Transport

In Asia and the Pacific, the total demand for railway passenger transport was slightly less in 2012 than in 2011 (reduced by less than 1%), while railway freight registered an increase of a little over 1%. Railway density remained at 6.5 km per 1,000 km2 in 2011, as in 2009 and 2010, for the region. This figure is above that for Latin America and the Caribbean at 5.7 km per 1,000 km2 in 2011, but remains far behind that for Europe at 49.9 km per 1000 km2 and the world average at 9.5 km per 1,000 km2 in the same year. However, to a large extent, this points to the large surface area of the Asia-Pacific region (and the smaller size of Europe). Indeed, in terms of railway operating length, the region is also home to some of the longest railway networks in the world, namely China (100,000 km), the Russian Federation (85,500 km), India (65,000 km) and Australia (40,000 km).

Related Subject(s): Population and Demography