Railways (km)

See how world countries compare to each other in terms of Railways. Follow the color coded map to visually see how Railways is distributed between world countries. The darker the color, the higher the value. You can filter which regions to display in the table. When filters are used the two ranks are displayed: the one within the current filter set and the global rank.

This entry states the total route length of the railway network and of its component parts by gauge, which is the measure of the distance between the inner sides of the load-bearing rails. The four typical types of gauges are: broad, standard, narrow, and dual. Other gauges are listed under note. Some 60% of the world's railways use the standard gauge of 1.4 m (4.7 ft). Gauges vary by country and sometimes within countries. The choice of gauge during initial construction was mainly in response to local conditions and the intent of the builder. Narrow-gauge railways were cheaper to build and could negotiate sharper curves, broad-gauge railways gave greater stability and permitted higher speeds. Standard-gauge railways were a compromise between narrow and broad gauges.