A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies along a continuous route. Although Europe is crisscrossed by railways, the railroads within Europe are usually not considered transcontinental, with the possible exception of the historic Orient Express. Transcontinental railroads helped open up unpopulated interior regions of continents to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible. In many cases they also formed the backbones of cross-country passenger and freight transportation networks. Many of them continue to have an important role in freight transportation and some like the Trans-Siberian Railway even have passenger trains going from one end to the other. North America United States A transcontinental railroad in the United States is any continuous rail line connecting a location on
Un ferrocarril transcontinental o ferrocarril transcontinental es un ferrocarril contiguo, que cruza una masa continental de tierra y tiene terminales en diferentes océanos o fronteras continentales. Tales redes pueden ser a través de las pistas de una sola ferrocarril o a través de las propiedad o controladas por varias compañías ferroviarias a lo largo de una ruta continua. Aunque Europa está cruzada por ferrocarriles, los ferrocarriles dentro de Europa generalmente no se consideran transcontinental, con la posible excepción del histórico Orient Express. Ferrocarriles transcontinental ayudó a abrir las regiones interiores deshabitadas de los continentes para la exploración y el asentamiento que no habría sido posible de otro modo. En muchos casos también formaron la columna vertebral de las redes de transporte ferroviario transcontinental y de pasajeros. Muchos de ellos siguen teniendo un papel importante en el transporte de mercancías y algunos como el ferrocarril transiberiano incluso tienen trenes de pasajeros que van de un extremo