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Concept
Rail transport
Summary
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles (rolling stock) are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Tracks usually consist of steel rails.Rolling stock in a rail transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, so passenger and freight cars (carriages and wagons) can be coupled into longer trains. The operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway electrification system or produce their own power, usually by diesel engines or, historically, steam engines. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system. Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo use and energy efficiency, but is often less flexible and more capital-intensive than road transport, when lower traffic levels are considered.
The oldest known, man/animal-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC in Corinth, Greece. Rail transport resumed in mid 16th century in Germany in the form of horse-powered funiculars and wagonways. Modern rail transport began with a British steam locomotive in 1802. The Locomotion No. 1 became the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, and the first public inter-city railway line, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830.
Steam engines brought mainline railways, a key component of the Industrial Revolution. Shipping cost less, and fewer goods were lost, than in water transport. The change from canals to railways allowed for "national markets" in which prices varied little from city to city.
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