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A railroad or railway is a guided means of land transport, designed for trains to use for transporting both passengers and freight. It consists of two parallel rails, usually made of steel, and wooden or concrete sleepers or ties that hold the rails exactly at the proper distance (the gauge) from each other. See Rail tracks
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Rail transport is also one of the safest modes of transport, and also makes a highly efficient use of space: a double tracked rail line can carry more passengers or freight in a given amount of time than a four-laned road.
As a result, rail transport is often the major form of public transport in many countries. In Asia, for example, many millions use trains as regular transport in India, South Korea, Japan, China, and elsewhere.
Commercially, railroads have had a mixed record. Most railroads and subways are highly subsidized and have never or rarely been profitable. For example, despite a well-developed network consisting of 4 grades of trains and a widespread subway network in Seoul and Pusan, Korean National Rail is a nationalized organization that has never come close to having receipts equal costs. Similarly, passenger rail in the US and many other countries is still dependent on government subsidies. Conversely, US freight railways have consolidated and become more efficient in their progress toward profitability. Japan East Railways has taken an innovative and creative marketing stance and have achieved profitability as a result.
Like other forms of public transport, railroads are having to make considerable investment in order to meet new requirements for security in the face of recent terrorism incidents.
Main Article: Rail transport operations
A rail transport system consists of several necessary elements, and should be viewed from a system-wide perspective. Some locomotives may be wonderfully aesthetic constructions, but they won't work unless they are given an appropriate system on which to run.
Firstly there is the geography onto which the permanent way is built. Next is the requirements of the system - what was it built for? For carrying freight, commuters, medium or long-distance travellers? Has that requirement changed over time and left the system to adapt?
As a result of this, what is the type of system. Is it lightLight rail is a particular class of urban and suburban passenger railway that utilizes equipment and infrastructure that is typically less massive than that used for metro systems and heavy railways. Light rail is the successor term to streetcars, trolley or heavy railThe term heavy rail is often used for regular railways, to distinguish from systems such as trams/ light rail and metro. Heavy rail typically refers to the standard inter-city rail network, which is built to be robust enough for heavy and high-speed train, high-speedThis page is about high speed rail in general. There is also the specific British High Speed Train. High-speed rail is public transport by rail with a possible speed above 200 km/h (125 miles per hour). Typically high speed trains travel at top service sp? To what gauge is it built? In a broader sense, rail transport includes monorailA monorail is a metro or railroad with a track consisting of a single rail (actually a beam), as opposed to the traditional track with two parallel rails. Monorail vehicles are wider than the beam they run on. Types and Technical Aspects There are two mai, rubber-tyred metros and maglevMaglev can refer to General Magnetic levitation Magnetic levitation trains., since the cars also run in a guided path. The term "guideway" describes the non-traditional modes.
#REDIRECT Train topics Trains require a propulsion mechanism: horses, or steam, diesel or electric locomotives. (The last of these options, the most energy efficient, requires electrification of the system).
To be electrified, a means of supplying electricity to the train is needed. This can be done with overhead wires or with a third rail system. The former is the more common method.
Depending on how much traffic they carry, railways can be built with a varying number of tracks. Rail lines that carry little traffic are often built with a single track which is used by trains traveling in both directions; on rail lines like these, "crossovers", "passing loops" or "passing sidings", which consist of short stretches of double track, are provided at certain points along the line to allow trains to pass each other, and travel in different directions. Alternatively, there may be larger sections of the line that are double track - effective timetabling can allow train travel up and down the partially double track line equivalent to travel on fully double tracks. Conversely, double tram track is sometimes intertwined at narrow passages (see Tram). Single-track lines are cheaper to build, but can only handle a limited amount of traffic.
On busier lines, two or more tracks are provided, one or more for each direction of travel. On very busy lines as many as eight tracks (four tracks in each direction) are used to handle large amounts of traffic.
With the advent of containerized freight in the 1960s, rail and ship transportation have become an integrated network that move bulk goods very efficiently with a very low labor cost. An example is that goods from east Asia that are bound for Europe will often be shipped across the Pacific and transferred to trains to cross North America and be transferred back to a ship for the Atlantic crossing.
Major cities often have metro and/or light rail/ tram systems. For a tram on the road the terms streetcar track or tram track are used, rather than railroad or railway. A tram with its own right-of-way is called a tramway.
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