Possibly the greatest mode of travel of all time, railways have been crucial in expanding our ability to see the world, helping industries grow and stimulating research in various areas of science and technology. From the fastest, oldest and highest trains to incredible stations and curious titbits, we take a look at some of the most fascinating train facts that might surprise you.
You might be surprised to hear that the US has the largest railway network in the world, and by a large margin. With a total route length over 155,342 miles (250,000km), it's two-and-a-half times longer than the second-largest network in China. It's the US freight rail network that makes up 80% of the staggering length while passenger rail, run by Amtrak, is comprised of more than 30 train routes connecting 500 destinations across 46 American states.
Travelling at a mind-boggling speed, Shanghai's maglev (magnetic levitation) train is the fastest passenger train in the world. With a spine-tingling operational speed of 267mph (430km/h), the train connects Shanghai Pudong International Airport with Longyang Road Station in the outskirts of Pudong. Travelling at an average speed of 143mph (230km/h), the 19-mile-long (30km) journey can be completed within eight minutes.
The slowest express service in the world, Switzerland's Glacier Express takes a whooping eight hours to cover a distance of just 181 miles (291km). That's because the scenic route takes in sights like Oberalp Pass, the highest point of the journey, and the Landwasser Viaduct – a six-arch bridge which stands at 213 feet (65m) and plunges straight into a tunnel that leads through the mountain. The day-long trip covers 91 tunnels, 291 bridges and offers the chance to take in stunning alpine meadows, mountain lakes and chalets.
The steepest cogwheel railway in the world, this train, ferrying passengers up to the summit of Mount Pilatus, is no mean feat. Reaching a maximum gradient of up to 48% it can be a challenging journey as it feels like the train is about to topple over at any second. The track's steep gradient is not its only spine-chilling feature. Clinging on to the mountainside, the train passes through tunnels carved into the mountain which open up to sweeping views of the surrounding landscape.
Crossing two continents, the incredible journey from Porto in Portugal to Singapore is the longest you could possibly do by train alone. Covering an approximate distance of 10,000 miles (16,000km), the route leads from Porto to Warsaw in Poland before travelling east to Beijing in China. From there the journey turns south to Vietnam and reaches Singapore via Cambodia and Thailand. The full journey would cost around £5,104 ($7,000) and would take at least 12 days to complete.
However, if you're after the world's longest direct train service, you'll find it in Russia. With two scheduled trains, an express departing once every two days and a regular service departing daily, the Trans-Siberian route from Moscow to Vladivostok is the longest direct train journey in the world. It covers 5,772 miles (9,289km), crosses eight time zones and takes 166 hours (144 hours on the express) to complete, which is equivalent to almost a full week. The train has 142 stops and passes through 87 cities and towns.
Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland is not only the longest but also the deepest railway tunnel in the world. It runs for 35.5 miles (57km) with a maximum depth of 8,040 feet (2,450m) – that’s eight times the height of The Shard in London. The tunnel provides a high-speed link under the Swiss Alps between central and southern Europe.
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Founded in 1758, the Middleton Railway in Leeds, England operates as a heritage railway today but it was originally opened to transport coal from the Middleton pits to Leeds, which led to the city becoming a centre for many developing industries. In 1812 it also became the first commercial railway to use steam locomotives successfully. Passenger services on the line didn't begin until 1969 and today visitors can still ride trains and visit the museum.
America’s oldest operating railroad, the Strasburg Rail Road first puffed off the buffers in 1832. Today it takes its passengers on a whistle-stop tour through Pennsylvanian Amish country. Four steam locomotives still pull original rolling stock on the 45-minute round trip to and from Paradise, and an audio commentary dispenses nuggets of knowledge on the nation’s oldest continuously operating short line railway.
Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, Japan is the busiest train station in the world with over 3.6 million passengers passing through daily (before the COVID-19 pandemic). The station has more than 200 exits and is made up of five smaller stations. Europe's busiest is Gare du Nord in Paris, France, serving around 214 million passengers every year while Penn Station in New York City is the busiest in North America, with a thousand passengers alighting and departing every 90 seconds.
Check out these beautiful images of the world's train stations
Travelling at an extreme altitude, the Qinghai–Tibet railway is the highest line in the world, extending between Golmud and Lhasa. Just five pairs of passenger trains run along these tracks as each has to be specially equipped for high elevation. For example, the locomotives are turbocharged to combat the effects of extreme altitude, the passenger carriages on Lhasa trains have an oxygen supply for each passenger and there's a doctor on every train. The line's highest point (and also the highest in the world that can be reached on a train) is the Tanggula Pass at 16,640 feet (5,071m) above sea level.
Japan's Seven Stars is a so-called cruise train that takes travellers on a multi-day tour around the island of Kyushu and is often considered to be among the most exclusive and expensive train journeys in the world. Bagging a ticket on this exquisite service is not as easy as just heading to the booking site – only 28 passengers travel on each journey, so prospective riders must enter a lottery to be invited to purchase a ticket for an upcoming departure.
