Electric trains alleviate the need to use land for roads and highways and improve air quality by reducing fossil fuel combustion.
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The railroad changed human perception of time and space, making long distance travel much faster and easier. Railroads also changed habits, including increasing reading. People needed some sort of distraction. Like any new form of technology, railroads also scared people.
Railroads made it possible to move across long distances quickly and easily. They made the world shrink—not literally, of course! But they truly revolutionized people's habits and how they saw the world. For many people, it was their first experience with the big machines that characterized the Industrial Revolution.
As travel eased, people in rural areas became part of a larger society in a way that had not been possible before the interurban electric railway service was available.
It might be surprising to know that in electric trains, the power collected from the overhead lines ends up in the grounding cable of the track after flowing through the wheels. Three phase power conversion, regenerative braking and zig-zag overheadlines - all these make electric train technology quite unique.
Electric trains have always had no direct carbon emissions because they are run entirely by internal electric motors. However, the means of generating the electricity used to power these motors was predominately by burning fossil fuels or coal, both of which produce a large amount of carbon emissions.
Trains kicked off a massive change in the way that we do things as a civilization, and they continue to evolve as technology develops. Before trains, it took months to cross a country. When they were introduced, it took days. Goods could be transported across states quicker than ever before.
Electric locomotives are typically 20% less expensive than diesel locomotives. Maintenance costs can be 25 to 35 percent lower and operating costs can be up to 50%.