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railways - events| 1605 | UK | The first railway in Britain is installed at Sir Francis Willoughby's mines at Woolaston, Nottinghamshire. | | 24 December 1801 | UK | English engineer Richard Trevithick builds a steam-powered carriage, which he successfully drives up a hill in Camborne, Cornwall, England. | | March 1802 | UK | English engineer Richard Trevithick takes out a patent for a high-pressure steam engine for ‘driving carriages’. | | 21 February 1804 | UK | English engineer Richard Trevithick builds the first steam railway locomotive, and on a wager runs it on a 16 km/10 mi track at the Pen-y-darren ironworks in South Wales carrying 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers. Further development is hindered because the engine cracks the cast iron rails. | | 25 July 1814 | UK | English engineer George Stephenson constructs his first steam locomotive, called Bulcher. It is the first engine to be built with flanged wheels running on edge rails, as all later locomotives will do. | | 1825 | USA | US engineer John Stevens constructs the first steam locomotive to run on rails in the USA. It runs on a short circular track at his home in Hoboken, New Jersey. | | 27 September 1825 | UK | The Stockton to Darlington railway line in England opens. Built by George Stephenson, it is the world's first public railway to carry steam trains. | | 28 February 1827 | USA | The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad becomes the first railway in the USA to be chartered to carry freight and passengers. The railway is built to compete with the Erie Canal, which is taking business away from Baltimore, Maryland. | | 10–14 October 1829 | England | George and Robert Stephenson's Rocket wins the Liverpool and Manchester Railway competition with an average speed of 58 kph/36 mph without a load, and 26 kph/16 mph with a 40 tonne load. Using a multiple fire-tube boiler, rather than the single flue boiler other contestants use, its design sets the pattern for future railway locomotives. | | 1830 | USA | US inventor Peter Cooper constructs the Tom Thumb, the first steam locomotive built in the USA. | | 15 September 1830 | UK, USA | The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens in England. The first railway to carry both passengers and freight, its success sparks widespread railway building in Britain and the USA. | | 1853 | USA | There are 48,000 km/30,000 mi of railroad track in the USA, up from 14,400 km/9,000 mi in 1850. | | 10 January 1863 | UK | The Metropolitan Railway opens between Faringdon Street and Bishops' Road, Paddington, in London, England. The world's first subway system, it is 6 km/3.75 mi long, uses steam locomotives, and carries 9.5 million passengers during the first year. | | 10 May 1869 | USA | The first US transcontinental railway is completed when the Union Pacific Railroad, building west, and the Central Pacific Railway, building east, meet at Promontory Point, Utah. It is 2,832 km/1,770 mi long. | | 1880 | USA | There are 149,874 km/93,671 mi of railroad track in the USA. | | 1880 | USA, UK, France, Russian Empire | Railway mileage in operation stands at 140,481 km/87,801 mi in the USA, 28,696 km/17,935 mi in Britain, 26,288 km/16,430 mi in France, and 19,520 km/12,200 mi in Russia. | | 4 October 1883 | France, Bulgaria, Turkey | The luxury train the Orient Express leaves on its first trip. Europe's first transcontinental express train, it runs 2,740 km/1,700 mi from Paris, France, to Varna, Bulgaria, where passengers disembark to be ferried to Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey. | | 1890 | UK | The City and South London Railway's ‘tube’ railway line opens. The world's first electric underground railway, the 4.8 km/3 mi line runs beneath the River Thames. Fares cost two pence. | | 1904 | Russian Empire | The Trans-Siberian Railway, begun in 1891, is completed, linking Moscow and Vladivostok. It opens up Siberia to exploitation, settlement, and industrialization. | | 1908 | USA | The subway system in New York City is expanded, as two further lines are opened. | | 1911 | United Kingdom | The first escalators in Britain are installed at Earls Court underground station in London, England. | | 1913 | Sweden | The world's first diesel-electric locomotives begin running in Sweden. | | 3 September 1930 | USA | US inventor Thomas Edison installs an experimental electric passenger train on the Lakawanna Railroad in New Jersey. | | 1951 | USA | For the first time air passenger-miles (10,679,281,000) exceeds total passenger-miles in railway cars (10,224,714,000) in the USA. | | 28 May 1961 | France, Romania | The last journey of the ‘Orient Express’, between Paris, France, and Bucharest, Romania, takes place after 78 years of service. | | 1 October 1964 | Japan | The ‘New Tokaido Line’ between Tokyo and Osaka opens. A 515-km/320-mi high-speed rail line, ‘bullet’ trains travel at an average speed of 166 kph/103 mph. | | 22 September 1981 | France | French railways introduce the TGV (train à grande vitesse, ‘high-speed train’); electrically powered and capable of cruising at 290 kph/180 mph, it is Europe's first super high speed passenger train. Later in the year achieves a record speed of 380 kph/236 mph. | | November 1987 | UK, France | Construction of the Channel Tunnel between England and France begins; there are to be two tunnels, each 7.6 m/25 ft wide and 49.4 km/30.7 mi long. | | 15 October 1998 | France | Line 14 of the Paris Métro opens with fully automated, driverless trains, linking the right and left banks of the Seine river. | | 3 April 2007 | France | France's TGV train sets a new world rail-speed record of 575 kph/357 mph on a new track between Strasbourg and Paris. |
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