Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Track usually consists of steel rails installed on sleepers/ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels, moves. However, other variations are also possible, such as slab track where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface.

Rolling stock in railway transport systems generally has lower frictional resistance when compared with highway vehicles, and the passenger and freight cars (carriages and wagons) can be coupled into longer trains. The operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electrical power from a railway electrification system or produce their own power, usually by diesel engines. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system. Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency, but is often less flexible and more capital-intensive than highway transport is, when lower traffic levels are considered.

Jim Ferguson (born James Edwin Ferguson, 1948) is an American guitarist, composer, music educator, author, and music journalist/editor.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Jim Ferguson began his early music education playing the trombone at age 7, and then after eight years of study, switched to the guitar at age 15. He moved to California and began his music career in the 1970s, performing, teaching, and devoting serious study to the guitar. He has since performed in the U.S. and abroad, is featured on solo guitar CDs showcasing his original compositions for classical guitar, and has had numerous compositions published in both anthologies alongside the works of other notable contemporary composers and in publications dedicated solely to his works. Jim Ferguson is the author of six highly-acclaimed jazz guitar instructional books, including his best-selling first instructional book All Blues For Jazz Guitar, and is well known for his work as an award-winning and Grammy-nominated music journalist and editor, where he has generated groundbreaking and unique instructional articles for guitar players, has been influential in changing how guitar music is notated, and has spread his expert knowledge of jazz and classical guitar to the wide audience of Guitar Player Magazine and other music publications. He holds B.S. and M.F.A. degrees and has taught guitar and music courses at California universities for over 20 years, has conducted guitar and music workshops in the U.S. and abroad, and has taught guitar privately for over 30 years. A biography of Jim Ferguson is featured in Maurice J. Summerfield’s The Jazz Guitar—Its Evolution, Players and Personalities since 1900.