The passenger rail industry is a major industry in many countries of the world. For example, in countries such as China, India, Russia, Japan etc. millions of people travel by trains. Similarly European countries are also connected by a wonderful network of railways. In addition to tradition railways, high-speed rail travel is also growing in Europe and other countries. While China, Western Europe and Japan have embraced high-speed railways, the U.S. lags awfully behind as this chart from one of earlier posts shows:

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I came across the following cool graphic from Euromonitor showing the current resurgence of rail travel across the world:

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Source: Euromonitor

In terms of passenger traffic the U.S. does not even appear in the top 25 countries. The U.S. ranks 9th, behind Turkey in the list of the top 12 countries with high-speed rail networks. China leads the world beating Europe and Japan as it continues to expand its high-speed rail network at a rapid pace. This aspect of China’s growth has to be appreciated since China is a developing country.