What is Railroad company?
A '''railroad company''' or '''railway company''' is an [[organization]] that [[wikt:operate|operate]]s a [[railroad track]] or [[train]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/railroad |title=railroad |publisher=Dictionary.com |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> The [[company]] can either be [[Private company|private]] or [[Public company|public]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0362 |title=Freight Rail Today |publisher=Federal Railroad Administration |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track. In other cases, particularly in [[European Union|European Union (EU)]], [[ownership]] of track and train operation is run by separate companies. In the [[United States]] the railroad track system is owned by the railroad companies.<ref name=whoowns>{{cite web |url=http://discoverykids.com/articles/who-owns-the-railroads/ |title=Who owns the railroads? |website=Discovery Kids |publisher=Discovery Communications, LLC |access-date=5 September 2016 |archive-date=4 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004171401/http://discoverykids.com/articles/who-owns-the-railroads/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the 1800s, the [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]] gave large [[land grant]]s to the railroads.<ref name=whoowns/> ==Structure== Many countries have a [[Nationalization|national railway company]] that owns all track and operates all trains in the country. For [[example]], the [[Russian Railways]] (the world's largest rail company by network size). Other countries have many different, sometimes [[Competition|competing]], railway companies that operate each their own lines. This is true in the United States and [[Canada]]. In Europe, the EU requires its members to split the railway companies into a number of different companies. Usually public owned companies own the track and other public companies (sometimes owned by regional governments) own the [[train car]]s. [[Franchising]] is then used t