123-590: The Thomas Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Maryland and West Virginia . The line runs from Rawlings, Maryland , to Bayard, West Virginia , for a total of 44.2 miles (71.1 km). At its east end the line continues west from the Mountain Subdivision and at its west end the line comes to an end. The line was built by the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railway (WVC&P) in
246-408: A crank on a driving axle. Steam locomotives have been phased out in most parts of the world for economical and safety reasons, although many are preserved in working order by heritage railways . Electric locomotives draw power from a stationary source via an overhead wire or third rail . Some also or instead use a battery . In locomotives that are powered by high-voltage alternating current ,
369-586: A dining car . Some lines also provide over-night services with sleeping cars . Some long-haul trains have been given a specific name . Regional trains are medium distance trains that connect cities with outlying, surrounding areas, or provide a regional service, making more stops and having lower speeds. Commuter trains serve suburbs of urban areas, providing a daily commuting service. Airport rail links provide quick access from city centres to airports . High-speed rail are special inter-city trains that operate at much higher speeds than conventional railways,
492-731: A fourth rail system in 1890 on the City and South London Railway , now part of the London Underground Northern line . This was the first major railway to use electric traction . The world's first deep-level electric railway, it runs from the City of London , under the River Thames , to Stockwell in south London. The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown , then working for Oerlikon , Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using three-phase AC , between
615-542: A funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel . The line is still operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational railway. Wagonways (or tramways ) using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate
738-492: A hydro-electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km (170 mi). Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator , were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than
861-431: A steam engine that provides adhesion. Coal , petroleum , or wood is burned in a firebox , boiling water in the boiler to create pressurized steam. The steam travels through the smokebox before leaving via the chimney or smoke stack. In the process, it powers a piston that transmits power directly through a connecting rod (US: main rod) and a crankpin (US: wristpin) on the driving wheel (US main driver) or to
984-469: A transformer in the locomotive converts the high-voltage low-current power to low-voltage high current used in the traction motors that power the wheels. Modern locomotives may use three-phase AC induction motors or direct current motors. Under certain conditions, electric locomotives are the most powerful traction. They are also the cheapest to run and provide less noise and no local air pollution. However, they require high capital investments both for
1107-589: A 1921 crash at Porter, Indiana , in which a derail failed to stop one passenger train that had already passed through two red lights from crashing into another at a level junction , killing 37, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ordered almost a hundred railroads to install automatic train stops by the end of 1925. The railroads opposed the ICC vigorously, noting that stopping longer freights that way might lead to derailments . As
1230-508: A dedicated high-speed rail line between Washington, D.C., and Boston. He estimated it would cost $ 151 billion and take more than 25 years to design and build the line. The proposed rail line would allow for top speeds of 220 mph (350 km/h). Amtrak officials released a concept report for next-generation high-speed rail within the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on October 1, 2010. Amtrak projected planning and construction of
1353-443: A dedicated high-speed rail line which limits its average speed; it reaches a maximum speed of 150 mph (240 km/h) on small sections of its route through Rhode Island and Massachusetts . The travel time between Washington and New York is 2 hours and 53 minutes (compared to 2 hours and 30 minutes for PRR 's nonstop Metroliner in 1969), or an average speed of 79 mph (127 km/h). In September 2019, Amtrak launched
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#17327807364591476-550: A diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through
1599-478: A double track plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in south London. William Jessop had earlier used a form of all-iron edge rail and flanged wheels successfully for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan , Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge rails. Jessop became a partner in
1722-605: A high-speed rail line. However, there are plans to upgrade those stretches of track to Class 6 trackage, in which passenger trains can reach speeds up to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), similar to portions of other passenger rail routes in the United States such as Lincoln Service between Chicago and St. Louis and portions of the Brightline West between West Palm Beach and Cocoa, Florida. As of 2024, funding has yet to be available. The Pacific Northwest Corridor or
1845-437: A large turning radius in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. Since 1980, rail transport has changed dramatically, but a number of heritage railways continue to operate as part of living history to preserve and maintain old railway lines for services of tourist trains. A train is a connected series of rail vehicles that move along
1968-498: A larger locomotive named Galvani , exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors , with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of one and a half miles (2.4 kilometres). It
