First Passenger Railway

The Stockton and Darlington Railway was officially opened on 27 September 1825, and on opening day a locomotive hauled a train of 31 vehicles carrying 550 passengers to Stockton. It was not the first railway and a train had previously carried passengers, but it was the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, and its passengers were carried in coaches drawn by horses until carriages hauled by steam locomotives were introduced in 1833. Its opening in 1825 was seen as proof of the effectiveness of steam railways as a means of public transport.