On-street running

On-street running or street running is the routing of a railroad track or tramway track running directly along public streets, without any separation. The rails are embedded in the roadway pavement, and the train shares the street directly with pedestrians and automobile traffic. Trains running on a street generally travel at reduced speed for safety reasons.

If there are stations on the section, they can appear similar in style to a tram stop, but often lack platforms, pedestrian islands, or other amenities. Passengers may be required to wait on a distant sidewalk, and then board or disembark directly among mixed traffic in mid-pavement, rather than at curbside.

Rails can also be embedded in the surface of bridges and tunnels like the Inuyama Bridge (Japan) or the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel (US).

This list does not include conventional tram, interurban, light rail or the tram portions of tram-train systems, which usually run in the street.

Notable examples in Canada include:

For tramways the legal separation of a street running trackbed and an exclusive trackbed in urban traffic is given in § 16 BOStrab tramway regulations. Aside from those and industrial spurs (Anschlussbahnen), there are also some street-running railways:

The MTR Light Rail running in and between the new towns of Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and Tin Shui Wai has many sections of on-street running, although the majority of the system runs on their own tracks alongside major roads or elevated, e.g., at the several junctions near Tuen Mun Town Centre.

The steam-powered Darjeeling Himalayan Railway runs along the main street in Darjeeling in West Bengal in India.

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Wikipedia