The Most Railway Friendly Country In The World Is…

Last week I wrote about the lamentable state of British rail services, pointing out that railways in general will need to raise their game if they are to encourage significant numbers of people to abandon the car and go for green rail instead.

So who are the world’s most railway friendly countries, and what can we learn from them about implementing practical rail services that people will actually want to use?

Data provided by The International Union of Railways shows Japan as the world leader among major economies in rail kilometres per inhabitant, followed by Europe lead by the Swiss. The United Kingdom comes, unsurprisingly, near the bottom, with the USA coming last - US citizens traveling one thirteenth the distance of the Japanese by rail.

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Japan

The fully privatised rail transport network is a popular mode of transport for the Japanese, who are pioneers of the high-speed “bullet train” or “shinkansen” which travels at speeds close to 200mph. With high speed rail links between major cities providing the fastest and most convenient method of getting from A to B Japanese trains are famously punctual, and drivers pride themselves on timing stops to the exact second.

Switzerland

Switzerland is home to the most dense railway network in the entire world, with only the smallest and most remote villages missing a railway station. Switzerland may currently lack the high speed trains used in Japan and in neighbouring countries Italy, France and Germany, but it’s trains are always clean and on time - if lacking the exact per second accuracy of the Japanese. The Swiss take great pride in their railways, and so tolerate the thumping financial losses sustained by the state owned railways each year.

United States

By contrast, passenger travel in the United States barely gets a look-in against the bus, airplane and automobile. Much of this is due to the geography of the US, being sparsely populated with vast distances between cities. However, with rising fuel costs and congestion at airports and on highways there has been renewed interest in the potential development of high speed rail services within the US in recent years.

Whilst the latter part of the 20th century has seen a continuous decline in rail travel across the world, with many favouring the speed of the airplane or the personal freedom of the automobile, population growth and environmental concerns are slowly bringing rail back in to favour. In twenty years rail travel around the world may look very different - with its many wide open spaces providing far more scope for high speed rail development than more densely populated countries in Europe and Asia, perhaps the US has the opportunity to become a rail world leader?

See also: Britain: My Worst Rail Experiences Ever

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