table
Given is a table comparing the usage of rail means of transportation throughout the year 2007 in four countries, namely the UK, the USA, Japan and Italy.
It can be noted from the graph that Japan had the highest proportion of the population who travelled by rail, which accounted for 27 millions of people. The UK and Italy showed similar tendencies, with the rates of 5.9 and 5.5 millions respectively. The lowest quantity of commuters preferred trains in the USA, with a minor 0.3 millions of people only.
When it comes to the distance of travelling, Japan also occupied the first place. It had the longest average journey per person, which comprised almost 2000 kilometres per capita. Interestingly enough, the figures for the UK and Italy almost coincide again, reaching approximately eight hundred kilometres per inhabitant. The citizens of the United States of America travelled the least – only 80 kilometres each.
The last factor is the amount of cargo transported with the help of a railway system. The UK, Japan and Italy demonstrated similar statistics, with 22,2, 23.01 and 21.9 billions of tons accordingly. The USA, alternatively, showed very low rates; an overall weight of the cargo transported accounted for about 2,800 billions of tons.
Overall, it can be pointed out that amongst the four states, rail transport is used more intensively both by people and for logistics’ purposes in Japan.