2091-423: A locomotive. This involves one or more powered vehicles being located at the front of the train, providing sufficient tractive force to haul the weight of the full train. This arrangement remains dominant for freight trains and is often used for passenger trains. A push–pull train has the end passenger car equipped with a driver's cab so that the engine driver can remotely control the locomotive. This allows one of
2214-481: A more attractive option for passengers. A study conducted by the International Union of Railways indicated that high-speed trains produced one fifth as much CO 2 as automobiles and jet aircraft. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 dedicated $ 8 billion to intercity rail, with priority for high-speed projects. In 2012, then- Amtrak president Joseph Boardman proposed a plan to build
2337-605: A new field of interest. They were officially added to the definition of "railroad" in 1988, and were studied repeatedly. Five high-speed corridors were officially endorsed in October 1992 following passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 . TEA-21 and other legislation continued to be passed with mentions of high-speed rail, but lacking funding or real direction. Nevertheless, no new high-speed service
2460-462: A nonstop New York to Washington which completes the trip in 2 hours and 35 minutes for an average speed of 87 mph (140 km/h). Schedule between New York and Boston is 3 hours 34 minutes, an average speed of only 63 mph (101 km/h). With a 15-minute layover in New York, the entire end-to-end trip averages 68 mph (109 km/h). The largest project for American high-speed rail
2583-477: A number of trains per hour (tph). Passenger trains can usually be into two types of operation, intercity railway and intracity transit. Whereas intercity railway involve higher speeds, longer routes, and lower frequency (usually scheduled), intracity transit involves lower speeds, shorter routes, and higher frequency (especially during peak hours). Intercity trains are long-haul trains that operate with few stops between cities. Trains typically have amenities such as
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#17327807364592706-676: A piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury , London, the Catch Me Who Can , but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray 's rack locomotive Salamanca built for the Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive
2829-465: A pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive Blücher , also a successful flanged -wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825 he built the locomotive Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which became the first public steam railway in
2952-478: A red, he still had space to stop the train had he applied his full brakes at the red. As a result, the ICC decided the time had come to force the issue of train control. For the first time it set national rail speed limits . In 1947 it ordered that automatic block signaling be used where freight traveled at more than 49 mph (79 km/h) and on passenger lines where trains went faster than 59 mph (95 km/h). This rule remains in force today. While
3075-421: A result, the requirement was revised to allow waivers for certain lines, and rarely enforced as the debate continued without any real resolution over the next two decades; in the meantime passenger fatalities began declining as the automobile emerged as a transportation option. During the 1930s railroads began to develop lightweight, diesel-powered streamlined trains which provided even faster running times than
3198-439: A revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO 2 emissions . Smooth, durable road surfaces have been made for wheeled vehicles since prehistoric times. In some cases, they were narrow and in pairs to support only the wheels. That is, they were wagonways or tracks. Some had grooves or flanges or other mechanical means to keep
3321-739: A single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the prototype for all diesel–electric locomotive control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen ( Royal Saxon State Railways ) by Waggonfabrik Rastatt with electric equipment from Brown, Boveri & Cie and diesel engines from Swiss Sulzer AG . They were classified as DET 1 and DET 2 ( de.wiki ). The first regular used diesel–electric locomotives were switcher (shunter) locomotives . General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in
3444-407: A standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz, now also called industrial frequency was adopted as standard for main-lines across the world. Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by William Dent Priestman . Sir William Thomson examined it in 1888 and described it as a "Priestman oil engine mounted upon a truck which
3567-632: A terminus about one-half mile (800 m) away. A funicular railway was also made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. The Wollaton Wagonway , completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont , has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham . The Middleton Railway in Leeds , which
3690-445: A top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) and are usually not considered high-speed rail. Brightline, while marketing itself as high-speed rail, more closely meets the definition of higher-speed rail. Despite having a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h) along 20 miles (32 km) of newly built track, most of the route is limited to a top speed of 110 mph (180 km/h) due to the presence of grade crossings. As of 2024 ,
3813-408: A wheel. This was a large stationary engine , powering cotton mills and a variety of machinery; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, which required a separate condenser and an air pump . Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston, raising
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3936-513: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about transportation in Maryland is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport ) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks , which usually consist of two parallel steel rails . Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport , next to road transport . It
