Short answers, pulled from the story.
Richard Trevithick invented the first steam locomotive to pull a train of wagons in 1804. His machine named the Puffing Devil pulled 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers along a 9-mile stretch of track in Wales.
The Japanese Shinkansen entered service in 1964 and could travel at speeds of 130 miles per hour. This train set the standard for all future high-speed rail systems and operated at cruising speeds of up to 220 miles per hour.
The Russian Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest passenger train service in the world stretching 5,772 miles from Moscow to Vladivokot. It connects the vast country from east to west and makes travel across frozen Siberia possible.
Train travel in the United States between 2000 and 2009 averaged 0.43 deaths per billion passenger miles traveled. This rate was higher than air travel at 0.07 deaths per billion passenger miles but far below the 7.28 deaths per billion passenger miles of car travel.
The German Flying Hamburger set a new standard for speed and efficiency in 1933. This streamlined diesel train proved that diesel power was superior to steam in terms of cost maintenance and reliability.