The railway database provides information on scale, output and performance for over 90 railways worldwide permitting comparisons of performance and facilitating target setting by individual railways.
All railways aim to improve management and operational efficiency and effectiveness.
One of the dilemmas faced by railway managers in doing so is to set fair and realistic targets. The database provides comparative railway statistics on scale, output and performance for many of the world's railways. As Figure 1 shows, one of the more important characteristics of the world's railways is extreme traffic concentration. While approximately 1 million route-km of railway exist in the world, spread over some 120 countries, the vast majority of operating activity is to be found in only a few nations. Perhaps the most significant distinguishing characteristic of the typical railway is the type of traffic it carries.