4059-728: Is a 349 mi (562 km) rail corridor between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh , composed of two different rail lines, the Amtrak Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line and the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Line . Between Philadelphia and Harrisburg the Amtrak line is electrified and grade separation was completed in 2014. Between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh the Norfolk Southern owned line
4182-590: Is a proposed high-speed railway to connect New York City to Boston in one hour, 40 minutes. The proposed railway would run across Long Island and tunnel under the Long Island Sound . The project, consisting of two phases, is estimated to cost a total of $ 105 billion as of 2023, which would be among the most expensive public works projects in United States history, and take 20 years to complete. The first phase, costing $ 23.5 billion, would: New York has been actively discussing high-speed rail service since
4305-410: Is a single, self-powered car, and may be electrically propelled or powered by a diesel engine . Multiple units have a driver's cab at each end of the unit, and were developed following the ability to build electric motors and other engines small enough to fit under the coach. There are only a few freight multiple units, most of which are high-speed post trains. Steam locomotives are locomotives with
4428-399: Is dominant. Electro-diesel locomotives are built to run as diesel–electric on unelectrified sections and as electric locomotives on electrified sections. Alternative methods of motive power include magnetic levitation , horse-drawn, cable , gravity, pneumatics and gas turbine . A passenger train stops at stations where passengers may embark and disembark. The oversight of the train is
4551-763: Is expected to open in 2028 in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics . Following the awarding of a $ 3 billion federal grant in December 2023, construction is currently underway. Although the Surf Line between Los Angeles to San Diego, which hosts the Pacific Surfliner and commuter rail routes such as Metrolink and Coaster, has portions in Orange County and San Diego County that contains Class 5 trackage, which passenger trains can reach speeds up to 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), it would not be considered
4674-706: Is no current rail service in the United States which meets all of the domestic criteria for high-speed rail. Amtrak 's Acela is classified as "higher-speed rail" in the Congressional Research Service report by virtue of being on shared tracks, whereas page 5 of that report also requires dedicated tracks to be classified as "very high-speed rail". In China, high-speed rail is officially defined as "newly-built passenger-dedicated rail lines designed for electrical multiple unit (EMU) train sets traveling at not less than 250 km/h (155 mph) (including lines with reserved capacity for upgrade to
4797-772: Is the California High-Speed Rail network, which was authorized by voters with Proposition 1A in 2008. In August 2013, the Tutor Perini Corporation signed a $ 1-billion contract to begin construction of the first phase in 2014. Construction began in early 2015. High-speed rail development was a goal of the Obama administration which came into office in January 2009. Higher jet fuel prices, congested airports and highways, and increasing airport security rules have combined to make high-speed rail
4920-492: Is the lead agency charged with planning and implementing the system. The state was awarded $ 2.55 billion in funding from the federal government in 2010. Since the passage of Proposition 1A, cost estimates for the project have risen due to increased planning and disputes over routes. Ridership projections have faced scrutiny by a number of groups including the Reason Foundation. In May 2013, with cost estimates double
5043-673: Is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed . Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains . Power is usually provided by diesel or electrical locomotives . While railway transport is capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or animal power have existed since antiquity, but modern rail transport began with
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5166-788: Is used for freight transportation. In 1999, the Keystone Corridor was formally recognized as a "designated high-speed corridor" by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) . The line, over which Amtrak's Pennsylvanian and Keystone Service routes operate, was upgraded in 2006 with two segments of 110 mph (180 km/h) track. These trains are higher-speed rail services between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, with express service taking 95–100 minutes over 103.6 mi (166.7 km). California Proposition 1A, passed in November 2008, authorized
5289-556: Is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes." In 1894, a 20 hp (15 kW) two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks . In 1906, Rudolf Diesel , Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered
5412-468: The Acela , a new tilting train manufactured by Alstom and Bombardier , was ordered. The new service ran on the Northeast Corridor , linking Boston , New York City , Philadelphia , Baltimore , and Washington, D.C. The service was inaugurated in December 2000, and was an immediate success, operated at a profit and as of 2012 , it produced about 25% of Amtrak's total service revenue. The Acela lacks
5535-647: The California High-Speed Rail Authority is working on the California High-Speed Rail project and construction is under way on sections traversing the Central Valley . The Central Valley section, between Merced and Bakersfield , is planned to begin passenger service by 2030. Brightline West is a privately operated route that is currently under construction between the Las Vegas Valley and Rancho Cucamonga in
5658-531: The Federal Railroad Administration awarded $ 16.4 billion for 25 projects of significance along the Northeast Corridor , rebuilding tunnels and bridges, upgrading tracks, power systems, signals, stations, and other infrastructure. In 2024, following continuous efforts by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law , the Federal Railroad Administration made $ 2 billion available for projects along the Northeast Corridor . The North Atlantic Rail
