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In a conventional intercity rail system (A), the rail station of every single town can be serviced, but each stop involves delays. Alternating express (selected stops) and local train (every stop) services is often a strategy to mitigate this problem. The construction of a high-speed rail line (B) usually follows

Source: International Union of Railways. The development of high speed rail systems around the world can be summarized in two major phases. First phase (development of twin cities corridors). Most high-speed rail systems are initially developed to connect large cities that are within 300 to 500 km. Japan saw the

The double-stacking of many rail corridors, which took place in the 1980s and 1990s, allowed rail operators to have additional capacity with essentially the same line infrastructures. As intermodal demand increased sharply in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a substantial wave of investment took place over strategic segments of

Source: adapted from T. Prince (2001) “Towards an international intermodal network”, American Shipper, November. An important shift in the composition of the North American intermodal rail fleet took place in the 1990s with the move away from piggybacking (Trailer on Flat Car; TOFC) towards Containers of Flat Car (COFC). The

Photo: Dr. jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2012. Double-stacking rail services were first introduced in North America in 1984, multiplying the productivity of inland container transportation. The advantages are obvious since two 40-foot containers (or 4 twenty-foot) can be stacked on a rail car, essentially doubling the capacity of a unit train. The

Sources: Rand McNally (1898) Miles of railroads in the United States, 1830-1893. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), Statistics of Railways in the United States. BTS and Association of American Railroads (AAR).Note: A Class I railroad is a large rail operator. Data represent miles of road owned (aggregate length of road, excluding

Source: The World Bank. Important differences in the use of rail transportation are observed, which is reflective of social preferences in mobility. Rail freight dominates in the United States and Canada, while passengers are a residual function. This is mainly related to the geographical scale of their respective rail systems

Source: Census Bureau, EEI, AAR. Rail transportation is one of the most capital-intensive activities, particularly in North America, where rail operators (Class I) own and operate their networks. Thus, maintenance and improvement costs tend to be high. Comparatively, other transport sectors are facing a different financing context. Roads are often

Source: International Union of Railways. The quantity of freight carried by rail is related to the size and composition of the national economy. Large countries imply longer national distances over which rail freight is carried, which results in more ton-km for an equivalent quantity of freight. Countries endowed with natural

Rail is significantly more efficient than a road in terms of capacity and footprint by comparing a single rail line with a standard four lanes highway. For instance, rail has less than half the footprint, has more than double the capacity (335,000 tons per km per day compared to 150,000