This Country Has The Most High-Speed Rail Mileage In The World
Whether it's environmental activists or public transportation enthusiasts, there's quite the vocal crowd urging the United States to build more high-speed rail transportation. Currently, the U.S. only has 735 km (about 457 miles) of high-speed rail actively in operation. Another 274 km (170 miles) are under construction, with an additional 5,062 km (3,145 miles) planned for the future. High-speed rail is a far more efficient method of transportation than airplanes and automobiles, so installing more of these rail lines across the country would be a huge environmental benefit. However, the United States falls way behind other countries with the amount of high-speed rail currently in use.
The true king of high-speed rail is China, which opened its first line in 2008. Not only does it currently offer the most total mileage of high-speed rail of any country in the world, it has more than twice as much rail as the next 10 countries combined. China's lines extend for 40,474 km (nearly 25,150 miles) to stretch across the country's nearly 9.6 million sq km (nearly 3.7 million sq mi) surface area. China also has over 13,000 km of high-speed rail under construction, and another 11,238 km are planned for the future. In 2024, these lines accounted for 3.3 billion passenger trips, making up nearly 76% of all train travel in China. The most popular line connects Beijing and Shanghai, which opened in 2011 and can cover 1,318 km (819 miles) in under four and a half hours at its fastest. China also operates the two fastest high-speed trains in the world, so it's certainly found an efficient way to transport people.
Other countries with a lot of high-speed rail
The country with the second-most mileage of operational high-speed rail is Spain, which offers 3,661 km (about 2,275 miles). That's significantly less than China, but when you consider that Spain's surface area is nearly 506,000 sq km (slightly over 195,000 sq mi) – about 5 percent of China's area — the disparity makes sense. Spain uses about 9 percent of the high-speed track that China uses, which means that Spain is overdelivering when you compare the surface areas of the two countries. Spain also has 1,055 km under construction with another 863 km planned for the future.
The country with the third-most high-speed rail mileage is probably the country most commonly associated with high-speed rail: Japan. The Shinkansen trains (or "bullet trains" as they are commonly known) are arguably the most famous in the world, notably spotlighted in the 2022 action film "Bullet Train" with Brad Pitt. Japan currently has 3,081 km (about 1,914 miles) in active use with another 402 km under construction to cover the country's nearly 378,000 sq km (146,000 mi) surface area. Despite the shorter overall distance in Japan, the Shinkansen trains service far more passengers per year than Spain. In 2022, 295 million people rode Shinkansen lines, and that number goes up every year. In comparison, Spain had just 40 million passengers in 2024.
India also has plans for high-speed rail. Although it features no active high-speed rail as of this writing, 508 km are under construction with an additional 7,479 km planned for the future. If achieved, this would vault it to second place in the world.