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Countries where rail traffic drives on a different side to road traffic

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blueberry11

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I am looking for countries where rail traffic runs on a different side to road traffic.

I think it mostly matches but there are anomalies. For example, France, Switzerland and Sweden all drive cars on the right, but they (mostly) run railways on the left. I know that road and rail traffic are kept separate, but is it the equivalent to driving from France to the UK where you have to adjust to having things on the wrong side?

With metro systems, it varies. The Paris Metro runs on the right, but not the RER (roughly equivalent to Germany's S-bahn or UK's Crossrail) I suppose. Trams also normally match sides with road traffic since they may share the road with cars.

Plus, what would happen if the trains cross from Belgium (which runs on the left) to the Netherlands (right)? Does that mean making a grade separated junction or just signals switching sides?
 
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rvdborgt

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blueberry11 said:
Plus, what would happen if the trains cross from Belgium (which runs on the left) to the Netherlands (right)? Does that mean making a grade separated junction or just signals switching sides?
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Trains run on the left side south of Roosendaal and Maastricht. Trains on the high speed line run on the left south of Barendrecht. There's a fly-over between Rotterdam Lombardijen and Barendrecht to switch sides. Neerpelt-Weert is single track :)
There also used to be a fly-over between Hergenrath and Aachen but that disappeared when they upgraded the line to 160 km/h.
 
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Sir Felix Pole

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Alsace-Lorraine in France has right-hand running, unlike the rest of the country, due to German control from 1870 to 1918. It was never converted back to left-hand running after WW1 because of the economic situation. The old main line near Thionville / Metz has a flyover to effect the change.
 
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Tester

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Note the unusual example of Indonesia, where roads are left hand running but railways right.
 
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nwales58

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Trams, rail traffic too, run on the same side as road traffic but in some places with single-ended trams you find opposite side running for island platforms in tunnels.

When Sweden switched road traffic from left to right in 1967 Gothenburg had both left and right running single-ended trams in pairs coupled back to back to cope (left running vehicles were converted progressively before and after the changeover).
 
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Taunton

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USA policy is by railroad. The major Chicago & Northwestern was left-hand running, and now it's a significant part of the Union Pacific these routes continue as such, including several Chicago area commuter lines. There have been others there in the past, where the term "Southpaw lines" is used, from the USA expression about left-handed baseball players. There are also some significant stretches on other lines, generally for historic reasons of how the line was doubled, rather than overall policy, including the major BNSF main line from Los Angeles east to Kansas City. There's a distinctive, and well known to enthusiasts, rollover flyover at the top of Cajon Pass out of Los Angeles, where the running side changes.

There's a USA Federal requirement that as locomotive cabs have the control stand on the right hand side, signals must be to the right as well. This leads to these lines notably having signals on gantries over the tracks.
 
LNW-GW Joint

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I travelled on the new Léman Express route between Geneva and Annemasse recently, and was surprised to find my train running on the right.
That's despite both CH and FR normally being left hand running.
Now it may be that they were using bi-di signalling, like most new lines, where trains can and do use both lines in both directions.

I still like the notion of local exceptions.
Austria still has some left-hand running around Graz*, and in Spain the old Norte network (Irun-Medina del Campo-Madrid Principe Pio) is still left-hand.
The Austro-Hungarian network pre-1918 was largely left-hand, extending into today's CZ/SK, Italy, Slovenia, Poland and Ukraine.

* I think this will change when the Koralmbahn opens next year, or maybe when the Semmering tunnel opens.
 
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30907

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blueberry11 said:
I am looking for countries where rail traffic runs on a different side to road traffic.

I think it mostly matches but there are anomalies. For example, France, Switzerland and Sweden all drive cars on the right, but they (mostly) run railways on the left. I know that road and rail traffic are kept separate, but is it the equivalent to driving from France to the UK where you have to adjust to having things on the wrong side?
Click to expand...
(Currently in France with a UK car!)

The adjustments you have to make are basically remembering to drive on the right, and to overtake on the left (and where the gear stick is on a hire car!). None of that is relevant to rail vehicles for obvious reasons.

I suspect the greatest danger in the "mixed" situations is to users of footpath crossings on double-track lines, where it might be automatic to look the wrong way first. As I did yesterday crossing a road..... safely.
 
duesselmartin

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Austria and Sweden used to drive on the left side of the road.

As to Austrian rail, it used to be a bit of a jumble until recently when bi -directional but standard right hand running became norm.
 
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DanielB

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rvdborgt said:
Trains run on the left side south of Roosendaal and Maastricht.
Click to expand...
However, only international trains do that in both directions south of Maastricht.
Domestic trains have a very awkward track usage south of Maastricht: two trains run parallel to each other from Maastricht to Maastricht Randwyck and back. So one of them runs on the left to Randwyck and back on the right, the other one on the right to Randwyck and back on the left.
 
