Mohammad Amin Ebrahimzadeh - PhD student in Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research University, Tehran, Iran
Farhad Hooshyarypor - Associate Professor in Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research University, Tehran, Iran
Navid Nakhaei - PhD student in Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research University, Tehran, Iran

A renaissance in railways and the formal recognition of environmental priorities are both features of the last quarter of the twentieth century, but relatively little has been published about the individual and collective environmental impacts of railways. There is an urgent need to address the subject comprehensively. New railways are being planned in many countries and environmental assessment has become an essential element of planning. Most of the impacts of railways have existed for well over a hundred years and many of these continue to be relevant today. Some new issues, such as the operation of very fast trains or the routing of tracks to carry them, require special attention. The transport plays an important role in everyday life, and has significant economic, environmental influence globally but it also has direct health effect on societies` life. Nowadays when the climate change represents real challenge for the world to try to ensure an environmentally more sustainable future, the researchers and the political leaders are looking for renewable energy sources and environmentally friendly systems to reduce the air -, noise pollution, the energy consumption, etc.The aim of this paper is to compare railway transportation system with other means of transportation, on regional and European level, emphasizing its unexploited sources and advantages over other systems.

Environment, transportation, railway, eco-friendly, energy, electricity, emission