1802 in rail transport

March events

 * March 24 – Andrew Vivian and Richard Trevithick of Cornwall, England, are granted the first British patent for a steam engine for propelling carriages and other purposes.

June events

 * June 3 – Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad authorised under Act of Parliament, the first granted for a public railway in Wales. Its acquisition of the Carmarthenshire Dock at Llanelly also makes it the world’s first dock-owning public railway company.

September events

 * September 21 – First traffic passes over the Surrey Iron Railway in England.

January births

 * January 10 – Carl Ritter von Ghega, Austrian civil engineer, builder of the Semmering railway (d. 1860).

February births

 * February 2 – Moncure Robinson, builder of the Chesterfield Railroad (d. 1891).

July births

 * July 2 – William Norris, American steam locomotive builder and founder of Norris Locomotive Works (d. 1867).