A street running train is a train which runs on a track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with other users, such as pedestrians, cars and cyclists, thus often being referred to as running in mixed traffic or sharing the road with trains. For safety, street running trains travel more slowly than trains on dedicated rights-of-way.
Stations may appear similar in style to a tram stop, but often lack platforms, pedestrian islands, or other amenities. In some cases, passengers may be required to wait on a distant sidewalk, and then board or disembark by crossing the traffic.
Yass, Yass Tramway from Yass Junction to Yass Town ran down Dutton Street, closed 1988[6]The route is no longer connected, but the tracks in Dutton street and by the station are still present and are on the heritage list. Near the old station is a railwaymuseum.[7][8]
Wiener Lokalbahn – tram-train running on tram tracks in Vienna and Baden and as light rail between the two towns. A section of the light rail tracks in Guntramsdorf runs directly on the Feldgasse narrow street, but without any stops on it.
Linz: on the old Donau bridge at Linz and in the Reindlstrasse on the same line. The street-running line is abandoned, as of 2022 the old bridge has been torn down and was replaced by a new one that doesn't feature street-running tracks.
Weiz Stadt: passenger and freight trains through the street, beside the road, on free track. In the past ran only freight trains, and was the track shorter, and in the middle of the road.(Kapruner Generator Strasse.)
Alem Paraiba: R.Cel.Oscar Cortes, and R.Francisco Basillio da Costa - R.Cap.Medeiros de Rezende - R.Dr.Tavares - R.Capito Mendes- R.Barao de Guararema - R.Visc.do Rio Branco. About two km (1.2 mi). No regular passengertrains. Not in use.
Ontario Street (removed) (to the disappeared car factory) (continues to Louisa St.) (diagonal between the houses) (former track partly still visible from the air)
Louisa Street (From just east of Thomas Street to Catherine Street, Canadian National Railway, originally Niagara St.Catharines Toronto Railway. Electric interurban.(branch from Port Dalhousie-west) (until 1959) removed, continues to Welland Avenue below)
Welland Avenue (From Francis Street to Balfour Street, removed)(continues to Niagara St.)
Raymond Street (depot only)
Niagara Street (continues to Facer St.)
Facer Street (branch to Niagara~on~the~Lake)
Electric interurban network to Port Dalhousie-west, Port Dalhousie-east, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Port Colborne, and Niagara Falls. All tracks on the streets are removed in all places, except(?) Pine Street in Thorold. Freight trains with diesel engines on the streets only from 1959 to the closing in about 2005.
St. Catharines was the center of the Niagara St. Catharines Toronto Railway.
Caroline Street (from Erb Street West to Allen Street West, (CP Rail) tracks removed in 1994. Later reinstalled for ION light rail, in service again as of 2019)(the lightrail follows a different route) The former railway is now a trail - path. (To the south)
Pine Street. To the factory under St. David Street West. Abandoned, but partly still in place. (2020)
Townhill Road East. Abandoned. Was still in place, but now not any more. Tracks at the paper factory in Merrit Street still in place in 2020. Abandoned. Trillium Railway. Originally Niagara St. Catharines Toronto Railway. Electric interurban. (until 1959)
Villiers Street (ran in the median of the roadway from Don Roadway to Cherry Street) (removed sometime between 2012 and 2014; only the ties remain as of 2020)
Lake Shore Boulevard (ran alongside Lake Shore Boulevard from Don Roadway to Carlaw Avenue, travels in the median for about 500 meters before the line branches off)
Costa Rica
Passenger and freight trains on narrow gauge through narrow streets.
San José : Transversal 24, Transversal 142, Av. 20A, Av.20, Calle 13, Av. 2.
Cartago : Av.3, Transversal 13, Av. 1 del comercio. The station is also in Av. 3.
Turrialba : Av. 5, Puente Negro (bridge).
Puerto Limon : Calle 8.
Heredia : Av.10 / Del Ferrocarril. The station is also here.[11]
The rail network is recovering after many years of neglect. There are also new trains, and more level crossing security. Despite this, the trains are honking a lot.
Croatia
Rijeka, freight trains (and occasional passenger trains) run from western to eastern cargo terminal of Port of Rijeka through the city centre.[12]
Cuba
Havana : at station Casablanca. Street without a name. Antique electric interurban. Regular services.
Havana Centre : San Pedro (= street) harbour branch. Presumably abandoned.
