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International passenger- and freight-rail traffic continued to grow in many parts of the world in 2007, according to statistics recently released by the International Union of Railways (UIC). The growth can be attributed to economic and demographic developments, and the globalization of trade links.

On the passenger-rail side, the Indian Railways and Chinese Railways posted growth rates of 12.9 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively, with each railroad recording almost 435 billion passenger-miles last year. Passenger traffic grew more than 10 percent in the United Kingdom, and between 1.5 percent and 2 percent in Europe and Japan. Although Russian Railways recorded a traffic decline of 2.4 percent, it was hard for the railroad to best a stellar 2006, during which it posted 4 percent growth.

Meanwhile, freight-rail traffic in China, Russia and India rose more than 7 percent in 2007. And after increasing 4 percent in 2006, European freight-rail traffic grew another 1 percent. However, U.S. freight-rail traffic fell 1 percent in 2007 after rising 3 percent in 2006.