Railway map of the world

[jopsuk]

No idea if the hotlinking will work:

Source: New Scientist

Not much use for journey planning, but gives an idea of the "rail density" around the planet.

 

[Oswyntail]

Splendid - I love the occasional completely disconnected stretch miles from anywhere. What would be interesting would be to map this onto a similar graphic of population density and see if there are any obvious mismatches

 

[Swift-Deere]

Thats Awesome

On Owesyntails point i think the most densely populated areas have the most dense rail ways i.e. Western Europe, Japan, India and North east (urban) USA

But there may be some mismatches in rural mid west and deep south USA and rural Australia (lots of rail low pop density)

but as for the other (little rail high pop density) Indonesia and the middle east are prime examples.

Heres a Population Density map for reference: http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-population-density.htm

 

[gingerheid]

Fantastic!

I never realise the Indian sub continent railways were cut off!

There's also a short unexplained missing gap between what I think is one of the ~stans and China? I presume that will get filled in soon?

It also wouldn't take much for a North South railway across Africa; I wonder if that will ever happen.

 

[gordonthemoron]

the iran section seems to be wrong: Iran railway network

 

[jopsuk]

Looks about right to me

 

[."ooo!.]

It also wouldn't take much for a North South railway across Africa; I wonder if that will ever happen.

Without checking, I would suspect there may be a lot of different gauges in use across Africa which would make such a proposition a little more difficult.

 

[poshbakerloo]

lol europe is just black

 

[Spaceflower]

the iran section seems to be wrong: Iran railway network

Yeah, the waterway map is bollox too, its just a map of the worlds rivers and assumes theyre all navigable...

Actually the Iranian map looks fine.

 

[Aussie_Rail]

I cant vouch for anywhere else, but I have noticed a few errors in Australia. The Adelaide Darwin railway seems to be missing and it also includes the former Adelaide to Alice Springs route.

Other than that, it looks very impressive. From what I can see in Europe it looks like you are never more than a few km's from a railway line anywhere in France and Germany.

 

[rick9525]

Fantastic!

I never realise the Indian sub continent railways were cut off!

There's also a short unexplained missing gap between what I think is one of the ~stans and China? I presume that will get filled in soon?

It also wouldn't take much for a North South railway across Africa; I wonder if that will ever happen.

From my Overseas map I don't think India is totally cut off as there is a line into Pakistan and on into Iran. There is a very limited service between the 2 countries.

 

[Aussie_Rail]

The same map could easily be remade your self using Google Earth, at a certain view height it shows rail lines in black, so a similar map could be made like that one.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Look at europe it looks like black ink has been spilt all over it.

 

[Aussie_Rail]

Look at europe it looks like black ink has been spilt all over it.

It appears that way, but what I would like to know is, do those lines represent open lines or do they also show closed tracks as well, assuming its based on satellite imagines and represents all rail lines that were identified?

 

[fr3]

the iran section seems to be wrong: Iran railway network

As the author of the pages you mentioned I must admit that I have not updated the map on my site since several years. Iran has + 500 km of new lines each year. But the most exciting news is the completition of Bam - Zahedan line this summer (August 2009) which closed the gap between the European and the Indian network!
(it's the green line in the south east, here shown still under construction - blue is existing - pink is planned)

Here is a newer map of the Iranian Railways

And here is the press review about the new link:

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...n+service+for+istanbul+launching+friday-za-10

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=201105

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=46500

Greetings from Italy

Johannes

 

[Aussie_Rail]

I think if you wanted to get a real scope on railways of the world, then it might be easier to get railway maps for individual countries or areas rather than one where it is all crammed together on a small map like the one in the OP.