Notably, canal and river traffic can rely on electric traction provided by onshore "mules".
That terminology is borrowed from the original practice of having mules haul barges along canals, and reveals the immense enhancement in efficiency of water-borne transport. A single mule might haul a cart weighing a tonne or so across level land (and far less climbing any sort of grade). The same mule could haul a barge on a flat and still canal carrying 20--40 tonnes of cargo or passengers.
For passengers, the comfort of canal travel (no jostles, bumps, or broken axles as with a coach) was an immense improvement. The effect of the Erie Canal, a four-foot-deep (1.2 m) ditch from the Hudson river to Lake Erie was immense in opening up the US interior in 1825. Further, canals and their locks mean that the work of lifting (or lowering) cargo is done by the "roadbed) (the river) itself. In the case of the Erie Canal, 172m (565 ft) of elevation gain in net.