5781-537: The Greater Los Angeles area, with service set to begin by 2028. Both projects received funding following the awarding of a federal grant of about $ 3 billion for each. Authorities in the United States maintain various definitions of high-speed rail. The United States Department of Transportation , an entity in the executive branch , defines it as rail service with top speeds ranging from 110 to 150 miles per hour (180 to 240 km/h) or higher, while
5904-655: The New York Central 's " Super Hudsons " as used on the 20th Century Limited ; the Milwaukee Road 's purpose-built Atlantics and Hudsons used in Hiawatha service; the Pennsylvania Railroad 's duplex-drive 4-4-4-4 type T1 locomotives , and two Union Pacific engines, a 4-6-2 and a 4-8-2, used on the "Forty Niner" and other trains. The debate over signaling and train control between
6027-593: The North Central Texas Council of Governments uses the definition of speeds over 150 mph (240 km/h), and the Texas Department of Transportation and Oklahoma Department of Transportation use speeds of 165 mph (266 km/h) or more. These agencies have a separate category for higher-speed rail which can be a wide range of speeds between 80 mph (130 km/h) and 150 mph (240 km/h). The development of
6150-678: The United Kingdom , South Korea , Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short-haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates
6273-577: The United States Code , which is the official codification of Federal statutes, defines it as rail service "reasonably expected to reach sustained speeds of more than 125 miles per hour". A legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress , the Congressional Research Service , used different terms to clarify the confusion by defining rail services with top speeds less than 150 mph (240 km/h) to be higher-speed rail . There
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#17327807364596396-414: The overhead lines and the supporting infrastructure, as well as the generating station that is needed to produce electricity. Accordingly, electric traction is used on urban systems, lines with high traffic and for high-speed rail. Diesel locomotives use a diesel engine as the prime mover . The energy transmission may be either diesel–electric , diesel-mechanical or diesel–hydraulic but diesel–electric
6519-458: The puddling process in 1784. In 1783 Cort also patented the rolling process , which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering. These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron. Wrought iron
6642-418: The rotary phase converter , enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks. An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at AC 50 Hz, and established it as
6765-540: The 1880s, railway electrification began with tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting in the 1940s, steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives . The first high-speed railway system was introduced in Japan in 1964, and high-speed rail lines now connect many cities in Europe , East Asia , and the eastern United States . Following some decline due to competition from cars and airplanes, rail transport has had
6888-690: The 1880s, and originally ran between Cumberland, Maryland and Elkins, West Virginia . The WVC&P merged with the Western Maryland Railway (WM) in 1905. The WM abandoned portions of the line between the 1930s and 1970s. The WM was merged into the Chessie System in 1973, and the latter merged into CSX Transportation in 1980. This United States rail–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about transportation in West Virginia
7011-521: The 1930s (the famous " 44-tonner " switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929. In 1929, the Canadian National Railways became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse. Although steam and diesel services reaching speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph) were started before
7134-508: The 1960s in Europe, they were not very successful. The first electrified high-speed rail Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. Since then high-speed rail transport, functioning at speeds up to and above 300 km/h (190 mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France , Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),
7257-558: The 1990s, but thus far little progress has been made. Amtrak Acela service between Washington, D.C. , and Boston is available to New York City , but other cities remain isolated from high-speed rail service. Further, destinations outside the New York metropolitan area have been plagued by delayed service for decades. Nonetheless, New York has been quietly endorsing and even implementing rail improvements for years. Closer and faster railroad transportation links between New York City and
7380-628: The 250 km/h standard), on which initial service operate at not less than 200 km/h (124 mph)." In Europe the definition of a minimum speed for newly built high-speed railways is 250 km/h (155 mph); for upgraded high-speed railways it is 200 km/h (124 mph). In places where high-speed rail programs are in earlier developmental stages or where substantial speed increases are achieved by upgrading current infrastructure and/or introducing more advanced trains, lower minimum speed definitions of high-speed rail are used. Directive 2008/57/EC defines high-speed rail in terms of speeds of
7503-464: The 40 km Burgdorf–Thun line , Switzerland. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than a short section. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works. The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed
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#17327807364597626-483: The 450,000 lb f (2,000 kN) European regulations mandate. This results in American passenger cars being heavier. In the 19th century, most long-distance travel in the United States was by horse-drawn wagon, or water vessels. At the end of the century, rail started to supplant these modes of travel, and during the pre-WWII period rail had become the preeminent mode of long-distance travel. Rail transportation
