RailRoad Industry

RailRoad Industry

In the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, horses were used as transportation medium. The use of horse to carry material and people across the roads meant a long and painful ride for both the traveler and the owner of the goods. The cost of transportation was limiting growth, and there was a need for a low cost way to transport goods. In the 1800s, canals were human made artificial waterways, with improvements to natural rivers meant for the transport of raw material. By 1750 there were 1400 miles of navigable waterways and canals were an obvious addition. New canals were built in England turning the cost of coal by half. Canals made the cost of transportation faster and cheaper. Coal became more affordable; mines could supply more of their product. Canals became the major form of infrastructure that linked cities around the world. The steam engine helped supply coal mines and factories with power. Although transport by water was cheap it was a slow process, and had to endure harsh weather conditions. Besides the size of the canals will limit the size of boats that use them. Originally intended as a way of transportation for coal in mines, Railways appeared as an option to water and eventually developed as a means of transportation for people as well as raw material. Canals transport had to cut their wages to compete, both falling dramatically. The load of transport from canals dropped by 2/3s, and some canals struggled to compete. The steam engine, patented by James Watt, was key to the development of a train system. A Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of the power in the 18th and 19th centuries. Eventually, steam gave way to electricity. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways and rapid transit systems came into being. Starting during the 1940s the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. A growing long distance category is high-speed rail, which runs at speeds above 200 km/h. Japan’s Shinkansen[49] (“bullet-train”) commenced operation in 1964, and was the first successful example of a high speed passenger rail system. The highest speed currently attained in scheduled revenue operation is 350 km/h on the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Rail and Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway systems in China. France’s TGV, Germany’s Inter-City Express and Spain’s AVE are other examples. In most cases, high-speed rail travel is time- and cost-competitive with air travel for distances that do not exceed 500 to 600 km. As travel distance increases, the consideration becomes less of the total cost of operating an airliner and air travel becomes more cost-competitive.