List of Popular Countries That Don’t Have Trains | Healthy Mind — Think Big

So, You grab a coffee and get on the morning train to find yourself at your office desk an hour later. This is the everyday routine for millions of people across the world. But there are countries where this simply isn’t possible — they have no trains!

01. ICELAND:

If you ever decide to visit the land of fire and ice, geysers, volcanoes, elves, and horses with cute bangs (really?), don’t expect to travel across the island in a train; there’s no public railway network in the country. In fact, there were some attempts to build railways here in the early 1900s to connect Reykjavik, the capital city, to Selfoss, the largest town in South Iceland. But they decided roads would be sufficient. The more successful project was the railway within the City of Reykjavík, where two locomotives transported rocks from the quarry to the harbor. You can now see them at local museums. There was also a functioning farm railway at a dairy farm on the outskirts of Reykjavík in the 1930s. The train was used to carry goods around the property but was abandoned some years later. So, why doesn’t Iceland have railroads?

There are three reasons: the harsh climate, the small population, and their love of cars, which are the number one means of transportation in the country. Since there are more and more tourists coming to Iceland, the road from the airport is getting busier and busier. So an idea has been introduced to build a high-speed Lava Express connecting Keflavík International Airport and Reykjavík. It’s still unclear if it’ll get enough funding though.

02. BHUTAN:

Halfway across the world is the country that measures its “gross national happiness”, and whose temperatures are much higher than in Iceland. Still, there’s no railway network in Bhutan. This time, it all boils down to money. If you look at a map of Bhutan, you’ll see mostly mountains and hills. Building railways here would mean digging tunnels and constructing high bridges. That’s one super-expensive project. Plus, the nearly 1 million people living in the country aren’t evenly spread out, and most of them are constantly migrating. So the money invested in the construction and maintenance of the railroad wouldn’t pay off. Just like in Iceland, there are plans to build a railway network connecting southern Bhutan to India, but funding is still an open question.

03. ANDORRA:

Andorra is a microstate located in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. You’ll have to arrive at one of the local ski resorts with all your gear by car or bus from neighboring countries. But don’t let “micro” trick you into thinking its small size is to blame for its lack of railways. Even Vatican City, the smallest country in the world, has its railway, which is less than a mile long. In fact, Andorra and Bhutan have one thing in common — mountainous terrain. That’s why there aren’t, and never have been, railways here. In 2004, there was a plan to build an elevated cable metro system called ‘Metro Aeri’, but it was never brought to life.

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