7749-739: The American rail network during the 19th century created structural impediments to the adoption of high-speed rail in the latter half of the 20th that were not present in Europe and Asia. Freight on American railroads had to travel vastly longer distances, so railroads developed longer cars that could be joined into longer trains. In contrast to Europe, these freights traveled past very few older buildings that were at risk of structural damage from vibrations created by heavy passing trains. Even today, American freight cars and their contents may be as heavy as 286,000 lb (130,000 kg), while their European counterparts are limited to 190,000 lb (86,000 kg). With such long and heavy freights often sharing
7872-530: The Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was Lake Lock Rail Road in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers. These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became
7995-555: The California High-Speed Rail Authority had only about $ 12.7 billion - approximately one-eighth of the funding required. Governor Gavin Newsom has still expressed support for the project despite the funding shortfall, reduced scope, and swelling costs, which by 2023 were estimated in $ 128 billion. XpressWest, a private undertaking begun in 2005 to build a high-speed service to Las Vegas , Nevada ,
8118-514: The DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies : they could only be carried within locomotive bodies. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Évian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. In 1896, Oerlikon installed
8241-652: The Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor is one of eleven federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States . It was designated a high-speed rail by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). Improvements proposed in Washington State's long range plan would have had passenger trains operating at a maximum speed of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) on line. The Cascadia high-speed rail
8364-589: The U.S. had not suffered the infrastructure damage it had inflicted on Europe and Japan, it had also developed its road network, leading to the creation of the Interstate Highway System after the war, giving prosperous citizens an efficient way to use the cars they were buying. Europe and Japan, by contrast, had largely not begun to build highway networks and had seen heavy damage to their rail systems. With their citizens impoverished as they rebuilt their economies, and unable to afford automobiles to
8487-553: The common engines and passenger cars of the day, as the "Zephyr" was constructed using stainless steel and the M-10000 chiefly of the aircraft alloy Duralumin . On May 26, 1934, the Zephyr made a record-breaking "Dawn to Dusk" run from Denver to Chicago. The train covered the distance in 13 hours, reaching a top speed of 112.5 mph (181.1 km/h) and running at an average speed of 77.6 mph (124.9 km/h). The railroad
8610-430: The duty of a guard/train manager/conductor . Passenger trains are part of public transport and often make up the stem of the service, with buses feeding to stations. Passenger trains provide long-distance intercity travel, daily commuter trips, or local urban transit services, operating with a diversity of vehicles, operating speeds, right-of-way requirements, and service frequency. Service frequencies are often expressed as
8733-402: The end of the 19th century, because they were cleaner compared to steam-driven trams which caused smoke in city streets. In 1784 James Watt , a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, patented a design for a steam locomotive . Watt had improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen , hitherto used to pump water out of mines, and developed a reciprocating engine in 1769 capable of powering
8856-471: The end of the 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Thus steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways. The first passenger horsecar or tram , Swansea and Mumbles Railway , was opened between Swansea and Mumbles in Wales in 1807. Horses remained the preferable mode for tram transport even after the arrival of steam engines until
8979-527: The engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales . Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon
9102-475: The era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near
9225-510: The existing shoreline route, a route through Hartford, Connecticut , and a route out along Long Island which would traverse a new bridge or tunnel across Long Island Sound to Connecticut. On July 12, 2017, the Federal Railroad Administration revealed the record of decision for the project. The proposed upgrades have not been funded. In 2013, Japanese officials pitched the country's maglev train technology,
9348-715: The extent Americans could, those countries invested in rail as the primary means of intercity travel. Following the creation of Japan's first high-speed Shinkansen , U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson asked the U.S. Congress to devise a way to increase speeds on American railroads. The request was part of his Great Society infrastructure building initiatives. Congress delivered the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 which passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support. It helped to create regular Metroliner service between New York City and Washington, D.C. , inaugurated in 1969. Trains on
9471-522: The first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway . Each 30-tonne locomotive had two 110 kW (150 hp) motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide regenerative braking , and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri ) in 1899 on
9594-456: The first train had had it stopped in the town outside Chicago because he thought something was dragging; within two minutes it was struck from behind by another traveling at 86 mph (138 km/h), killing 45. The engineer of the second train survived the crash, and claimed he had not seen the signal in time to stop his train. Investigation showed that even if he had missed the yellow light going on, warning him to slow down in anticipation of
