Railroad capital of the world?

[ChicagoSkyline]

Which city is it? and Why is it the railroad capital(freight & commuter rail)


As you can see, freight for american just as important as the commuter to japanese. Americans are big consumers and what better, cheaper and safer way to bring tons and tons of comsumer products near you than utilizing our freight rail network. For us the American, we think railroad isn't just merely making up by commuting rails, the freight rail part of integral just as important if not vital for our economy and infrastrctures.
Once again, you can show us how congestive, intensive, much passengers handle, how much faster the commuter technology is right....and then trying to omit the freight part of railroad.
At the end of day, the only real "Railroad capital of the world" is the city/cities that has fully utilized BOTH(commuter & freight rails) day in and day out.

All of info for each candidates that I have seem so far. Sum it up:
Chicago-commuter & freight(Freight being the complete dominant while commuter rail isn't far behind)

Paris-commuter & freight(Thanks for the google satillite links, I think that it also has huge emphasis on both area as well)

Tokyo-commuter(I would think that it is easily the "commuter" capital of the world)

London-commuter(I seem some of its commuter map and it also has complex commuter system)

What I am still waiting for are the freight rails related info, pics and satellite shots that can prove the candidates aren't just commuter oriented but also has good fair amount of freight oriented network. Hopeful, we can all come to a final educated result!

For example:

I think Chicago is a good candidate:
Chicago's freight rail network:






Some of the chicago's largest freight railroad yards from satellites:
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&om=1&ll=....06377,0.11673
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&om=0&ll=...15908,0.029182
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&om=0&ll=...15896,0.029182
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&om=0&ll=...15971,0.029182
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&om=1&ll=...15988,0.029182
http://maps.google.com/?t=k&om=1&ll=...15988,0.029182






Chicago's commuter rail network:

Metra commuter rail yards:



Amtrak commuter rail yards:






Scroll---------------------->also look at how many huge railroad yards for freights, easy to spot, all over the city!







For some people who think chicago commuter rail is only within the city like the CTA and L....think again, it commuter rail network isn't as bad as other top commuter rail cities!
As matter of fact, it is now extending furthur away to connect the distant suburban travlers into chicago by rail!



Some Chicago commuter rail:

Our very own "L"(Loop)



CTA(Metro)







Chicago Metra(Metro and suburub):




















Chicago Amtrak(Regional):









chicago subway!

[Jue]

Tokyo is by far the world's rail capital. The rail system there drives me bananas with envy.

[Manila-X]

Tokyo is one of them but not THE rail capital. There are other like New York or London. Paris as well.

[Jue]

Originally Posted by WANCH

Tokyo is one of them but not THE rail capital. There are other like New York or London. Paris as well.

Tokyo has vastly more people, and therefore passengers. It's nuts. Trust me.

[Frog]

tokyo is the mecca for railfans , personally i find london more interesting

[persian]

Tokyo

[DonQui]

Definitely Tokyo. Followed by London. Perhaps followed by New York but only because of size, as IMO Paris has a better quality.

1) Tokyo
2) London
3) New York
4) Paris

[Minato ku]

Tokyo has more stations more lines and traffic than Paris but Tokyo has only national and suburban and urban traffic.

Paris has only 6 big railway stations with International , national and suburban traffic

London railways stations have international traffic but less than Paris.

[hkskyline]

European cities tend to have a larger assortment of rail infrastructure. New York has a large subway network, but its regional rail network takes up far less space compared to London or Paris.

[DonQui]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

European cities tend to have a larger assortment of rail infrastructure. New York has a large subway network, but its regional rail network takes up far less space compared to London or Paris.

????????

Our commuter rail network is composed of a couple dozzen lines that spread out as far as 150 km from Manhattan!

So, if you are talking about extension by "far less space" you are wrong!

[acela]

What about Switzerland?

[Momo1435]

Zürich is the train capital of Switserland. It's not the quantity but the quality that makes it even one of the rail capitals of the world. It has lots of international connections, it's the hart of the Swiss IC network, has a good urban/suburban railsystem (S-Bahn) and an excellent tramwaysystem. All with the perfect Swiss precision.

If you want quality and not so much quantity then Zürich is the railway capital of the world!

[Nick]

In terms of lines,numbers,types of trains and the sheer coverage of it all then there is no other city.

TOKYO

Ive lived in London,been to New York once,Paris 4 times and have been to other worthy rail cities like Berlin,Madrid,Barcelona, and other cities of similar size all over North America,Europe,Oceana and Aisa.

They all seem insignificant compared to Tokyo's huge JR system,its subways and the countless private rail companies running the suburban trains,monorails,light rails,other subwaysMonorails and other wonderful forms of rail travel

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by DonQui

????????

Our commuter rail network is composed of a couple dozzen lines that spread out as far as 150 km from Manhattan!

So, if you are talking about extension by "far less space" you are wrong!

Rail travel is far more prevalent in Europe than in North America. You can actually travel on Network Rail from Scotland all the way into London, and numerous companies run commuter routes into London's railway stations that share tracks with these regional routes. Their far wider coverage is quite evident when viewing their network maps alone.

London Network Rail : http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/lon_con.pdf

[DonQui]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Rail travel is far more prevalent in Europe than in North America. You can actually travel on Network Rail from Scotland all the way into London, and numerous companies run commuter routes into London's railway stations that share tracks with these regional routes. Their far wider coverage is quite evident when viewing their network maps alone.

You don't think I know that Europe has better rail coverage than North America as a whole?

But this thread is more about railroad capital CITIES, not COUNTRIES.

And you can take the train from Maine all the way to Florida, a whopping 2000 km+ so

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by DonQui

You don't think I know that Europe has better rail coverage than North America as a whole?

But this thread is more about railroad CAPITALS, not COUNTRIES.

And you can take the train from Main all the way to Florida, a whopping 2000 km+

London is a far bigger railroad junction than New York due to the significant number of interegional rail lines terminating in one of London's many railway stations even though both cities have a similar size subway system. This is heavily influenced by the national railroad strategy.

[Castle_Bravo]

London
Frankfurt
Tokyo

[Alargule]

Amsterdam, of course!

[Isaac Newell]

Depends what you mean. Do you include freight ? if you do then Chicago must be up for consideration. Moscow must also be in the running as it is the centre of a large passenger and freight network as is Beijing, Shanghai and Delhi.

[FM 2258]

Canada, U.S. and Mexico have pretty interesting looking freight trains.