3

Countries with Railway Networks

A list of all the countries in the world with railway networks –

• The networks are sorted by size based on miles of route (2017).
• Total route mileage for the world in 2017 is approximately 800,000 miles.
• Networks that do not have passenger services (2017) appear in the main list.
• Countries with systems planned (2017) are listed separately.
• Countries that previously had networks (closed in 2017) are listed separately.
• Countries with neither historic nor planned railways are listed separately.
• The year I visited the country is listed in the right hand column.

Rank	Country	Miles	Passenger	Visited
1	United States	156250	Y	1986
2	China	75625	Y	1988
3	India	71875	Y	1994
4	Russia	53750	Y	1988 /2002
5	Canada	29095	Y	1986
6	Germany	27168	Y	1984
7	Australia	24028	Y	1986
8	Argentina	23104	Y	2011
9	South Africa	19375	Y	1995
10	France	18525	Y	1984
11	Brazil	18314	Y	2011
12	Japan	16989	Y	1987
13	Italy	15112	Y	1984
14	Ukraine	13938	Y	2003
15	Romania	13936	Y	2008
16	Poland	12267	Y	2004
17	United Kingdom	11083	Y	1964
18	Mexico	10729	Y	1986
19	Spain	9967	Y	1984
20	Kazakhstan	9608	Y	2006
21	Iran	8124	Y
22	Sweden	8013	Y	1984
23	Turkey	7500	Y	2003
24	Czech Republic	5929	Y	1997
25	Indonesia	5331	Y	1990
26	Hungary	4964	Y	1984
27	Pakistan	4869	Y
28	Egypt	4188	Y	1998
29	Austria	3704	Y	1984
30	Finland	3699	Y	2008
31	Chile	3686	Y	2012
32	Belarus	3461	Y	(*1) – 1988 2019
33	Sudan / South Sudan	3424	Y
34	South Korea	3276	Y	1989
35	North Korea	3272	Y	2018
36	Switzerland	3270	Y	1984
37	Cuba	3173	Y	2016
38	Turkmenistan	3113	Y
39	Algeria	2698	Y
40	Uzbekistan	2675	Y
41	Bulgaria	2599	Y	2005
42	New Zealand	2580	Y	1987
43	Norway	2571	Y	1984
44	Thailand	2544	Y	1987
45	Democratic Republic of the Congo	2504	Y
46	Myanmar (Burma)	2472	Y	2014
47	Serbia	2381	Y	2007
48	Slovakia	2286	Y	1997
49	Nigeria	2205	NO
50	Ireland	2023	Y	2001
51	Belgium	2021	Y	1984
52	Vietnam	1967	Y	2011
53	Mozambique	1948	Y
54	Netherlands	1883	Y	1984
55	Zimbabwe	1875	Y
56	Uruguay	1871	Y
57	Croatia	1859	Y	2017
58	Azerbaijan	1824	Y
59	Bolivia	1791	Y
60	Bangladesh	1772	Y
61	Portugal	1746	Y	1984
62	Kenya	1736	Y	(*2) 1995
63	Angola	1726	Y
64	Tanzania	1701	Y
65	Denmark	1667	Y	1984
66	Greece	1595	Y	2005
67	Namibia	1489	Y
68	Latvia	1418	Y	2005
69	Tunisia	1386	Y
70	Syria	1337	Y
71	Iraq	1270	Y
72	Peru	1263	Y	2019
73	Morocco	1243	Y	2002
74	Malaysia	1156	Y	1987
75	Mongolia	1131	Y	1988
76	Lithuania	1104	Y	2022
77	Taiwan	1064	Y	2008
78	Colombia	1039	Y	2022
79	Georgia	946	Y
80	Sri Lanka	943	Y	2017
81	Saudi Arabia	883	Y
82	Uganda	778	NO
83	Zambia	773	Y
84	Slovenia	768	Y	2017
85	Israel	750	Y	2010
86	Moldova	723	Y
87	Bosnia and Herzegovina	689	Y	2018
88	Cameroon	609	Y
89	Ecuador	604	Y
90	Ghana	596	Y
91	Senegal	566	NO
92	Botswana	555	Y
93	Guatemala	553	NO
94	Armenia	543	Y
95	Madagascar	534	Y
96	Guinea	523	Y
97	Estonia	510	Y	2018
98	Gabon	506	Y
99	Malawi	498	Y
100	Republic of the Congo	497	Y
101	Djibouti	488	Y
102	Benin	474	Y
103	Mali	458	NO
104	Mauritania	455	NO
105	Honduras	437	Y
106	North Macedonia	437	Y	2019
107	Ethiopia	437	Y
108	Cambodia	406	Y	2012
109	Côte d’Ivoire	399	Y
110	Burkina Faso	389	Y
111	Tajikistan	385	Y
112	Fiji	373	Y
113	Togo	355	NO
114	El Salvador	351	NO
115	Dominican Republic	323	Y
116	Jordan	317	Y	2012
117	Liberia	306	NO
118	Philippines	299	Y	1989
119	Albania	281	Y	2019
120	Kyrgyzstan	261	Y
121	Lebanon	251	NO
122	Panama	222	Y
123	Venezuela	210	Y
124	Eritrea	191	Y
125	Swaziland	188	NO
126	Costa Rica	174	Y
127	Luxembourg	171	Y	1984
128	United Arab Emirates	165	Y
129	Montenegro	156	Y	2018
130	Hong Kong (PRC)	131	Y	1988
131	Suriname	104	NO
132	Singapore	100	Y	1988
133	Guyana	80	NO
134	Sierra Leone	53	NO
135	Jamaica	41	NO
136	Nepal	37	Y
137	Saint Kitts and Nevis	36	Y
138	Paraguay	24	Y
139	Puerto Rico (US)	11	Y
140	Brunei	8.1	NO
141	Liechtenstein	5.9	Y	2002
142	Western Sahara	3.1	NO
143	Nauru	2.4	NO
144	Laos	2.2	Y
145	Monaco	1.5	Y	1996
146	Lesotho	1.0	Y
147	Vatican City	0.8	NO	1996
148	Iceland	Planned		2014
149	Kuwait	Planned
150	Libya	Planned
151	Macau	Planned		1988
152	Niger	Planned
153	Oman	Planned
154	Papua New Guinea	Planned
155	Qatar	Planned		2015
156	Rwanda	Planned
157	Trinidad and Tobago	Planned
158	Yemen	Planned
159	Andorra	Historic
160	Cyprus	Historic
161	East Timor	Historic
162	Guinea-Bissau	Historic
163	Malta	Historic		2015
164	Marshall Islands	Historic
165	Mauritius	Historic
166	Micronesia	Historic
167	Nicaragua	Historic
168	San Marino	Historic
169	Solomon Islands	Historic
170	Somalia	Historic
171	Tonga	Historic
172	Tuvalu	Historic
173	Vanuatu	Historic

The following countries (subject to correction) appear never to have had railways, nor do they have (2017) any railways planned.

	Country	Visited
1	Antigua and Barbuda
2	Bahamas
3	Bahrain
4	Barbados
5	Belize
6	Bhutan
7	Burundi
8	Cape Verde
9	Central African Republic
10	Chad
11	Comoros
12	Dominica
13	Equatorial Guinea
14	Grenada
15	Haiti
16	Kiribati
17	Maldives	(*3)  2017
18	Palau
19	Saint Lucia
20	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
21	Samoa
22	São Tomé and Príncipe
23	Seychelles

Notes

*1 –  Passed through Belarus when it was part of the USSR

*2  – Landed at Nairobi Airport to Refuel

*3 – Landed at Male Airport to Refuel