Rail Markets

“Railways are best at moving high volumes of passengers or freight between common points.”


What Railways Do Best

Railways are an efficient and cost-effective means to transport large volumes of passengers and freight over various distances, particularly between common points. Rail transport cost effectiveness increases as volumes and distances increase. When traffic demand involves smaller passenger and freight volumes that must be distributed over a larger number of points, road transport is usually more efficient and cost effective.

For high volumes, railways deliver much more significant cost savings, environmental, energy, land use, and other social benefits than road transport, although in some cases, rail can be slower. Water transport can be more energy efficient and lower cost than rail transport, depending on waterway circuitry and availability, but typically, water transport is much slower. Rail passenger and freight transport are competitive with road and air transport at some distances.

“Railways moving bulk goods should be designed with low gradients. High speed passenger lines can have higher grades.”


Rail transport is generally the most effective mode of transport available for larger volumes over longer distances, for example, to transport coal or minerals from a mine or production center deep in the interior of a country to distant markets. Rail infrastructure requires relatively little land—a strip of land 100 meters across is usually more than generous and a typical rail right-of-way can be as narrow as 10 meters. However, freight railways require relatively gentle grades and curves, especially for transporting minerals—grades should not exceed 2.0 percent. By contrast, high-capacity roadways can have grades as steep as 5.0 percent or more. Therefore, railway lines between two points can be more circuitous than road transport.

    
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