio (2001) |
| Nigeria | years of neglect of both the rolling stock and the right-of-way have seriously reduced the capacity and utility of the system; a project to restore Nigeria's railways is now underway (2001) |
| Paraguay | there are 470 km of various gauges that are privately owned |
| Puerto Rico | rural, narrow-gauge system for hauling sugarcane; no passenger service (2001) |
| Republic of Macedonia | a 56-km extension of the Kumanovo-Beljakovce line to the Bulgarian border at Gyueshevo is under construction (2001) |
| Russia | an additional 63,000 km of broad gauge routes serve specific industries and are not available for common carrier use (2002) |
| Serbia and Montenegro | during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, the Serbian rail system suffered significant damage due to bridge destruction; many rail bridges have been rebuilt; Montenegrin rail lines remain intact (2001) |
| Sierra Leone | Sierra Leone has no common carrier railroads; the existing railroad is private and used on a limited basis while the mine at Marampa is closed (2001) |
| Singapore | there is also a 83 km mass transit system with 48 stations |
| South Africa | in addition, South Africa has an electrified 1.065-m gauge commuter rail system, with a total length of 1,254 km, which serves Johannesburg-Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, East London, and Port Elizabeth (2001) |
| Sudan | the 1.067-m line from Khartoum to Port Sudan carries over two-thirds of Sudan's rail traffic; the 0.600-m gauge system serves Sudan's cotton plantations with over 120 collecting stations (2001) |
| Suriname | Suriname railroads are not in operation (2001) |
| Swaziland | includes 71 km which are not in use (2001) |
| Switzerland | Swiss railways are virtually all electrified (2001) |
| Syria | rail link between Syria and Iraq replaced in 2000 (2001) |
| Taiwan | in addition to the above routes in common carrier service, there are several thousand kilometers of 1.067-m gauge routes that are dedicated to industrial use (2001) |
| Tajikistan | includes only lines in common carrier service; lines dedicated to particular industries are excluded (2001) |
| Tanzania | the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), which operates 1,860 km of 1.067-m narrow gauge track between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia (of which 969 km are in Tanzania and 891 km are in Zambia) is not a part of Tanzania Railways Corporation; because of the difference in gauge, this system does not connect to Tanzania Railways (2001) |
| Uganda | a program to rehabilitate the railroad is underway (2001) |
| Ukraine | these data do not include railroads dedicated to serving industry and not in common carrier service (2001) |
| United Kingdom | all 1.600-m gauge track is in common carrier service in Northern Ireland (1996) |
| United States | represents the aggregate length of roadway of all line-haul railroads including an estimate for Class II and III railroads (1998) |
| Uruguay | of the total route length, 461 km have been taken out of service and 460 km are in only partial use; moreover, not all lines offer passenger service (2001) |
| Venezuela | 248 km of the existing system are privately owned; passenger services are nonexistent; however, a National Railways Plan, intended to provide a significant railway system, has been initiated (2001) |
| Zambia | the total includes 891 km of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), which operates 1,860 km of 1.067-m narrow gauge track between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi where it connects to the Zambia Railways system; TAZARA is not a part of the Zambia Railways system; Zambia Railways assets are scheduled for concessioning (2002) |
| Zimbabwe | includes the 318 km Bulawaya-Beitbridge Railway Company line (2001) |
