More than half of people in European countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden and the Czech Republic are at least semi-frequent users of their local rail services. This is according to a survey by Statista Consumer Insights. The highest share of people saying that they had ridden local trains in the 12 months prior to the survey was detected in Switzerland at 67 percent. Local rail use was also high in Asian locations like Singapore (56 percent), India (53 percent), Taiwan (50 percent) and Japan (47 percent) as well as in Australia (49 percent). Many of these places show a high degree of urbanization and transit development and some, like India, are known for their extensive rail networks.
Around a third of people said they had used local trains in France, Morocco and China. All three countries are well-known for having good high-speed rail capabilities, but local rail use was not as widespread. In the U.S., only 15 percent of people had ridden local trains in the past 12 months, comparable with results in Vietnam (17 percent), Brazil (17 percent), Nigeria (15 percent), Mexico (13 percent). Out of 53 countries, local train ridership was lowest in Colombia at just 8 percent.