八○年代以前，交通體系長期以來是以鐵路為中心而發展的。在強調交通運輸大量、普遍的前提下，各國的國鐵被課以高度公共性的責任，也因而產生鐵路事業自然獨占的特徵。然而，隨著國鐵經營虧損問題日益嚴重，終而成為國家財政沉重負擔之時，各國紛紛探索解決之道，而民營化和水平分離，似乎就成為近年來世界先進國家所採行的重要改革方法。 　　在本文中，作者根據經營和事業型態，將目前先進國家所採行的國鐵改革方式予以類型化，分別整理介紹改革的背景、經過與內容，並分析事業特徵。最後得到如下的結論：先進國家為徹底解決國鐵虧損問題，終究都選擇民營化的改革方式，將原本賦予國鐵的公共（公）和企業性（私）的雙重特質予以明確區分，並進而解除對鐵路經營的管制，依照事業和區域特性進行水平分離，試圖強化鐵路事業經營的自主性和功能性，這些都是值得我國參考之處。然而，鐵路改革的同時，卻也產生未能減輕國家財政負擔，及不完全民營化的限制。

　　Before 80', the development of the transportation system was base on the railroad for a long time. On the prerequisite of the high load capacity and convenience, the government-run railroad institutes in every country have to take the responsibility for high commonality. It also results the feature of the natural-developed monopolization for the railroad business. However, as the deficit of the government-run railroad operation is getting worse, it is expected to become a heavy burden for the national finance. Every country starts to look for the method to solve this problem. Privatization and level separation have become the most important innovation methods for most advanced countries in these years. 　　In this article, the author categorized the innovation methods for the government-run railroad business, presently adopted by all advanced countries, according to the operation and business types. He introduced the background of this innovation, the process and analysis of the business features and then obtained the result as the conclusion below: For most advanced countries, in order to completely solve the deficit problem of the government-run railroad business, they all chose privatization at last. It clearly discriminates the commonality and enterprise character that originally added to the government-run railroad and releases the limits to the operation of the railroad business, and then level separates them according to the business and region features and tries to strengthen the self-domination and function of the railroad business operation. There are the points worth referring for us. However, when proceeding the railroad innovation, the problem that it cannot relieve the national financial burden and release the limits to un-fully privatization will simultaneously occur.