Answer the questions

1. What were the distinguishing characteristics of American Railways in the early 1990s?

2. In what part of the USA the web of the railways much more dense?

3. How many Class 1 railroads are there today ?

4. What is the percentage of the Class 1 Railroad staff?

5. Where is the centre of Metrolink commuter trains?

6. Which one is more profitable 31Class or Regional Railways?

7. What is Amtrak’s subsidizer?

8. How much will it cost to build tracks for high speed trains, which are to connect link major cities of California?

9. Are American freight railways the same as the other ones in Europe?

10. Why was the Alameda Corridor opened?

Deutsche Bahn (German Railways)

Due to its central situation in Europe the volume of traffic, especially of goods transit, in Germany is very high.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) is the German national railway, a private joint stock company which operates passenger and freight transport services, carrying some 1.94 billion passengers and some 415 million tons of freight a year.

DB operates more than 31.000 train runs daily on its approximately 34.000 km-long, modern rail network. All of Germany’s big cities are connected to each other within several hours’ train ride, and since all main railway stations (Hauptbahnhof) are located in the city centers, you can get off the train in the middle of town. This saves you the time of travelling from airports that lie just outside a big city. In fact, if you are travelling less than 500 km. (310 miles) within Europe, railroad travel usually offers time advantages in comparison to air travel. Germany easily has one of the world's best and most efficient passenger rail systems. There aren't many places that it doesn't get to, and the trip will be comfortable, economical, and punctual. Europe in general has a high utilization of trains, and Germany is especially reliant on them. Other than the automobile, rail is by far the most common means of transportation.

Although there are a few independent regional rail lines, the main passenger rail system in Germany is the Deutsche Bahn (DB, or GermanRail), also known colloquially as «Die Bahn». Over 4.5 million people a day use the DB's 29.000 trains serving over 5.500 stations along 35.000 km of track. The Deutsche Bahn was formerly a government corporation but now is completely privatized (although it is still owned entirely by the government.) It was created from the old West German Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways) and East German Reichsbahn (Imperial Railways). Connections between the former eastern and western halves of the country have been upgraded and expanded, and high-speed lines now reach all of the major eastern cities. Nearly all of the roadbed in the eastern part of the nation has either been upgraded or junked. The DB was developing the world's first magnetic-levitation passenger train line between Berlin and Hamburg, but it was cancelled due to a number of political issues. But another maglev line, connecting Munich's central station and airport, is now being considered.

The InterCity express or ICE is a type of high-speed train operated by DB in Germany and neighbouring countries, for example to Zurich, Switzerland or Vienna, Austria. ICE trains also serve Amsterdam (The Netherlands) as well as Liege and Brussels (Belgium). In spite of branch lines progressively being closed for at least the last seven decades, the rail network throughout Germany is still very extensive and provides excellent services in most areas. On regular lines, at least one train every two hours will call even in the smallest of villages. The quality of rail service differs from state to state, generally being better in the South. Some states and regions have been pioneering the reopening of closed branch lines (notably Rhineland-Palatinate) or the interconnection of tramway and overland rail networks (e. g. around Karlsruhe).