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Beebman

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South Korea has railways on the left and traffic driving on the right. Metros however run on the right and that's led to an unusual situation in Seoul where there's a mix of metro lines - some are operated by Seoul Metro and run on the right while others belong to the state rail operator Korail and run on the left. However that's not a totally hard and fast rule, for example Line 1 operated by Seoul Metro runs on the left because it was built by KNR (the forerunner to Korail).
 
ac6000cw

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Taunton said:
There are also some significant stretches on other lines, generally for historic reasons of how the line was doubled, rather than overall policy, including the major BNSF main line from Los Angeles east to Kansas City. There's a distinctive, and well known to enthusiasts, rollover flyover at the top of Cajon Pass out of Los Angeles, where the running side changes.
Click to expand...
It's called 'Frost' on the railroad, and is about 15 miles northeast of Cajon summit (near Victorville). Frame grab from some 16 year old video of mine below. The upper train is heading west towards Cajon and LA, the lower one east towards Barstow (with three different loco liveries, including BN green), so running left-hand west and right-hand east of here - but nowadays it's bi-directional multi-track CTC in this area so the 'current of traffic' is somewhat nominal (including on the three BNSF tracks on the west slope of Cajon Pass).

BNSF Flyover at Frost, CA 3.jpg

There's a USA Federal requirement that as locomotive cabs have the control stand on the right hand side, signals must be to the right as well. This leads to these lines notably having signals on gantries over the tracks
Click to expand...

...as illustrated by this both-directions BNSF gantry on the west slope of Cajon Pass (eastwards/uphill is to the left):

Cajon signal gantry.jpg
 
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jamesontheroad

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As others have noted, Sweden switched sides for road traffic on "Dagen H", 3 September 1967. Strangely, pedestrian and bicycle traffic on shared footpaths did not. in the local newspapers where I live, it's often a point of complaint on the letters page that incomers to Sweden are not being properly educated to observe a rule about walking/cycling on the left when using shared footpaths!
 
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Bemined

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blueberry11 said:
I know that road and rail traffic are kept separate, but is it the equivalent to driving from France to the UK where you have to adjust to having things on the wrong side?
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Similar to cars, some locomotives have the driver controls one side rather than in the middle of the cab, so when you drive on the other side you sit on the 'wrong' side of the cab. Some Belgian locomotives are only allowed to drive in the Netherlands with the short end in front for that reason, as otherwise the driver has a limited view to the signals when driving on the right hand side. So you only see those locomotives operating in dual mode with the long noses in the middle on cross-border trains.
 
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blueberry11

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Tester said:
Note the unusual example of Indonesia, where roads are left hand running but railways right.
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Yeah, the page on Wikipedia states that 'Indonesia is the only country in the world which has RHT for rails (even for newer rail systems such as the LRT and the MRT systems) and LHT for roads'. Meaning, it includes the brand new high speed rail which tops at 350 km/h (~215 mph). This seems like a very unusual case where Indonesia will always continue to run and build new railways on the right side where road traffic is on the left.

Also, regarding metro systems, although it is inconsistent, they tend to match the side road traffic drives on. I do think there is one part of the London Underground Northern line where trains run on the right side for some reason. But since it is on a tunnel, there is no confusion. It would feel weird crossing from Belgium to the Netherlands now that you have to drive on the right side and vice versa.

Sweden is in an odd position in which rail traffic is on the left (given that the change of road traffic was not a very long time ago) surrounded by RHT rail traffic.

And as a side note, I do think that water traffic is always on the right side when navigating rivers.
 
Austriantrain

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LNW-GW Joint said:
Austria still has some left-hand running around Graz*,

* I think this will change when the Koralmbahn opens next year, or maybe when the Semmering tunnel opens.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, next year (everything around the Semmering is already right-hand running).

However, left-hand running will remain on the Franz-Josefs-Bahn from Vienna to Tulln.
 
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Gag Halfrunt

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Beebman said:
South Korea has railways on the left and traffic driving on the right. Metros however run on the right and that's led to an unusual situation in Seoul where there's a mix of metro lines - some are operated by Seoul Metro and run on the right while others belong to the state rail operator Korail and run on the left. However that's not a totally hard and fast rule, for example Line 1 operated by Seoul Metro runs on the left because it was built by KNR (the forerunner to Korail).
Click to expand...

Korea had left hand traffic on the roads during the Japanese colonial era (1910-1945). After the surrender of Japan at the end of the Second World War, the US army occupying the south and the Soviet army occupying the north imposed right hand traffic.

Seoul Subway Line 1 has left hand traffic because most of the route runs over mainline railway lines, similar to the RER or the Elizabeth Line.
 
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dutchflyer

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To be very precise: NL has on all modernised sectors what we call ´double single´ or bi-directional on both tracks. All the signalling is laid out for that. Though the majority remains right-hand in normal traffic.
Another topic might be how they organise it on 4-track sectors, where there is most often a set for the fast trains and a set for the slow/regional.
I somehow recall that once read that dating from the days of old yore from the steam loco it was easier for the loco-drivers to run left hand, but have forgotten why. This was quoted as to why BE keeps is-the first country on the continent to get a railway. But then I also guess that in the first decades most lines were just single anyway.
 
