What shapes rail transport?

•Development of high-speed rail lines, first in Japan, with the Shinkansen network development that started in the 1960s, then in Europe, spearheaded by the French TGV and most recently in China.

•Development of long-distance conventional rail networks in Europe, Japan and India over the course of the 20th century, before competition from aviation became a serious threat.

Page | 44 The best opportunities for urban rail networks arise in very big cities with large and concentrated populations, since they are the areas most likely to experience congestion and negative impacts of poor air quality. Large, dense cities can guarantee high levels of demand for passenger rail services from people living within the catchment of each station.22

In the case of conventional and high-speed services, the strongest opportunities for rail arise in cases where the centres of transport demand are:

•Within distances that enable rail to compete effectively, in terms of the overall journey time, against the most relevant alternative (road transport for conventional rail, both road and air transport for high-speed rail).

•Large enough to justify a high frequency of service along the lines.

Freight rail

•Russia is a clear example. It has abundant supplies of coal, timber and minerals, most of which are located in Siberia and the eastern part of the country, while the main centres of economic activity are primarily in the west. To facilitate and expand international trade of such resources requires the movement of goods to the country’s ports, along its eastern and western coastlines. In consequence, Russia has built an extensive rail network (primarily used for freight) to serve the coastal ports, as a contribution to the development of its economy. This is reflected in the very high share of rail freight in transport activity (over 50% of the total tonne-kilometres of the country, including maritime shipping) (IEA, 2018a).

•In the United States, 32% of the total mass transported by freight train was coal, followed by grain and grain mill products with 13% and chemicals at 11% (AAR, 2017). Another 11% of the activity is attributed to intermodal transport, largely shipping containers, which contribute 20% of gross rail freight revenue.

•Freight rail in China moves inland resources over long distances to the coastal parts of the country, demonstrating the relevance of rail for export-oriented industrial clusters.

•In India, freight rail is currently dominated by the movement of bulk materials, especially coal, and the carriage of large quantities of bulk goods to large demand hubs.

•In Australia and South Africa, freight rail benefits from the availability of large quantities of primary materials (in particular, coal and other mining products) and their export.26

Coal and mineral products have been, to date, the most common type of freight transported by rail around the world (Figure 1.19). The lower reliance on freight rail in Europe, Japan and Korea reflects industrial structures which rely to a lesser extent on the primary sector and the shorter distances between the main industrial clusters and major ports.

Figure 1.19 Shares of materials transported by freight railways worldwide, 2016

Note: Materials measured in tonnes.

Sources: (AAR, 2017), National Bureau of Statistics China (2017); Indian Railways (2018a); Statistics Canada (2016); Globaltrans (2017); UIC (2018); SAFF/SIADE (2017); Ukrstat (2018); Transnet (2016); Agencia Reguladora del Transporte Ferroviario (2016).

Key message • Minerals, coal and agricultural products account for the bulk of total freight rail activity.

Three categories of rail activity catering for freight may usefully be distinguished: mature and market-driven railways prioritising freight movements; mature railways which prioritise passenger movements, but also provide freight services; and developmental railways.

Mature and market-driven railways prioritising freight movements are characteristic of the United States and Canada. Freight rail started there with an initial period of route and infrastructure growth, which was followed by a rationalisation phase. This phase was driven by free market principles – represented, for the United States, by the 1980 Staggers Rail Act (United States Public Law 96-448, 1980), providing for the deregulation of rail transport in order to achieve higher network density, the lowest possible operating costs and high levels of customer satisfaction. These are railways where freight trains are prioritised, enabling operators to optimise their schedules to meet the needs of their freight customers.27

Mature railways prioritising passenger movements are usually also open to freight services. This is the case with respect to the large European railways (such as those in France, Germany and Italy). These are systems that were based, originally, on uncoordinated route and infrastructure growth, but industrial maturity has resulted in interlinked economic centres, freight corridors and ports exhibiting benchmark efficiencies. However, inter-operability barriers persist and the prioritisation given to passenger rail limits the optimisation of freight transport.28

Developmental railways are those where expansion of the network is deliberately fostered as a contribution to social and economic development through the provision, inter alia, of improved access and high employment. The best examples are to be found in China, India and Russia.