Exploring the Tracks of Time: A Journey Through Rail History and Sustainability

The History of Rail

Rail has always been vital in human development as an efficient way to transport items on land, connecting stretches of land that may be hundreds of miles apart, allowing for the transport of not just goods but people, and allowing society to expand during the dawn of civilisation. From simple horse-drawn carts on fixed paths to the advanced high-speed railways that we see proliferating the world nowadays, the rail industry has gone through massive evolutions in not just design but also in how they function as well as in their role in society.

The invention of rail can be traced back to the invention of the wheel, with wheels and an axle attached to a cart being pulled by a group of people on a fixed grooved track being the first examples of rails being used to transport goods over large distances. It has commonly been believed that such a form of transport has been in use since 2000 BCE, with evidence of such ancient tracks being found in ancient locations of Italy and Greece.

The earliest documented version of a rail is the ‘Diolkos’, an ancient rail system constructed by the Ancient Greeks near the city of Corinth in Ancient Greece around 600 BCE. This rail system was designed as a bypass of the Peloponnese Peninsula, where boats were loaded onto wheeled carts that men pulled across the tracks. While transporting goods, they were also used during naval warfare, as the transport of supplies and ships between the Ionian and Aegean seas. These types of rail systems remained in use for centuries to come. From the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE, when the Spartans used the Diolkos to threaten Athens, to the Actium War in 31 BC, these railways served as a vital means of transport to quickly move supplies through enemy lines.

Beginning in the mid-16th century, the growth of rail began to be exponential. This time coincided with the invention of the first ‘minecart’, which was used to transport Earth materials and ore to and from mining operations. The design was quite simple; the cart, made of wood or metal, travelled on a fixed track. This marks one of the first instances where humanity recognized the utility of rail in commercial applications. Additionally, in Europe, horses were now being used as an alternative to human labour in pulling these carts.

The 18th century saw massive developments in the rail industry. In the 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company in the UK replaced the fragile wooden rails with metal rails that were far more durable and could carry larger loads. This was done by placing cast iron plates on top of the wooden rails. However, the biggest invention that was to come was in 1794, when American inventor John Fitch developed the first operational steam locomotive model for rail.  At the turn of the century, in 1804, an English engineer, Richard Trevithick, successfully designed and constructed the first ever full-scale working steam locomotive for rail, which on 21 February 1804 managed to transport 10 tons of iron and 70 men from Penydaron to Abercynon, Wales at a speed of 8 km/h.

Throughout the 19th century, as the industrial revolution began to take root, the growth of rail as a viable form of transport was dramatic. In 1925, George Stephenson constructed Locomotion, a steam locomotive that operated on a public railway. For the first time, the Stockton and Darlington railway was a public railway that was able to carry both freight and passengers. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the birthplace of the modern railway system, was established in 1830 and was the first railway system to rely solely on steam power, paving the way for the proliferation of rail throughout the world.

From this point on, rail served to bring the world together, fostering social cohesion, greater economic prosperity, and allowing for greater mobility for people on land. However, as rail serves this purpose, the efficiency of rail became the next topic of discussion. 

The switch to diesel-electric locomotives from steam locomotives took place for a variety of reasons. Not only was the use of diesel cleaner than coal, but diesel locomotives were also more efficient and required less maintenance. As a result, rail travel became significantly faster and more reliable. Germany produced the first diesel-powered train called the “Fliegender Hamburger” in 1933, which could reach speeds up to 160 km/h. However, Japan revolutionised the technology with the Shinkansen railway system. The first one, built between Tokyo and Osaka, was built in October 1964 and could operate at speeds greater than 200km/h. This was followed by the French Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) system, which could reach speeds up to 574.8km/h in 2007.

Recent years have seen further rail innovation focused on improving the efficiency of rail, making it more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. One such new technology is the Maglev system. Maglev, or magnetic levitation, involves using magnetic repulsion to ‘levitate’ the train above the track, ensuring no physical contact between the train and the track, lowering friction, allowing the Maglev train to be more efficient, and reducing maintenance costs due to friction.

History of Sustainability of Rail

With rail transport being so ubiquitous in this day and age, sustainability and rail transport need to go hand in hand. Given the inefficiency of human transport, it is unsurprising that the initial sustainability efforts were aimed at addressing this issue. Human beings are incredibly inefficient and unsustainable at transporting goods. Humans have multiple weaknesses when it comes to carrying out this task. For instance, humans have a limited carrying capacity, and as such, numerous trips will be needed to transport a set number of goods from place to place.

Next, humans have low efficiency due to their need to carry out basic living processes. Humans require food to get energy. However, the energy conversion from food into the energy used for human transportation is highly inefficient, necessitating a considerable initial energy input (food) to achieve a low level of energy output (transporting a set number of goods). In addition, humans require periodic rest, making the process of transporting goods need more time and resources, resulting in the use of humans to transport goods being both incredibly inefficient and unsustainable.

This issue is also present when it comes to using horses to transport goods. While horses can travel at faster speeds and have greater endurance than humans, making them slightly more efficient than using humans to transport goods, they have other limitations that add to their unsustainability. Horses require large amounts of food, which takes up a lot of limited land to grow this food. The growing of this food may require the use of pesticides and fertilizers that may result in toxic substances being released into the surrounding land, air, and rivers, contributing to air and water pollution. Meanwhile, horses excrete large amounts of manure and urine, which may contribute to certain levels of pollution, primarily when used in urban areas. To add on, horses still face the same issues as humans when it comes to long-distance travel, causing the use of horses to still be unsustainable and inefficient when it comes to long-distance goods transport.