9717-488: The highest possible radius. All these features are dramatically different from freight operations, thus justifying exclusive high-speed rail lines if it is economically feasible. High-speed rail in the United States Plans for high-speed rail in the United States date back to the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 . Various state and federal proposals have followed. Despite being one of
9840-672: The invention of the steam locomotive in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. The first passenger railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway , opened in 1825. The quick spread of railways throughout Europe and North America, following the 1830 opening of the first intercity connection in England, was a key component of the Industrial Revolution . The adoption of rail transport lowered shipping costs compared to water transport, leading to "national markets" in which prices varied less from city to city. In
9963-1230: The limit being regarded at 200 to 350 kilometres per hour (120 to 220 mph). High-speed trains are used mostly for long-haul service and most systems are in Western Europe and East Asia. Magnetic levitation trains such as the Shanghai maglev train use under-riding magnets which attract themselves upward towards the underside of a guideway and this line has achieved somewhat higher peak speeds in day-to-day operation than conventional high-speed railways, although only over short distances. Due to their heightened speeds, route alignments for high-speed rail tend to have broader curves than conventional railways, but may have steeper grades that are more easily climbed by trains with large kinetic energy. High kinetic energy translates to higher horsepower-to-ton ratios (e.g. 20 horsepower per short ton or 16 kilowatts per tonne); this allows trains to accelerate and maintain higher speeds and negotiate steep grades as momentum builds up and recovered in downgrades (reducing cut and fill and tunnelling requirements). Since lateral forces act on curves, curvatures are designed with
10086-724: The line reached speeds of 125 mph (201 km/h) and averaged 90 mph (140 km/h) along the route, faster than even Acela trains operated between the cities of New York and Washington in 2012. The Metroliner was able to travel from New York to Washington in just 2.5 hours because it did not make any intermediate stops. U.S. federal and state governments continued to revisit the idea of fast trains. The Passenger Railroad Rebuilding Act of 1980 led to funding of high-speed corridor studies in 1984. Private-sector consortia intending to build high-speed lines were created in Florida, Ohio, Texas, California, and Nevada. Maglev trains became
10209-429: The locomotive-hauled train's drawbacks to be removed, since the locomotive need not be moved to the front of the train each time the train changes direction. A railroad car is a vehicle used for the haulage of either passengers or freight. A multiple unit has powered wheels throughout the whole train. These are used for rapid transit and tram systems, as well as many both short- and long-haul passenger trains. A railcar
10332-569: The main portion of the B&;O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s most street railways were electrified. The London Underground , the world's oldest underground railway, opened in 1863, and it began operating electric services using
10455-548: The maximum speed supported by the NEC. In 2012, the Federal Railroad Administration began developing a master plan for bringing high-speed rail to the Northeast Corridor titled NEC FUTURE, and released the final environmental impact statement in December 2016. The proposed alignment would closely follow the existing NEC south of New York City; multiple potential alignments north of New York City were studied, including
10578-433: The mid-1920s. The Soviet Union operated three experimental units of different designs since late 1925, though only one of them (the E el-2 ) proved technically viable. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp , a General Electric electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp). Lemp's design used
10701-562: The most common international definition of high-speed rail (speeds above 155 mph (250 km/h) on newly built lines and speeds above 124 mph (200 km/h) on upgraded lines), Amtrak 's Acela is the United States' only true high-speed rail service, reaching 150 mph (240 km/h) over 49.9 miles (80.3 km) of track along the Northeast Corridor . Acela trains will reach top speeds of 160 mph (255 km/h) when new trainsets enter service in 2024. Other services, like Amtrak's Northeast Regional and Brightline , have
10824-484: The nationwide effort to build a high-speed rail network. Florida legislature approved SunRail in a special session in late 2009, which along with work already completed on the originally proposed line between Tampa and Orlando , was instrumental in the state winning a significant amount of the total amount allotted to high-speed rail. Only California received more high-speed rail funding than Florida. In February 2011, Florida's newly elected governor Rick Scott cancelled
10947-709: The next-generation high-speed Northeast Corridor line to cost approximately $ 117 billion (2010 dollars) and reduce the travel time from New York to Washington, including a stop in Philadelphia, to 96 minutes, and the travel time from Boston to New York to 84 minutes by 2040. In 2012, Amtrak released the details of the proposal. The first of two phases envisions the NEC to be upgraded allowing Acela speed improvements. By 2022, Acela trainsets were to be replaced with new trainsets, named Avelia Liberty , but this has since been pushed out to 2024. The new trainsets will be limited to
11070-412: The noise they made on the tracks. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century. Such a transport system was later used by German miners at Caldbeck , Cumbria , England, perhaps from the 1560s. A wagonway was built at Prescot , near Liverpool , sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to
