Countries all over the world are generally aware of the advantages of railway transportation, such as large transportation capacity and low energy consumption. They begin to put importance or put more importance on railway development, and attempt to make the comprehensive transportation system more accessible and improve its effect of energy saving and environmental protection through railway development.

(1) Continuously improve the quality of conventional railway network by building new lines and updating the existing ones
Since 2000, countries invested money in building new railway lines and upgrading the existing ones in order to improve the quality of conventional railway infrastructure and the quality and efficiency of railway transportation services.

Developed countries develop their conventional railways mainly by upgrading the existing lines to improve the transportation capacity and operation efficiency. Currently, developed countries such as Japan, Germany, France, and the United States with good conventional railway networks mainly actively expand the collection and distribution capacity of hubs and improve the service efficiency of the existing railway networks to meet the needs of large-flow travel between metropolitan areas and important cities and transportation of key freight corridors. Therefore, updating and upgrading will predominate in the future development of conventional railways.

Developing countries attach equal importance to building new railways and upgrading railway networks in order to open up important corridors and break bottlenecks to transportation. In order to meet the vast need of economic and social development for railway transportation, developing countries with relatively underdeveloped railway networks mainly build new railways and upgrade railway networks simultaneously to get rid of restrictions on capacity of key passenger and freight corridors, so as to open up important corridors and improve the transportation capacity in a short period of time at relatively low costs. Representative countries include Russia and India.

Some countries in important regions along the "Belt and Road" make efforts to develop international lines and realize regional connectivity. Some countries such as Kazakhstan and Laos that have relatively underdeveloped railways and are located in important regions along the "Belt and Road" make their railway planning mainly focusing on the development of international railways in order to realize better regional connectivity, integrate in the international market and revitalize the regional economy.

(2) Network-oriented and global-oriented development of High Speed Railways (HSRs) and express railways
With the sustained development of the national economy and the people's living standards, people's travel demand and consumption proportion grow significantly. HSRs and express railways have advantages of being fast, safe, reliable, cost effective, energy saving, environment friendly, and having high carrying capacity and so many countries attach importance to such railways. The planning and construction of HSRs and express railways of major countries reflect the trend of network-oriented development. Countries are trying to provide quality transportation services for passengers and improve railway operation efficiency by expanding the coverage of HSRs and express railways.

Traditional HSR countries build their HSR networks. Some pilot HSR countries are building their HSR networks. In Europe, HSRs broke through national boundaries and achieved inter-country connectivity. In order to consolidate and maintain their leading position in the HSR field and to better meet the demand for passenger transportation between big cities, traditional HSR countries such as Japan, Germany, and France are further promoting the construction and improvement of HSR networks.

More and more emerging countries join the HSR development. In addition to the above-mentioned traditional HSR countries, more and more other countries across the world actively join the HSR development, including emerging HSR countries such as the United States and Russia and countries without HSR such as Kazakhstan and India.

Express railway network becomes an important choice for countries to improve their passenger transportation efficiency. In order to meet people's need for fast and comfortable travel, some countries such as Germany and Russia have put forward plans to construct vast express railway networks.

(3) The freight railway development focuses on heavy haul transportation and freight corridor construction
Heavy haul transportation represents the advanced productivity in freight railway transportation and has become a popular mode of freight transportation in many countries. In addition, many countries are planning to build domestic freight corridors and are promoting the development of international freight corridors in order to facilitate the material flow and economic development along the corridors. 

Heavy haul transportation is an important direction of development of freight railway transportation. Heavy haul railway transportation emerged in the world in the 1950s. In the middle and late 1960s, heavy haul transportation made substantial progress and delivered a high productivity. The demand for bulk cargo transportation also drives the sustainable development of heavy haul railway transportation. Heavy haul railway provides the safest, most effective and environment friendly freight transportation mode for the world. Now, heavy haul transportation is applied in more and more countries. Heavy haul trains run not only in vast continental countries such as the United States and Russia but also on traditional passenger and freight mixed trunk railways (mainly used for passenger services) in European countries such as Germany. In the field of railway network infrastructure, most countries improve their heavy haul transportation capacity and boost the further development of heavy haul railway transportation by upgrading railway freight infrastructure.

Many countries actively plan and construct important freight corridors. In order to meet the needs of economic and social development, some countries actively build freight corridors mainly in the following three forms: 1. Countries such as India propose plans to build new large-scale freight corridors and freight dedicated lines; 2. Countries such as the United States make efforts to improve the performance of freight corridors; 3. Countries such as France actively open up cross-border freight corridors and links with other freight transportation modes.