Belgium's First Railway
Belgium was heavily involved in the early development of railway transport. Belgium was the second country in Europe, after Great Britain, to open a railway and produce locomotives. The first line, between the cities of Brussels and Mechelen opened in 1835. Belgium was the first state in Europe to create a national railway network and the first to possess a nationalised railway system. The network expanded fast as Belgium Industrial Revolution, industrialised, and by the early 20th century was increasingly under state-control. The nationalised railways, under the umbrella organisation National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS/SNCB), retained their monopoly until liberalisation in the 2000s. Background Attempts to build railways in Belgium significantly predated the establishment of the first line. In 1829, the British-Belgian industrialist John Cockerill (industrialist), John Cockerill tried to obtain a concession from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dutch king William I of ...
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History Of Rail Transport By Country
The history of rail transport began in the BCE times. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used. Ancient systems The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the valley of the River Brue in the Somerset Levels, England, is one of the oldest known constructed trackways and dates from around 3838 BC, making it some 30 years older than the Sweet Track from the same area. Various sections have been designated as scheduled monuments. Evidence indicates that there was a 6 to 8.5 km long '' Diolkos'' paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC.Cook, R. M.: "Archaic Greek Trade: Three Conjectures 1. The Diolkos", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'', vol. 99 (1979), pp. 152–155 (152)Lewis, M. J. T."Railways in the Greek and Roman world", in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), ''Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways ...
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