Top 20 Countries In The World With The Largest Rail Networks

Any country or government serious about making life easy for commuters and businesses should invest heavily in rail transport, a more serious government would remove the dependence of rail transport on fossil fuels and electrify a major part of the system .China currently has the largest network of electrified rail network , a length of 87,000km !!!, just for reference the distance between Lagos and Sokoto via Zuru-mahuta road is about 924km.

Let’s go through the top 20 countries in the world, ranked by their rail network size, these figures are a combination of both electrified and non-electrified networks.
These figures also include urban/suburban mass-transport systems; as well as lines which are not used for passenger services.

20.

Kazakhstan – 15,372 Km

19.

Spain- 15,947 Km

18.

Mexico- 17,166 Km

17.

United Kingdom- 17,732 Km

16.

Poland-19,627 Km

15.

South Africa-20,953 Km

14.

Romania-22,298 Km

13.

Ukraine-22,300 Km

12.

Italy-26,500 Km

11.

Japan-27,182 Km

10.

France-29,640 Km

9.

Argentina- 36,966 Km

8.

Brazil- 37,743 Km

7.

Australia-38,445 Km

6.

Germany-43.468 Km

5.

Canada-46,552 Km

4.

India-67,368 Km

3.

Russia-85,500 Km

2.

China-127,000 Km

1.

United States-257,722 Km

The total rail network size for Nigeria is an embarrassing 3,528 Km (49th in the world) , while its true that the land area and population of these countries are significant factors that contributes to its rail network size, Nigeria’s land area is almost 4 times that of Romania, its population is about 10 times that of Romania, yet Romania’s rail network is 22,298 Km, out of that figure 3,971 Km is electrified.

Its evident that Nigeria as a country or should we say the government(which goes beyond the argument of political party, its all encompassing) has deprived us of simple things that makes life easy.

We have basked for so long in mediocrity.

Imagine how easy it would have been to work in Ibadan and live in Lagos if we had a modern and well organized railway system.

Articles like this on Autojosh are in no way meant to bring shame to us as a country, but to bring to light the things we should have, the things we can afford as a country, yet is non-existent or poorly executed.

What are your thoughts, kindly share them.