The basic structure — a nav of icon buttons with aria-current on the active screen — matches bottom navigation. Pairing each icon with a small label beneath it helps; icon-only items need an aria-label to supply an accessible name.
The difference from bottom navigation, covered there, is screen size — a rail sits vertically on wider tablet or desktop screens with room to spare, while bottom navigation lies horizontally at the bottom of a narrow mobile screen within thumb's reach. The difference from a sidebar is width and content — a sidebar is wider, text-list-first, and sometimes holds submenus, while a rail is icon-first, much narrower, and usually holds only top-level destinations with no submenus.
It's common for a rail to reshape into bottom navigation once the viewport narrows past a breakpoint.