Take a look at these jaw-dropping rail journeys you'll never forget
Built between 1881 and 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway's first line connected eastern Canada with British Columbia – an incredible achievement considering the diverse landscape the train had to traverse. The first train to travel the full route departed Montreal's Dalhousie Station at 8pm on 28 June 1886 and reached the final terminus on the western seaboard, Port Moody, at noon on 4 July. Here, that first train is photographed in Fernie, some 600 miles (900km) east from Port Moody.
Take a look at incredible images that capture the history of train travel
Today the trip aboard the Indian Pacific spans four days, three nights, three time zones and passes through the scenic Blue Mountains as well as across the famous Nullarbor Plain. Here the train travels on the world's longest straight stretch of railroad, which extends for 303 miles (487km).
On this remarkable straight stretch of tracks you'll also find the world's most remote train station. Although Cook was once an important stopping point on the long journey across Australia, today it's more a ghost town with just four residents left. The trains still stop here to refuel and serve as a rest stop for the drivers, but if any passenger was to get off here, they would be about 62 miles (100km) from the nearest road and around 513 miles (826km) away from the nearest city.
In construction since 2004, this remarkable bridge across the Chenab river in India is set to soon become the world's highest. Suspended 1,178 feet (359m) above the river – that's 98 feet (30m) higher than the Eiffel Tower – the railway line crossing the bridge will connect Kashmir and Kanyakumari. The full length of the bridge is 1,532 feet (1,315m) and is surely going to make for a spine-tingling ride.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch – you'll find this remarkable train station in Wales in the UK. Exactly 58 letters long, the station serves the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and roughly translates as St Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilio near the red cave in English. As it turns out, the name has no historic significance and is a marketing gimmick from the 1880s to attract tourists that stuck.
Dubbed Britain's most scenic train route, the West Highland Line runs from the Scottish city of Glasgow to Fort William before continuing its journey towards the port of Mallaig. After a brief stop in Fort William, the train crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct – the same bridge the Hogwarts Express crosses in the Harry Potter films. What's more, the Jacobite Steam Train was used as the Hogwarts Express in the films and is available to ride during the summer months (roughly April to October).
Did you know that several times a week there are empty ghost trains travelling in and out of London? Due to complicated legal procedures required to shut a railway line in the UK, it's cheaper to just run a so-called ghost train down the line every now and then. Currently, there are four services running on otherwise disused lines that don't stop or take on passengers – Overground to Battersea Park, Overground to Enfield via Stratford, Chiltern to West Ealing and Southeastern to Beckenham.
Bookworms and film buffs alike might be surprised to hear that Agatha Christie's famous novel isn't exactly true to fact. By the 1920s and 1930s there was a whole host of trains connecting various European cities with Orient Express featuring in their name in addition to the Orient Express itself. The events described in the book take place on the Simplon Orient Express, which departed from Calais via Paris Gare de Lyon while the Orient Express departed Paris Gare de l'Est.
The expansion of railways in the UK is what inspired businessman Thomas Cook to create the world's first travel agent. He ran his first trip on 5 July 1841, escorting around 500 people to a teetotal rally in Loughborough from Leicester. After organising tours of the UK and Europe for World's Fairs, Cook set up shop on Fleet Street in 1865 and began offering travel services. Pictured is a train ready to leave London Victoria on a Thomas Cook holiday to Italy in March 1937.
Although many countries without a railway system are island nations (like Tonga) or among the smallest countries in the world (like San Marino) others, like Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, all lack a railway network mostly because the transport systems there are highly dominated by roads. Others like Malta and Cyprus used to have train lines, but they closed as they proved to be financially unsustainable. Iceland doesn't have a public railway system either, mostly due to harsh weather, however, plans have been made to build a high-speed airport railway.
There are approximately 807,783 miles (1.3 million km) of railway tracks on Earth. And while it certainly sounds like a lot, it's hard to imagine how far exactly that is. Put into perspective, the Moon is 238,855 miles (384,400km) away, which means there are enough tracks on Earth to go to the Moon and back, go to the Moon again and come back nearly halfway.
A railway station in Japan exists just so passengers could get off the train and admire the stunning landscape. Located on the Nishikigawa Seiryu line in southern Japan, the Seiryu-Miharashi station has just one small platform only accessible to passengers passing through on the train. The platform looks over the Nishiki River and the surrounding forest, and the passengers have about 10 minutes to take in the views before the train leaves again.
Hidden deep below New York’s Grand Central Station and the Waldorf Astoria, the city’s first skyscraper hotel, there is a secret train platform known as Track 61. Although the station was allegedly used to secretly transport VIPs including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the platform was actually built as a powerhouse and storage area for unused New York Central Railroad cars and not as a passenger station.
As the UK melts in unprecedented temperatures, the Met Office issued its first-ever Red Weather Warning for exceptional heat. With that brings a whole lot of chaos, including train cancellations. The reason? Extreme temperatures, reaching 38°C+ (100°F), can cause steel tracks to buckle, grinding Britain's public transport network to a halt. A spokesperson for Network Rail says: "Rails in direct sunshine can be as much as 26°C (36°F) hotter than air temperature." The steel then expands and starts to curve, known as buckling. Given Britain's railways cover 20,000 miles (32,000km) of steel track, it's no wonder there are cancellations throughout the country.