First roll-on/roll-off train ferry service

The world's first roll-on/roll-off train ferry service commenced in 1850 and operated across the Firth of Forth between Granton and Burntisland in Scotland – a total distance of 5 miles (8 km). The "floating railway" carried only freight traffic, there being separate passenger ferries. The three (later five) "goods boats", as they became known, carried the wagons – with a maximum capacity of between 20 and 40 depending on the vessel – across the Firth of Forth until the opening of the Forth rail bridge in 1890.

Passengers wishing to travel from Edinburgh to Dundee or Aberdeen up to the opening of the bridge would detrain at Granton on the south shore and be carried north across the firth to Burntisland by "passenger boats", all paddle steamers, of which eventually four would be in operation.