Rail transport in Delongo

Rail transport is an important mode of long-distance transportation in the PDRD. As of 2020, the country has 100,000 km of railways, one of the largest networks in the world. By the end of 2018, Delongo had 42,000 kilometres of high-speed rail (HSR), the longest HSR network in the world (all operated and managed by Express Rail).

Almost all rail operations are handled by the Ministry of Transportation of the People's Ministry (i.e. they are mostly federally owned and maintained). The main exception are municipally owned and operated public transit (e.g. the Urban Blix Underground, the New London Underground and Aboveground, the Rupertland Metropolitan, etc.).

Delongo's railways are among the busiest in the world. In 2019, railways in Delongo delivered 2.357 billion passenger trips, generating 1,160.48 billion passenger-kilometres and carried 2.813 billion tonnes of freight, generating 2,153 billion cargo tonne-kilometres. Freight traffic turnover has increased more than fivefold over the period 1980-2020 and passenger traffic turnover has increased more than seventeenfold over the same period. Driven by need to increase freight capacity, the railway network has expanded with the country budgeting $130.4 billion for railway investment in 2014, and has a long term plan to double the network to 205,000 km by 2050.

The major operators of Delongonian rail transport are two divisions of the Ministry of Transportation: Express Rail (stylized e>>>, providing national and international passenger services) and the Delongo National Rail Group (DNRG, responsible for all freight transportation by rail in the nation). Both groups operate totally different rail networks. In 2020, it was announced that certain freight would be permitted on the Express Rail network, but only freight originating from Europe. These operations will be carried out by the DNRG in cooperation with Express, and will mostly be at night and exclusively on the East Coast. All cargo intended for the West Coast will need to be moved at facilities in Sé, Chiclayo, the Urban Matewood Area, or Nimbus Calc.

Formerly train services and networks were owned and operated by CN Rail, Canadian Pacific (CP), and the privately-owned Blix Regional Railway (BRR), but these were nationalised and transferred to DNRG in 2011. This included certain stations including the famous Grand Appalachionic station in Blix. The competing Blix Regional Railway (BRR) filed for bankruptcy in 1989 due to the Great Blix Depression. Many BRR routes were converted to high speed rail by Express Rail in the early 2010s. BRR included the famous Soleil/Nockley - Blix Mall station, then operated by Via Rail.