What is the importance of rail transport?

Answer 1

Excluding passenger travel or goods transport between journey start, departure station, destination station and journey destination... railways are the fastest and most reliable land transport option.

They can haul large numbers of people or very large freight loads at high speed in one train each, where the same numbers or loads would take many buses (and even more cars) or lorries. The advantages of road over rail here are the former's greater flexibility and door-to-door delivery; but the train is far faster and more reliable than road transport in the main part of the journey.

However, economy-of-scale laws apply for freight. Rail freight is most efficient and economical for bulk goods (minerals, steel, timber etc) and for shipping containers.

A guide to the importance of railways in the UK is that after decades of decay thanks to serious road competition and limited investment, rail freight and passenger traffic are both increasing significantly again.