While the former Soviet Union got a late (and slow) start with rail electrification in 1926 it eventually became the world leader in electrification in terms of the volume of traffic under the wires. During its last 30 years the Soviet Union hauled about as much rail freight as all the other countries in the world combined and in the end, over 60% of this was by electric locomotives. Electrification was cost effective due to the very high density of traffic and was at times projected to yield at least a 10% return on electrification investment (to replace diesel traction). By 1990, the electrification was about half 3 kV DC and half 25 kV AC 50 Hz and 70%[1] of rail passenger-km was by electric railways.
| Year | 1940 | 1945 | 1950 | 1955 | 1960 | 1965 | 1970 | 1975 | 1980 | 1988 | 1991 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrified at DC, Mm (Megametres) | 1.8 | 2.0 | - | 5.3 | 12.4 | 17.0 | 21.4 | 24.0 | 26.0 | 27.3 | |
| Electrified at 25 kv AC, Mm (Megametres) | 0 | 0 | - | 0.1 | 1.4 | 8.0 | 12.5 | 14.8 | 17.7 | 25.5 | |
| Total Electrified Mm (Megametres) | 1.8 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 5.4 | 13.8 | 24.9 | 33.9 | 38.9 | 43.7 | 52.9 | 54.3 |
| % of Rail Network | 1.8 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 11.0 | 19.0 | 25.0 | 28.1 | 30.8 | 36.1 | |
| % of Rail Freight (in tonne-km) | 2.0 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 8.4 | 21.8 | 39.4 | 48.7 | 51.6 | 54.6 | 63.1 |
- ^ a b For 1991 see РИА Новости (RIA News; RIA=Russian Information Agency) 29.08.2004 section Экономика (Economics): "Исполняется 75 лет электрификации железных дорог России" (75th anniversary of electrification of railways in Russia)
- ^ Ицаев table 1.2, p.30. Исаев uses the term "перевозочная робота" (transportation work) to mean tonne-km of freight since the same data as in his table 1.2 is also found in table 4 of Димитриев (p. 43) where it is more precisely labeled as "грузообороте" which unambiguously translates into tonne-km of freight. For 1950 total see Дмитриев table 4., p. 43; but its fails to differentiate by AC or DC resulting in blanks in the table.