Locomotion No. 1 first hauled passengers on which public railway?

Locomotion No. 1 first hauled passengers on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson drove the locomotive during the railway’s celebrated opening journey in northeast England.

The train began at Shildon and travelled toward Stockton via Darlington. It combined coal wagons, a wagon carrying flour, the passenger coach Experiment, and open wagons carrying passengers, guests and workmen. The journey demonstrated that steam locomotives could operate on a public railway carrying both goods and people.

A common mix-up is calling the Stockton and Darlington Railway the world’s first railway. Railways and tramways existed earlier, and passenger vehicles had previously travelled on rails. Its special importance was that it was the first public railway to make steam locomotive haulage a central part of its operation. Regular passenger services initially included horse-drawn coaches; the company itself introduced steam-hauled passenger services later, in 1833.