Overview

Rail transportation is considered in this section as a system in which vehicles are supported and guided by rails or other guideways. Rail-transportation engineering deals with the need, planning, selection, design, and construction of such systems for movement of passengers and freight. It involves roadbed, track, bridges, trestles, culverts, yards, terminals, stations, office buildings, locomotive fueling facilities, environmental protection facilities, signals and communications, track-side protection devices, and railroad-car, locomotive, and transit-vehicle maintenance facilities. Engineers may be responsible for maintenance of way and structures. And they must be familiar with motive power, railway cars, and other equipment.

Rail transportation is the most effective way to handle increased transportation demands with relatively low power requirements, a low land requirement, little air pollution, and few accidents involving fatalities and injuries. As a result, as population and gross national product increase, rail transportation increases in importance. The U.S. Congress, in recognition of this, has passed legislation that, in particular, has added to the importance of rail transportation of freight and of passenger rail transit, for example, through deregulation under the Staggers Act in the early 1980s and the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) about a decade later. In 1998, Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21 ^st Century (TEA-21). A portion of this law authorizes Federal funding for grade crossing safety, transit and high speed rail systems and additional research on magnetic levitation technology. Additional legislation is being considered to fund...