Short answers, pulled from the story.
Russia's active railway network spans 92,000 kilometers, of which 48,000 km are electrified. It ranks third in the world by total length, after the United States and China, and is the largest in Europe, ahead of Germany and France.
JSC Russian Railways holds a 98.6% market share in long-distance travel as of 2017. Independent carriers including Grand Service Express TC, Tverskoy Express, the Sakhalin Passenger Company, and the Yakutian Railway share the remainder.
The Tsarskoye Selo Railway opened in 1837, covering just 27 km, making it one of Russia's earliest lines. By 1862, the Saint Petersburg-Warsaw Railway had extended the network to 1,116 km.
Coal and coke account for almost one-third of all freight on Russian railways, with average hauls of around 1,500 km. Ferrous metals make up another 10% of freight traffic and average over 1,900 km per journey.
The majority of Russia's rail network uses 1,520 mm Russian gauge, shared by metro and most tram systems in the country. The Sakhalin Railway used a 1,067 mm Cape gauge until 2019, when it was converted to the 1,520 mm standard.
Russian Railways operates the Armenian Railway under a concession running until 2038, with at least 570 million euro in planned investment. It also participates in Trans-Eurasia Logistics, a joint venture running container freight trains between Germany and China through Russian territory.