11193-626: The order of 200 km/h (124 mph) for existing, upgraded lines, and 250 km/h (155 mph) for lines specially built for high-speed travel. This is the case in the United States. For transportation planning purposes focussing on the development of high-speed rail, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) distinguishes four types of intercity passenger rail corridors: State-level departments of transportation and council of governments may also use different definitions for high-speed rail. For examples,
11316-527: The original figures approved by the voters in 2008, opponents filed lawsuits intended to invalidate the $ 10 billion bond measures which were part of the financing of the rail line. By December 2018, the Authority had 119 miles (192 km) of right-of-way from Madera to near Bakersfield under contract and in construction. However, the estimated cost of a now scaled-down system had increased from $ 33.6 billion to $ 77.3 billion and, including federal funding,
11439-580: The other 22,000 miles (35,000 km) where the rule applied, railroads instead ran their trains under the limit. This made intercity passenger rail an even less competitive option, accelerating its decline as automobile use was increasing and airlines were beginning to compete on longer routes. By the late 1950s many passenger routes that had existed at the time of the Naperville crash had been discontinued. The results of World War II shifted further high-speed rail technological development overseas. While
11562-525: The possibility of a smaller engine that might be used to power a vehicle. Following his patent, Watt's employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick , a British engineer born in Cornwall . This used high-pressure steam to drive
11685-636: The previous express trains. Two early streamliners were the Union Pacific M-10000 (nicknamed Little Zip and The City of Salina ) in revenue service between 1934 and 1942 and the Burlington Railroad's Zephyr . The design of the Zephyr incorporated a diesel-electric power system; the M-10000 used a spark-ignition engine running on "petroleum distillate", a fuel similar to kerosene. These trains were much lighter than
11808-534: The railroads and the ICC had never really been settled, just deferred as passenger deaths declined, in part due to more travelers using their automobiles for shorter commutes and an expanding and improving highway network. It ended in 1946, when one express passenger train crashed into another one that had stopped , both operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy , in Naperville, Illinois . The conductor of
11931-423: The railroads generally complied with this rule, affecting 18,000 miles (29,000 km) of track, they were not as tolerant of the ICC's additional requirement for ATS or cab signalling on passenger trains that exceeded 79 mph (127 km/h). Some railroads complied with the equipment requirement in part, and installed it on about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track. This was what the ICC had hoped for. But on
12054-897: The rest of the state are frequently cited as a partial solution to Upstate's stagnant economic growth. Beginning in 2010, a study conducted by the New York State Department of Transportation identified 10 alternatives for improving the Empire Corridor . In early 2014, a Tier 1 Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released for public review and comments. The draft eliminated 5 of the alternatives, including those with top speeds of 160 and 220 mph (260 and 350 km/h). The remaining 5 build alternatives under consideration have top speeds of 79 mph (127 km/h) (the base alternative), 90 mph (140 km/h) (options A and B), 110 mph (180 km/h), and 125 mph (201 km/h). The Keystone Corridor
12177-422: The same tracks as passenger trains, it was necessary to require that passenger cars be able to withstand the higher impact forces of a collision. Axial strength standards, first required for the mail cars where clerks worked sorting mail en route and later applied to passenger cars, require that an American passenger car be able to withstand 800,000 pounds-force (3,600 kN) applied to either end, as opposed to
12300-441: The standard for railways. Cast iron used in rails proved unsatisfactory because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820 replaced cast iron. Wrought iron, usually simply referred to as "iron", was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented
12423-477: The state to issue $ 9.95 billion in bonds to fund the first phase of a planned multi-phase high-speed rail network. Conventional steel-wheel on rail technology is the adopted mode with trains traveling at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour (350 km/h). Los Angeles to San Francisco via the Central Valley was expected to be the first phase of the network, though the initial operating segments have since become unclear. The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA)
12546-475: The time, was Liverpool and Manchester Railway , built in 1830. Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery-electric locomotive. Davidson later built
12669-543: The track. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains carry a revenue load, although non-revenue cars exist for the railway's own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. The engine driver (engineer in North America) controls the locomotive or other power cars, although people movers and some rapid transits are under automatic control. Traditionally, trains are pulled using
12792-471: The transport of ore tubs to and from mines and soon became popular in Europe. Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica . This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from
12915-629: The wheels on track. For example, evidence indicates that a 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt . In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug ,
13038-559: The world in 1825, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive Rocket , which entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe. The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all