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etr221

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blueberry11 said:
Also, regarding metro systems, although it is inconsistent, they tend to match the side road traffic drives on. I do think there is one part of the London Underground Northern line where trains run on the right side for some reason. But since it is on a tunnel, there is no confusion. It would feel weird crossing from Belgium to the Netherlands now that you have to drive on the right side and vice versa.
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LU Northern Line from Borough to Bank and Victoria Line Warren Street to Kings Cross are 'right hand' running in separate single line tunnels - latter I think for best arrangement of the platforms at Euston. Central Line through White City is 'right hand' running in the open, with a flyover between there and East Acton - this is a result of the way the line was extended west from Shepherds Bush.

And the Welsh Highland Railway has right hand running through at least some of the station loops.
 
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dutchflyer said:
To be very precise: NL has on all modernised sectors what we call ´double single´ or bi-directional on both tracks. All the signalling is laid out for that. Though the majority remains right-hand in normal traffic.
Click to expand...
Signaling for left-hand running in NL can be very basic though, stopping regimes for level crossings are often omitted, intermediate signals might be missing and some junctions may not be passed at like speed as some distant signals on the left hand track can only show a yellow aspect.
 
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MarcVD

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dutchflyer said:
To be very precise: NL has on all modernised sectors what we call ´double single´ or bi-directional on both tracks. All the signalling is laid out for that. Though the majority remains right-hand in normal traffic.
Click to expand...
Same for Belgium. Normal traffic is on the left but the whole network is equipped with bidirectional signaling (the wrong main signals are flashing), even the 4 tracks sections.
 
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DanielB

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blueberry11 said:
Plus, what would happen if the trains cross from Belgium (which runs on the left) to the Netherlands (right)? Does that mean making a grade separated junction or just signals switching sides?
Click to expand...
That Belgian trains run on the left south of Roosendaal was already mentioned, but with regards to signals switching sides there also is some dedicated signage: the Dutch signals between Essen and Roosendaal are equipped with signs displaying an arrow pointing to the track the signals belong to.

Also not yet mentioned is the short section with left hand running in the middle of the country: from Utrecht Central till Blauwkapel junction the fast lines (used by IC services to and from Amersfoort) are left hand running. This situation exists since fly-overs were built at Utrecht Central and Utrecht - Blauwkapel was doubled to four tracks, effectively moving the switch back to right hand running for the reversing trains from Gouda to Amersfoort to a location outside city limits (with much more space).
Sprinters from Baarn and Amersfoort towards Utrecht also use the fast lines (left hand running) and then branch off to platform 3 at Utrecht Overvecht back onto the slow lines (and right hand running again) allowing them to cross the branch line to Hilversum grade separated.
 
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MarcVD

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Brussels Metro has some lines running on the right and some on the left.

And then there is this infamous line on the Charleroi metro which switches from the right to the left somewhere in the middle...
 
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Czechoslovakia changed from left to right hand driving in 1939. The Nazis speeded the changeover, but preparations were already well under way before they invaded. The work to change over the Prague tramway network must have been considerable - every facing point would have become trailing and v.v.
 
Austriantrain

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Belperpete said:
Czechoslovakia changed from left to right hand driving in 1939. The Nazis speeded the changeover, but preparations were already well under way before they invaded. The work to change over the Prague tramway network must have been considerable - every facing point would have become trailing and v.v.
Click to expand...

Considering tramways, same in Vienna in 1938.
 
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etr221 said:
And the Welsh Highland Railway has right hand running through at least some of the station loops.
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That is something you see in NL as well, several stations have left-hand running at passing loops on single-track lines. At some locations this is even predefined in the signaling, the points are automatic and there is no way to signal the train into the right-hand track.
 
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JonasB

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blueberry11 said:
Plus, what would happen if the trains cross from Belgium (which runs on the left) to the Netherlands (right)? Does that mean making a grade separated junction or just signals switching sides?
Click to expand...

While I don't know what it looks like on that border, but outside Malmö it looks like this where trains change side: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ik8pV2VReVkpde9d8

nwales58 said:
When Sweden switched road traffic from left to right in 1967 Gothenburg had both left and right running single-ended trams in pairs coupled back to back to cope (left running vehicles were converted progressively before and after the changeover).
Click to expand...

One of the older left hand trams is preserved and in working order. https://www.ringlinien.org/sv/vagnhallen/bevarade-spaarvagnar/m25-582/ With rear lights mounted in the window.

blueberry11 said:
Sweden is in an odd position in which rail traffic is on the left (given that the change of road traffic was not a very long time ago) surrounded by RHT rail traffic.
Click to expand...

It has been a bit odd, but wasn't a problem until 2000. A lines to Norway are single track, trains to Denmark and Germany had to use a ferry and Finland has a different gauge. But when the Öresund bridge was built a solution was needed and trains now change side a bit north of Malmö.
 
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