Sri Lanka Railways

Sri Lanka Railway Department (former CGR – Ceylon Government Railway) is a key department of Sri Lankan Government under Ministry of Transport with a history that begins in 1858. Sri Lankan Government Railway operates five main routes linking Colombo - the commercial capital of Sri Lanka - and many locations including very remote areas.

Rail transport in Australia

Rail transport in Australia is to a large extent state-based. The Australian rail network consists of a total of 33,819 km of track of three major gauges, of which 2,540 km is electrified.[citation needed]

The majority of the Australian railway network infrastructure is government-owned, either at the federal or state level, except for a small number of private railways. The majority of railway operators were once state government agencies, but with privatisation in the 1990s, private companies now operate the majority of trains in Australia.

The Australian Federal Government has involvement in the formation of national policies, and provides funding for national projects.

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway (reporting mark CP), known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. Its rail network stretches from Vancouver to Montreal, and also serves major cities in the United States such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City. Its headquarters are in Calgary, Alberta.

The railway was originally built between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway. Now primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada. The CP company became one of the largest and most powerful in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975.[1] Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986 after being assumed by VIA Rail Canada in 1978. A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo because it is one of the national symbols of Canada and represents the hardworking character of the company. The object of both praise and condemnation for over 120 years, the CPR remains an indisputable icon of Canadian nationalism.
The Canadian Pacific Railway is a public company with over 15,000 employees and market capitalization of 7 billion USD in 2008.[2]

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway (reporting mark CN) is a Canadian Class I railway operated by the Canadian National Railway Company headquartered in Montreal, Quebec.

CN is the largest railway in Canada, in terms of both revenue and the physical size of its rail network and is currently Canada's only transcontinental railway company, spanning Canada from the Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast in British Columbia. Following CN's purchase of Illinois Central (IC) and a number of smaller US railways it also has extensive trackage in the central United States along the Mississippi River valley from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

The railway was referred to as the Canadian National Railways (CNR) between 1918 and 1960 and as Canadian National/Canadien National (CN) from 1960 to present.
The Canadian National Railway is a public company with 22,000 employees and market capitalization of 21 billion USD in 2008.[1]

Rail transport in Albania

The railways in Albania are administered by the national railway company Hekurudha Shqiptare (HSH) (which means Albanian Railways). It operates a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) gauge (standard gauge) rail system in Albania. All trains are hauled by Czech-built ČKD diesel-electric locomotives.

The country's first standard gauge line was not built until 1947, although some narrow gauge lines were built earlier. There is one international link, with Montenegro, which has only ever been used for freight traffic; although this line (from Shkodër to Podgorica) was severed in 1997, it was restored in 2002.

Armenian Railway

Armenian Railway is the national rail operator in Armenia. The 845 km (525 mi), 1,520 mm (4 ft 11⅞ in) gauge network is electrified at 3 kV DC.

The operating environment has deteriorated since the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to the World Bank, Armenian Railways is in dramatic need of investments, including replacement of rolling stock, rehabilitation of the main line between Yerevan and the Georgian border, renewal of electrification, and bridge reconstruction. Rail transport is slow and unreliable, and traffic remains low compared to European countries with similar network, amounting to only 2.6 million tons of freight and 0.85 million passengers in 2004.[1]

In 2007 the government called tenders for a 30-year concession to modernise and operate Armenian Railways, expecting to award a contract in 2008. RITES and Russian Railways qualified to bid, but the Indian company withdrew. RZD was the only bidder and has set up South Caucasian Railway as a subdiary to run the railway.[2] On the 1st of June 2008 South Caucasus Railways (SCR) has officially started business operations under a concession agreement to manage Armenian Railways. In this connection, by 1 June 2008, SCR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russian Railways, received property owned by Armenian Railways consisting of 2,000 freight cars, 58 passenger coaches, 85 locomotives and 30 electric trains. All 4,300 employees employed by Armenian Railways have retained their jobs. The concession agreement was concluded for 30 years, with a right of extension for another 20 years after the first 20 years of operation.[3]

German Railways

Deutsche Bahn AG (short DB AG, DBAG or DB) is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company (AG). It came into existence in 1994 as the successor of the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany. It also gained ownership of former railway assets in West Berlin held by the VdeR.

The second step of the Bahnreform was carried out in 1999. All rolling track, personnel and real assets were divided among the holding and the five principal subsidiaries of DBAG: DB Reise & Touristik AG (long distance passenger service, later renamed DB Fernverkehr AG), DB Regio AG (regional passenger services, in the course of the reform under charge of the federal states), DB Cargo AG (freight services, later changed to Railion AG), DB Netz AG (operating the railway system), and DB Station & Service AG (operating the stations). This new organisational scheme was not least introduced to implement the European Community directive 91/440/EEC that demands access to railway system free of discrimination.

The group is the largest German railway enterprise and one of the largest transport corporations in the world. About two billion passengers are served each year.

DBAG has taken over the abbreviation and logo DB from the West German state railway Deutsche Bundesbahn, although it has modernised the logo, which is occasionally called "Dürrkeks" (after Heinz Dürr, the first chairman of the DB AG), a play on words meaning "meagre biscuit", referring to its shape and the sans-serif font, especially when compared to the older, more rounded Bundesbahn logo.

Originally DBAG was headquartered in Frankfurt am Main but moved to Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin in 1996, where it is located in a 26-story office tower designed by Helmut Jahn, at the eastern end of the Sony Center and appropriately named BahnTower. As the lease expires in 2010, DB had announced plans to relocate to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, but these plans changed, as the decision was made to lease the BahnTower for at least three more years.[2] A move to Hamburg was briefly considered in 2005, but these plans were abandoned after political pressure.[3]