Japan has one of the world s most closely knit networks covering 27 311 km 16 970 miles However trains by now only play a subordinate role in long dis tance freight transportation From 1965 until today the proportion of tons hauled per kilometer dropped from 31 to 5 coastal shipping currently accounts for 44 trucks for 50 By contrast in passenger transportation which is privately organized like freight transportation the rail road is the backbone of both urban and interurban service In 1964 the first route exclusively used by high speed trains was officially opened between Tokyo and Osaka Ex perts regard the Japanese railroad system as the best in the world The tolerance in the departure time of the Shink ansen high speed train is exactly five seconds the stop ping position at the track in the station is supposed to be reached with an accuracy of one centimeter 0 4 inches In 1930 an incredible 690 000 km 429 000 miles of train tracks tra versed the United States Today it s 200 000 km 125 280 miles which still keeps the U S at the top of the world s ranking More than in other countries the railroad lost market share to the road and commercial aviation after the Second World War espe cially in the passenger transportation sector In 1910 the railroad accounted for 95 of the market share in pas senger transportation compared to 1 today However in freight transportation the railroad has been making up ground again in recent years now accounting for a remarkable 40 of the market share which is twice as much as in the EU The advantage in the United States is that freight trains can be almost infinitely long due to the low utilization of the tracks by passenger trains A U S train on average hauls 3 000 metric tons 3 300 short tons ten times more than in the EU Accordingly the costs of one ton kilometer on a U S freight train are low compared with 20 cents on a truck EU 11 14 cents RAIL INTERNATIONAL JAPAN In India the railroad has tradi tionally been one of the most im portant means of transportation In 1832 the first train was operated there In 1950 the railroad network had grown to an amazing 54 000 km 21 300 miles Today it covers some 67 000 km 41 600 miles in fourth place in the world ranking behind the United States China and Russia While the railroad net work in the past six decades has grown by only 23 the number of passenger kilometers due to higher incomes and growing urbanization has seen a massive increase by 1 624 The freight tons have increased tenfold due to growing industrialization That s why rail transpor tation often surpasses the capacity limits especially in the densely populated north The government and the state owned Indian Railway with 1 3 million workers the country s biggest employer and eighth biggest in the world have recognized the problem and are counteract ing it by reshaping this sector and a capital expenditure program of several billion dollars INDIA USA Along with the country s economic reform and modernization starting at the end of the 1970s rail transpor tation in China began to experience an upswing as well Initially transportation on the existing tracks increased and from the turn of the millennium on the network was massively expanded as well from 50 000 to 150 000 km 31 000 to 93 000 miles today For freight transportation this is still not enough Many routes are so heavily utilized that in recent years more and more cargo migrated from rail to road Between 1963 and today the proportion of rail transportation in long distance cargo shipping shrunk from 75 to 20 That China attaches great importance to rail transportation of freight is also evident in the New Silk Road mega infrastructure project with rail connec tions all the way to Europe The expansion of the high speed train network is another large scale project Cover ing a distance of more than 11 000 km 6 800 miles it s already longer than that of the entire rest of the world By 2025 it s planned to grow to 38 000 km 23 600 miles Schaeffler benefits from the growth of the railroad sector in China as well The technology group deployed initial axlebox bearings there as early as in the 1980s Today Schaeffler is an important development partner for high speed local and freight rail applications with local devel opment manufacturing and service know how CHINA in motion 43

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