Railways and trans-continental lines

Railways carry bulky goods and large numbers of passengers over long distances. Their tracks come in different widths, or gauges: broad gauge (more than 1.5 m), standard gauge (1.44 m), and metre gauge (1 m), plus narrower ones. The world has about 13 lakh km of railway.

• Europe has one of the densest networks; Belgium has the densest of all. Passenger traffic is more important than freight there, and underground railways are common in big cities.
• North America has nearly 40% of the world's railways, used mostly for bulky freight such as ores, grain and timber, rather than passengers.

Trans-continental railways run across whole continents, linking their two ends and opening up the interior for settlement and trade:

• the Trans-Siberian Railway, from St Petersburg in the west to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, 9,332 km long, the most important route in Asia;
• the Trans-Canadian Railway, from Halifax in the east to Vancouver on the Pacific (completed in 1886);
• the Union and Pacific Railway, from New York to San Francisco;
• the Australian Trans-Continental Railway, from Perth to Sydney;
• the Orient Express, from Paris to Istanbul.