Guantánamo : La Linea. (= street)
Czech Republic
Brno : the railway line that connects Brno Exhibition Centre and mainline runs about two km (1.2 mi). along Poříčí street. Touristic (steam) trains run on the Highway, with police escorts.[13]
Germany
For tramways the legal separation of a street running trackbed and an exclusive trackbed in urban traffic is given in § 16 BOStrab tramway regulations. Germany has some street-running railways:
In the northeast of Germany, the steam "Mollibahn" narrow gauge railway travels on-street through the town of Bad Doberan at the start of its journey.
Near Mannheim, the Oberrheinische Eisenbahn and Rhein-Haardt-Bahn are street running through several villages.(tramways)(in the past, also freighttrains ran here)
In Linkenheim, near Karlsruhe, the Hardt Railway was changed to BOStrab (tramway) in 2011 for that reason.
Freight trains using the infrastructure of Rhein-Sieg-Verkehrsgesellschaft to the company Evonik in Niederkassel-Lülsdorf passing the village Sieglar (next to Troisdorf) are running inside the Pastor-Böhm-Straße.
Newly built rail vehicles leave the factory of Bombardier Transportation along the 900-metre (3,000 ft) long Fabrikstraße in Bautzen.
A freight branch of the Main-Neckar Railway features some street running sections in Darmstadt. The line is no longer in regular use, but a short dual gauge section (Kirschen Allee)(Evonik) was until 2015 connected to the metre gaugeDarmstadt tram network allowed old trams to be loaded onto mainline vehicles for export.[14]
Greece
Loutraki : narrow gauge on the street. "Temporary" out of service.
Hong Kong
Light Rail tracks along Tai Fong Street, Tai Hing Estate, Tuen Mun
A section of service track of the H8/H9 BHÉV lines on Kerepesi Road in Budapest was rebuilt as street running in order to allow metro replacement buses to use the path to avoid traffic jams. The railway is only used by maintenance trains, mainly at night. Buses also only operate occasionally.
The only operational road-railway bridge in Hungary where street running happens is at Kisköre on the Tisza. Here, the non-electrified single-track railway carrying the branch line 102 of MÁV runs on the same path as local car traffic. The bridge is closed for road vehicles when trains pass.
India
A Darjeeling Himalayan Railway running through the street in Darjeeling
Gwalior : the narrow gauge railway between Gwalior and Sheopur runs on the middle of the road for approximately 200 meters.
Indonesia
Java : Indonesia used to have an extensive "steam tramways" (more accurately defined as local railways) network, which had many street running sections in various towns and cities in Java. Two sections remain in use in 2021: part of the Wonogiri branch runs along the Slamet Riyadi street in Surakarta, and a short branch to an oil depot in Madiun. The first line is now used for passenger service (including an occasional steam-hauled tourist train),[25] while the latter line is exclusively for petrol freight.[26]
In addition, there were and are many sugar cane narrow gauge lines on Java, and they sometimes also run on or next to the street. A large network is still active, especially around Semboro. The networks of Semboro and Jatiroto are interconnected.[citation needed]
Ireland
Dublin: Freight trains to and from the docks at Dublin share the Alexandra road with cars.
Cork : In Cork, there have been street railways and tramways in the central area of the city, and the Cork and Muskerry Light Railway also had street lines running through the western suburbs, later shared with trams.
Japanese law distinguishes between tramways and railways, but light rail does not exist as a separate category. For instance, the Toyama Light Rail line - with extensive street trackage - is legally a railway but uses low-floor light rail vehicles. Only operations with 'heavy rail' vehicles are listed here. Examples under the jurisdiction of Japan's Railway Law include:
Inuyama Bridge (The bridge on the Meitetsu Inuyama Line runs across the Kiso River. Since 2000 the bridge has been used exclusively by trains, with a new parallel bridge for road traffic.)
Keifuku Electric Railroad (Like the above Keihan lines, Keifuku uses high-profile railway-style vehicles and only includes short sections of street trackage; however the entire network is classified as a tramway.)
Fukui Railway (Operated as a single line, formerly with heavy rail stock, but street running section is legally a tramway.)
Nagoya Railroad's 600V network in Gifu (Abandoned in 2005, this network of street tramways inter-operated with interurban lines - such as the Minomachi, Tagami, Ibi and Tanigumi lines - that were classified as railways and used large, high-floor vehicles. The Minomachi and Tagami lines included short sections of street trackage classified as tramways.)
Niigata Kotsu Railway Line (This interurban line, abandoned in 1999, included a short street running section - legally a tramway - near its Niigata terminus.)
Laos
The rail link across the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos is shared-use, although road traffic stops while trains cross the bridge.[27]
Mexico
Puebla - Cholula : New lightrail on old refurbished railway with parts on the street.
