Street running train

This article is about railways running on public roads. For the physical activity, see Parkour. For the long distance sport, see Road running. For road train, see trackless train.

An NICTD EMU street-running on Michigan City’s 11th Street; United States, in 2009; the street-running track has been replaced with its own right-of-way as of 2023

A tram in Melbourne, Australia

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. Tram and light rail systems frequently run on streets, with light rail lines typically separated from other traffic.

For safety, street running trains travel more slowly than trains on dedicated rights-of-way. Needing to share the right-of-way with motor vehicles can cause delays and pose a safety risk.

Stations on such routes are rare and 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. The last street-station in the United States was in Michigan City, closing in 2022.

Japan

As of November 2024, Japan retains two occurences of heavy rail lines operating on public roads in mixed traffic:

• Otsu, Kansai Region: Keihan Electric Railway: approximately 800 metre section of the Keishin Line between Kamisakaemachi Station and Biwako-Hamaōtsu Station, using 4-car EMUs operating every 15-20 minutes as a through service onto the Kyoto Municipal Subway Green Line; as well as approximately 200 metre section of the Ishiyama Sakamoto Line north of Biwako-Hamaōtsu Station, using 2-car EMUs operating every 6-8 minutes in peak, every 10 minutes off-peak & weekends.
• Kumamoto, Kyushu Region: Kumamoto Electric Railway: approximately 155 metre section of the Fujisaki Line between Fujisakigu-mae Station and Kurokamimachi Station, using 2-car EMUs operating every 15 minutes in peak, every 30 minutes off-peak & weekends. The Fujisaki Line uses its own line-marked, sleepered & ballasted lane of the public road, though there are many locations where vehicles drive across the railway line to access businesses and private homes with no safeworking systems present.

Gallery

• 
  Nottingham trams used on street rail.
• 
  Hong Kong's Light Rail
• 
  Salto Grande Bridge over the dam
• 
  A passenger train running down the centre of Ellen Street, Port Pirie in 1940
• 
  A "Mollibahn" train running through Bad Doberan, Germany
• 
  Train along Jalan Slamet Riyadi, Surakarta, Indonesia
• 
  A Berninabahn train crossing the main square in Tirano
• 
  Ribble Steam Railway street running in Preston Dock
• 
  Columbus & Chattahoochee Railroad running on 9th Street in downtown Columbus
• 
  An Amtrak train running through Jack London Square in Oakland, California
• 
  Keihan 800 series EMU on the on-street section of track on the Keishin Line, Kansai Region, Japan
• 
  Keihan 800 series EMU departing Biwako-Hamaotsu Station, November 2019
• 
  Keihan Electric Railway 2-car EMU, on-street running at Biwako-Hamaotsu, May 2018
• 
  Kumamoto Electric Railway 01-series EMU in with Kumamon AOA wrap. Operating on public roadway.

See also

• Green track
• Reserved track, where vehicles have a separate right of way (typically used in a tram transport context)
• Level crossing
• List of road-rail bridges
• List of road-rail tunnels

External links

• Media related to Street-running trains at Wikimedia Commons