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their importance to quicker and more flexible facilities because of vast deserts and sparsely transport systems of airways and roadways. populated regions. In Russia, railways account for about 90 per cent of the country’s total transport with a very dense network west of the Urals. Moscow is the most important rail head with major lines radiating to different parts of the country’s vast geographical area. Underground railways and commuter trains are also important in Moscow. North America has one of the most extensive rail networks accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the world’s total? In contrast to many European countries, the railways are used more for long-distance bulky freight like ores, grains, timber and machinery than for passengers. The most dense rail network is found in the highly industrialised and Africa continent, despite being the urbanised region of East Central U.S.A. and second largest, has only 40,000 km of adjoining Canada. railways with South Africa alone accounting In Canada, railways are in the public for 18,000 km due to the concentration of gold, diamond and copper mining activities. sector and distributed all over the sparsely The important routes of the continent are: (i) populated areas. The transcontinental railways carry the bulk of wheat and coal tonnage. the Benguela Railway through Angola to Australia has about 40,000 km of Katanga-Zambia Copper Belt; (ii)the Tanzania railways, of which 25 per cent are found in New Railway from the Zambian Copper Belt to South Wales alone. The west-east Australian Dar-es-Salaam on the coast; (iii) the Railway through Botswana and Zimbabwe linking the National Railway line runs across the country landlocked states to the South African from Perth to Sydney. New Zealand’s railways are mainly in the North Island to serve the network; and (iv) the Blue Train from Cape farming areas. Town to Pretoria in the Republic of South In South America, the rail network is the Africa. Elsewhere, as in Algeria, Senegal, most dense in two regions, namely, the Pampas Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia, railway lines connect port cities to interior centres but do of Argentina and the coffee growing region of not form a good network with other countries. Brazil which together account for 40 per cent ofSouthAmerica’stotalroutelength. OnlyChile, among the remaining countries has a Trans–Continental Railways considerableroutelengthlinkingcoastalcentres withtheminingsitesintheinterior.Peru,Bolivia, Trans–continental railways run across the Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela have short continent and link its two ends. They were constructed for economic and political reasons single-track rail-lines from ports to the interito facilitate long runs in different directions. with no inter-connecting links. The following are the most important of these: There is only one trans-continental rail route linking Buenos Aires (Argentina) with Valparaiso (Chile) across the Andes Mountains Trans–Siberian Railway through the Uspallatta Pass located at a height This is a trans–siberian Railways major rail of 3,900 m. route of Russia runs from St. Petersburg in the In Asia, rail network is the most dense in west to Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast in the thethicklypopulatedareasofJapan,Chinaand east passing through Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk, India. Other countries have relatively few rail Irkutsk, Chita and Khabarovsk. It is the most routes. West Asia is the least developed in railimportantrouteinAsiaandthelongest(9,332km) 58 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2026-27