The city's railways carried 34.05 million passengers and generated 9.7 billion passenger-km in 2017, up 9.1 percent and 48.2 percent year on year, respectively.

At present, Jinan is developing two major transport routes –– a vertical one and a horizontal one, namely, the Beijing-Shanghai Railway and the Jinan-Qingdao Railway, which are mainly composed of high-speed railways and fast railways (including the "Belt and Road" Railway Freight Corridor) and serve as the main freight transport channels for Jinan city.

The "vertical" route involves the Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, Jinan-Tai'an Intercity Railway, Jinan-Laiwu Intercity Railway, Tai'an-Qufu Intercity Railway, and Huxi Railway, while the "horizontal" route includes Jiaoji railway (Qingdao-Jinan), Handan-Jinan railway, Jinan-Qingdao high-speed railway and Zhengzhou-Jinan high-speed railway.

Jinan's "Belt and Road" Railway Freight Corridor is mainly used by the China-Europe freight train service, which starts from Russia, runs through Belarus and Poland, before terminating in Germany.