Which is the worlds largest network of railways?

Question

Which is the worlds largest network of railways?

Answer 1

Here is the Ranking of Kilometres/year per capita

Japan 1900

Switzerland 1730

Belarus 1260

France 1060

Ukraine 1010

Denmark 1000

Austria 1000

Japan and Switzerland are clearly far in front of any other country.

I am not suprised the Switzerland has twice the density as Japan. Japan has some relatively low density islands like Hokkaido (22% of land, and 4.5% of the population).  I'm sure that the rail network density in central Japan far exceeds Switzerland.

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Japan and Switzerland also lead all other countries in terms of modal share (or percent of transport done by rail)

Japan 27% and  Switzerland 15.3%

Answer 2

Russia has the greatest railway mileage. Switzerland has the densest rail network of any country, i.e. largest rail mileage in proportion to size.

Great Britain has the second densest - it used to be top of the leage, but that was before Dr Beeching came along.