Transportation: Britannia rides the rails: She started it all with ¿the Rocket¿ in 1825; today, her electrified systems are envied around the world

Great Britain is coal country. And the logic in rail transportation, from the beginning, was steam. Consequently, one of the first European nations to operate a rail system became one of the last to go electric. But once it decided `to make the switch´-which was not until after World War II-its program of mainline electrification was as rapid as its high-speed trains and, today, the British system is the model for those of its European neighbors.