Netherlands
In the harbours of Rotterdam and Dordrecht. In the past in a few more towns. Until 2003 in Deventer.
Hindon : The Taieri Gorge Railway, part of the former Otago Central Railway runs down the middle of a one lane road bridge in Hindon. These tourist passenger trains have the right of way, with only signs warning motorists of trains.[29]
Peru
Aguas Calientes : In Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu, the railway shares the streets with pedestrians, as well as in other towns further up the line. This railway serves as the only way of reaching Machu Picchu from Cusco without walking.[citation needed]
Tacna : railbus from 1923 runs twice a day to Chile. In Tacna on the streets. With loud horn, siren, lights and beacon. Against the traffic. Heritage line. Unique station with railroadmuseum.
Av. Emídio Navarro with Ramal da Lousã track, in Coimbra, Portugal (2007)
Coimbra : An 800-metre (2,600 ft) single-track segment of Ramal da Lousã runs along Emídio Navarro Avenue, immediately southeast of the Coimbra-City station; closed “provisionally” in 2004, track scheduled to be lifted upon total closure of the spur line from Coimbra-B.[d]
Lisbon : A series of short single track segments along Brasília Avenue / India Avenue in riverside southwest Lisbon, links Linha de Cintura with Linha de Cascais and with cargo tracks associated with the harbour. It carries freight traffic only, mostly at night.[e]
Novi Sad : In 1999, Žeželj Bridge, a railway and road bridge in Novi Sad (with separated traffic) was destroyed during NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. As a temporary replacement, a street running Road-Railway Bridge was constructed in 2000. It remained actively used up to 2018, when the new Žeželj Bridge opened, and the dismantling of the temporary bridge began in October that year.
Rača Bridge shared the carriageway with road traffic until 2010, when a dedicated road bridge was built next to it.
On the Orlovat Bridge, a single railway track shares the 2 lane road carriageway.
South Africa
Fauresmith : in 2021 are still rails visible in the road in Voortrekker Road. Abandoned in 2001, buy the line is still present. Except the connection in Springfontein.
Durban, Maydon Wharf(Harbour)(partly abandoned) :
Maydon Wharf Street. Several tracks. Mainline through this area. Formerly also connected in the north.
Parker Road.
Methven Road. Buffer for train in the middle of the road.
partly in Shadwell Road.
Fletcher Road.
Davey Road.
Mcbride Road.
Leuchars Road.
Canal Road - Fish Wharf Street.
Spain
La Pobla de Lillet : a narrow gauge railroad run on narrow streets. Industrial railway from 1905 until 1970. Re-opening for tourists in 2005. 35 km (22 mi)., 600 mm.[30]
Swiss law does not distinguish between trams and railways, making the distinction between street running by trams and that by railways legally indistinct.
Some examples:
The Berninabahn has five sections of street running, in St. Antonio, Le Prese, Miralago, Campocologno, and in Tirano (in Italy), where the approach to the station involves street running and crossing a public square.
Zürich : 1,000-tonne (980-long-ton; 1,100-short-ton) grain trains make up to 4 journeys a day between Bahnhof Hardbrücke and the Swissmill Tower on Sihlquai, following a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) route along Zahnradstrasse, Hardstrasse and Zöllystrasse, including a tram crossing. The driver controls traffic lights manually.[32]
At Schinznach runs a 600mm. narrow gauge rail in/on/through a garden-center. With steam engines. Even drive through a greenhouse ! Unique in the world.
The combined road and rail swing bridge at Preston Marina
Street running railways have been much rarer in the United Kingdom than elsewhere. This is due to 19th-century laws requiring railways to be enclosed by fences, which had the consequence that railways could not be built along existing roads and had to use their own rights of way. In cases where street running was unavoidable, the roads were often legally treated as level crossings with trains and road vehicles not permitted to use them at the same time. Some examples are:
Weymouth: The most notable street running track was the Weymouth Harbour Tramway (despite the name, it was never used for trams and was a heavy-rail route); however this ended service to regular traffic since 1987, and to all traffic since 1999, with track removal starting in 2020.
Porthmadog: The Porthmadog cross town link links the narrow-gauge Welsh Highland and Ffestiniog railways and includes 50 metres of street running over the Britannia Bridge in Porthmadog.[33] The section that runs along a street is closed to road traffic by alternating red stop lights, as if it were an extended level crossing.
Trafford Park: A freight-only street-running railway network was through Trafford Park; only one section alongside Barton Dock Road has seen use in recent years.[when?] This branch is abandoned and partially removed.[34]
Preston: The heritageRibble Steam Railway runs across a swing bridge at the entrance to Preston Marina. The bridge is used by both road and rail traffic, but closed by barriers to road traffic when a train is crossing.
