Anyone arriving on an Amtrak passenger train at Union Station in Washington, DC sees evidence of the world’s railway boom. The trains arriving from Boston, New York and Philadelphia are fuller than ever in publicly owned Amtrak’s 38-year history. Downstairs in Union Station’s metro stop, the trains are full for much of the day and then, during the night, long freight trains run by CSX, the US east coast’s largest freight railroad, rumble through downtown Washington’s empty commuter stations, a reminder of the growth in most forms of rail freight over recent years.
The boom is still more obvious in Asian cities such as Taipei, the Taiwanese capital. Smart new Japanese-built Shinkansen high-speed trains have captured significant market share from airlines for the journey between Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second city, in the island’s south. At Jawaharlal Nehru Port, near Mumbai on India’s west coast, rail brings and hauls away an increasing share of the containers heading to and from inland India.
