COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2019
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3.2. RAIL T RANSPORT
Rail transportation had been the major transport mode especially for most of inland cities for
decades. However, expanding network of roads and improvements in aircraft and road vehicle
technology increased the stiff competition from air and road transport. As a result, rail transport
has become more freight-oriented over time. Today, rail passenger operations are in general
financially viable only at some high-speed and commuter lines whereas other rail passenger
lines are generally subsidized by the governments.
Figure 9 gives the rail network density (the length of rail network divided by the area of the
country) of the OIC countries. Again, there is a large variation in the density of rail networks in
the different OIC countries. Almost all OIC countries (except Djibouti, Azerbaijan, Tunisia,
Bangladesh, Albania, Turkey, Syria, and Pakistan) have fewer than 1,000 km of rail lines per
100,000 km2 land area, while almost half of the OIC countries have no railway network. Djibouti
with its 781 km of rail lines has the highest rail network density, i.e. 3,369 km per 100,000 km2,
among the OIC countries due to its relatively small land area. In comparison, Kazakhstan, with
its 14,329 km rail length, which ranks it top among the OIC countries, has only a density of 531
km per 100,000 km2, due to its very large land area. Average network density of the OIC
countries is equal to 426 km of railway per 100,000 km2 land area, which accounts almost half
of that of developing economies, which averages at 740 km.