8 Electricity for transport
Electric tramways have been part of public transport for more than a hundred years. In fact, they predate the widespread use of cars for personal transport. In Europe electric trains have been in service as city transport, and on trunk railway lines for a similar length of time.
It was not until after the Second World War that car ownership took off and posed a real threat to long distance rail travel. The railways sought to improve their performance with clean, high speed trains, by getting rid of steam locomotives and their replacement, with diesel-electric units, and later full electrification of main lines. Diesel-electric locomotives are still widely used across North America where there are very few electrified ...
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