13161-451: The world's fastest, for the Northeast Corridor to regional U.S. politicians. The trains could travel from New York to Washington in an hour. Northeast Maglev , using SCMaglev technology developed by Central Japan Railway Company , is currently working with the FRA and MDOT to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The project has received a $ 27.8 million grant from the FRA. In 2023,
13284-474: The world's first countries to get high-speed trains (the Metroliner service in 1969), it failed to spread. Definitions of what constitutes high-speed rail vary, including a range of speeds over 110 mph (180 km/h) and dedicated rail lines. Inter-city rail with top speeds between 90 and 125 mph (140 and 200 km/h) is sometimes referred to in the United States as higher-speed rail . Under
13407-593: Was a proposed dedicated high-speed rail line that would have connected Salem / Portland , Vancouver WA / Olympia / Tacoma / Seattle / Everett , and Bellingham, Washington . As of 2012, neither the Washington State Department of Transportation nor Oregon plan to implement speeds higher than 79 mph (127 km/h) due to safety and other freight service concerns voiced by the track owner, Union Pacific Railroad . The plan to provide high-speed and higher-speed rail services on this corridor
13530-512: Was a soft material that contained slag or dross . The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they lasted less than 10 years. Sometimes they lasted as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to the replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails. The introduction of the Bessemer process , enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to
13653-602: Was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, and is the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814, George Stephenson , inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. Stephenson played
13776-532: Was acquired by Brightline in 2018 and its name changed to Brightline West . In April 2020, The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank approved $ 3.25 billion in tax-exempt private activity bonds for the project and acquired a 50-year lease from Caltrans for use of the Interstate 15 corridor . The line, from Rancho Cucamonga station to a station near the Las Vegas Strip ,
13899-476: Was added to the U.S. passenger rail system following the Metroliners. In 1993, the U.S. attempted to improve service between Boston and New York by electrifying the Northeast Corridor north of New Haven, Connecticut and buying new train sets to replace the 30-year-old Metroliners and run on the newly electrified route. Some existing trains (Swedish X 2000 and German ICE 1 ) were tested, but finally,
14022-514: Was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 volts DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an overhead wire and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station . The Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton , England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It
14145-706: Was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in Lewiston, New York . In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning, but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching. A system
14268-514: Was estimated to be completed by early 2019. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee has expressed his desire to see a Cascadia innovation corridor, linking together the main economic centers of the Pacific Northwest. Development of a high-speed rail system in Florida was mandated by a constitutional referendum in 2000 but taken off the books by another referendum in 2004. Florida resurrected its high-speed rail authority to capitalize on
14391-548: Was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates, which came to be known as plateways . John Curr , a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks . In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway ,
14514-489: Was light enough to not break the edge-rails track and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first rack railway . This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This
14637-504: Was not high-speed by modern standards but inter-city travel often averaged speeds between 40 and 65 miles per hour (64 and 105 km/h). Most of the major railroads had faster than normal trains called "express" or "limited" on their mainline routes (e.g. the Empire State Express and the 20th Century Limited ) between major towns and cities. The development of faster trains faced indirect regulatory hurdles. After
14760-762: Was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security. By the middle of the nineteenth century most european countries had military uses for railways. Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. The world's first electric tram line, Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway , opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin , Germany, in 1881. It
14883-636: Was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway , using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague . The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile section of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting
15006-468: Was thus halted. Upgraded services would include the Amtrak Cascades , which operates along the corridor. In early 2018, Washington State pledged money to studying ultra-high-speed rail between Vancouver BC, Seattle, and Portland with 250 mph (400 km/h) speed operation. After a preliminary study, the state pledged $ 300,000 in funding and was shortly backed by British Columbia. The study
15129-549: Was unable to capitalize on this since the Depression had cut into the demand for intercity rail travel. Many steam locomotives were streamlined during this time to attract passengers, and the first steam streamlined locomotive was the New York Central's Commodore Vanderbilt . Some of these steam locomotives became very fast: some were said to exceed 120 mph (190 km/h) on a regular basis. Examples include
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