rail network rail passengersmurchiepages.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/4/3/13431671/africa...eastern asia...

metres of track per square kilometre of land*

Rank Territory Value127 Uganda 1.31128 Mongolia 1.16129 Paraguay 1.11130 Mauritania 0.70131 Ethiopia 0.68132 Mali 0.60133 Saudi Arabia 0.50134 Venezuela 0.49135 Nepal 0.41136 Nicaragua 0.05

SHORTEST AND LONGEST RAILWAY TRACKS

Technical notes

© Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)

Rank Territory Value1 Czech Republic 1232 Belgium 1073 Germany 1034 Hungary 845 Netherlands 836 Switzerland 817 Slovakia 768 United Kingdom 719 Austria 6910 Poland 66

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Rail Network

www.worldmapper.org

Produced by the SASI group (Sheffield) and Mark Newman (Michigan)

In 2002 there were one millionkilometres of railway in the world. Ifthis railway were evenly spread out ina grid system, the furthest you couldever possibly be from a railway wouldbe 65 kilometres.A railway can be used to transportpassengers or freight. However theexistence of a rail network does notalways mean high usage. SouthAmerica has 9% of all railway lines inthe world, but only 0.5% of allpassenger kilometres travelled and0.1% of all rail freight.Many of the territories without a railnetwork are relatively small islands.Of the seven territories with the largestland areas, six also have the longestdistances of railway.

• Data source: World Bank, World DevelopmentIndicators, 2005. Data are from 2002.

• *64 territories had no recorded rail system.• The World Bank defines railway line as the length

of the route available for service, irrespective ofthe number of parallel tracks.

• See website for further information.

Territory size shows the proportion of all railway linesin the world found there.

Map 036

LENGTH OF RAILWAYS

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“Japanese railways nationwide pass through some 3800 mountain tunnels totalling 2100 km in length, includingthe Seikan Tunnel (the world’s longest tunnel) completed in 1988.” Yukinori Koyama , 1997

annual railway journeys kilometres per person per year*

Rank Territory Value127 Côte d'Ivoire 9.0128 Mozambique 7.4129 Tajikistan 6.6130 Angola 5.6131 Ghana 4.1132 Cambodia 3.3133 Democratic Republic of Congo 3.1134 Sudan 2.2135 Philippines 1.6136 Madagascar 0.6

MOST AND FEWEST RAIL PASSENGERS

Technical notes

© Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)

Rank Territory Value1 Japan 18762 Switzerland 17833 Belarus 14494 France 12255 Russian Federation 10616 Austria 10397 Ukraine 10348 Denmark 10249 Netherlands 88710 Germany 848

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Rail Passengers

www.worldmapper.org

Produced by the SASI group (Sheffield) and Mark Newman (Michigan)

In 2003 2.2 trillion kilometres weretravelled by train passengers. Of thistotal a fifth were in India, a fifth werein China, and a tenth were in Japan.

The world average for the number ofkilometres travelled by people peryear by train is 358 kilometres each.The unevenness of the realdistribution of kilometres travelled ishighlighted by the fact that 64territories (out of 200) do not have arail system. At the other extreme, anaverage of 1876 kilometres aretravelled by train each year by everyperson who lives in Japan.

• Data source: World Bank, World DevelopmentIndicators, 2005. Data are from 2003.

• Passenger kilometres are the number of railpassengers multiplied by the average length ofrail journey in each territory.

• *64 territories had no recorded rail system.• See website for further details.

Territory size shows the proportion of all train passengerkilometres travelled in the world that occur there.

Map 030

AVERAGE KILOMETRES BY TRAIN

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Indian Railways, 2006“lifeline to the nation”

metric tonne-kilometres per person per year

Rank Territory Value127 Mali 15128 Benin 13129 Ghana 12130 Uganda 9131 Democratic Republic of Congo 8132 Albania 7133 Cambodia 7134 Bangladesh 7135 Venezuela 1136 Madagascar 1

MOST AND LEAST RAILWAY FREIGHT CARRIED

Technical notes

© Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)

Rank Territory Value1 Russian Federation 104802 Canada 103393 Kazakhstan 85864 Australia 81085 Mexico 78226 United States 75617 Estonia 71778 Latvia 65309 Lebanon 407410 Ukraine 3950

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Rail Freight

www.worldmapper.org

Produced by the SASI group (Sheffield) and Mark Newman (Michigan)

“ This is the Night Mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door”

8000 000 000 000 (8 trillion) metrictonne-kilometres of rail freight werecarried in 2003. A tonne-kilometre isone metric tonne travelling onekilometre. A metric tonne is 1000kilograms; a kilogram is the weightof one litre of water.

As most trains carry many tonnes offreight the total number of kilometrestravelled by trains will have been farfewer than 8 trillion.

The largest total amount of rail freightcarried is in the United States, RussianFederation and China. In contrast 64territories (out of 200) have no railsystem and hence carry no rail freight.

• Data source: World Bank, World DevelopmentIndicators, 2005. Data are from 2003.

• A tonne-kilometre is the equivalent of transporting1000 kilograms over one kilometre.

• 64 territories have no recorded rail system.• See website for further information.

Territory size shows the proportion of the worldwidemetric tonne-kilometres of rail freight carried there.

Map 034

W.H. Auden, 1936

RAIL FREIGHT CARRIED PER PERSON