1. Switzerland. Tucked inside the small but incredibly beautiful country of Switzerland is one of the most efficient and scenic rail networks in the world.
It probably comes as no surprise that in a global 2019 survey of railroad efficiency, the top two places went to Japan and Hong Kong, with scores of 6.8 and 6.5 (out of seven) respectively.
North AmericaBecoming rail hubs made Chicago and Los Angeles grow from small towns to large cities. Sayre, Pennsylvania and Atlanta, Georgia were among the American company towns created by railroads in places where no settlement already existed.
Chinese workers made up most of the workforce between roughly 700 miles of train tracks between Sacramento, California, and Promontory, Utah. During the 19th century, more than 2.5 million Chinese citizens left their country and were hired in 1864 after a labor shortage threatened the railroad's completion.
Trans-Siberian Railway: Running more than 9,000 kilometres across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok, the Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world.
Trenitalia's Paris to Milan route was first introduced in December 2021, serviced by Hitachi Rail's ETR1000. This super high speed train travels at 300km/h - with the ability to go400km/h if not limited by track regulations - making it the fastest train in Europe.
This is an interactive map of the major freight railroads, also known as class I railroads in the United States. They include CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS), Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF), Union Pacific (UP), Canadian Pacific (CP), Canadian National Railway (CN), and the Kansas City Southern (KCS).
More major railroads serve Chicago than other U.S. city. Six out of the seven existing Class I Railroads in the U.S. – the largest and most profitable railroads – run through the Chicago area.