Entries marked with a ∆ denote instances where a railroad is laid alongside a road or in the median of a divided roadway rather than embedded in the road surface.
☆ = in use as far as known.
The Alaska Railroad bridge over the Chena River, located on Fort Wainwright, was previously shared by rail and road traffic. The U.S. Army eventually installed a new road bridge at a crossing downriver from the rail bridge and rerouted the roads accordingly.
From 1912 until April 2000, trains operated approximately 1.25 miles (2 km) down Ninth Street, one of the major arteries of the city. The tracks were built by the Tidewater Southern Railway and later operated by the Union Pacific. Once this line was electric. The line was controversial and the city tried to have them removed for decades. However, a short side-section along B Street from Ninth Street to Twelfth Street remains in active use ☆.
Jack London Square☆: 1st. St. W./Embarcadero W. (from end of road, west of Market St. to Webster St., UP/Amtrak mainline, in use.) Amtrakpassenger trains, and mainlinecontainerfreight trains share the road with pedestrians, cyclists, buses and automobiles, with passenger trains traveling at up to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h).
Glascock St☆, from 29th Ave to Lancaster St, serving Cemex and Miller Mining Company.
Abandoned street-trackage in different streets still in place. (Wood Street, 105th Ave., Union St., Poplar St., 20th St., Louise St., 18th St., 26th St.)[40]
Castor Street from Orange Street to Lander Street and B Street from 5th Street to 1st Street, former Tidewater Southern, now Union Pacific (out of use)(?)
A train on South Mason Street at West Laurel Street in Ft Collins, Colorado
Mason St. (from Cherry St. to W. Pitkin St., BNSF, Tracks still in use though currently within median separated from traffic by curbs) ∆ Freight trains only.
South Gilbert Court ∆ north of Kirkwood Avenue. This line connects the IAIS mainline to the CRANDIC system running beneath the IAIS viaduct but is very rarely used due to the steep grade.
Fort Frances–International Falls International Bridge, connecting to Fort Frances, Ontario Canada. There is no connection to the Canadian rail network through this bridge. No more trains to cross the bridge since the paper mill closed in 2014. The municipality is still hoping to be taken over by another company.[52]
Monroe St. (from Pierre Ave./Atlantic St. to River Drive. Operated by the New York & Greenwood Lake, abandoned 2019) (Final trains leave in 2020, tracks removed)[56]
Richmond St. (between E. Lehigh Ave. and Aramingo Ave., lead to N. Delaware Ave. above, Philadelphia Belt Line Railroad, removed, street realigned due to I-95 realignment)
S. Swanson St. (from S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. above to E. Snyder Ave., still in use, originally ran to E. Oregon, Ave.)
Providence and Worcester Railroad Service to the northernmost piers of the Port of Providence and numerous sidings via Allens Ave. from the Harbor Branch. Tracks in situ, currently(?) classed as "Out of Service" by FRA rules.
Along George Bennett Highway From Beverage Hill Avenue to Benefit Street. While mostly on the side of the road, there are several short sections along the road.
Coombs St. In seldom use by Dallas Terminal Railway from S Harwood St to Atlanta St ☆ (abandoned south of Hardwood St to BART mainline, formerly operated by ATSF)
The tracks on Jones Ave and Emma Koehler were part of the electric railway known as the Texas Transportation Company which ran here and primarily served the Pearl Brewery with antique electric engines from 1917 and 1907. The railway was abandoned in 2001 when the brewery was redeveloped. Both engines have been preserved, along with some track behind the Samuel's Glass Company building. Short sections of track have been re-laid in Emma Koehler, but not in their original positions.[69]
Broadway Avenue ∆ (CN, Still in use, Single track runs down the center of Broadway Avenue for four blocks, trains travel up to 30 mph (50 km/h) through the street)
Monroe Street (WSOR, previously owned by CNW and UP, this line was used until the mid-2000s, and then put out of service. The Wisconsin Southern Railroad refurbished the track in 2015)
Division Street (WC, this section the Wisconsin Central mainline ran down Division Street along people's front yards, considered a bottleneck, the tracks were abandoned in 1996, and were removed later. Trains now run down Broad Street a few blocks east. The track there is owned currently by CN)
^Kyper, Frank (1977). The railroad that came out at night : a book of railroading in and around Boston. Brattleboro, Vt.: S. Greene Press. pp. 13–40. ISBN0-8289-0318-2.
