Trivia - reserved tram lines running at the nearside of the carriageway.

[Whisky Papa]

I've just been watching a TV drama partly set in Osijek, Croatia. Some scenes have featured the city's trams, which are 1000mm gauge and at the time of filming in 2019 featured modified Tatra T3 vehicles, plus some secondhand Duewag cars from Germany.

What struck me most though was the layout of the tramway, with single lines running on reservations at each side of the carriageway, rather than a double track on one side or in the central resevation of a dual-carriageway. I can't recall seeing anything similar elsewhere, have any of our better-travelled members found this sort layout elsewhere?

I've added a link a to Google Street View, showing the layout near the Zeleno Polje terminus of route 1. All of route 1 seems to adopt this layout, or when running on street, runs close to the kerb rather than in the centre.

 

[izvor]

It's called "gutter running" and I think it is/was quite common, possibly even standard, on tramways in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Further west, including Britain, the norm was for double lines to run in the centre of the street, though not universally. Can't speak for the world beyond Europe.

The arguments for/against either method must include considerations like access to utilities, access to properties, street drainage, road junctions, ease of wiring, impediment to other traffic etc., and (in modern times) street parking. With gutter running around 50% of passengers have to cross 100% of the road to access the stop; with centre running this is reversed. The general growth in road traffic since tramways were conceived has probably favoured centre running, notwithstanding increased safety issues for passengers boarding and alighting into the traffic.

 

[Beebman]

It's called "gutter running" and I think it is/was quite common, possibly even standard, on tramways in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Further west, including Britain, the norm was for double lines to run in the centre of the street, though not universally. Can't speak for the world beyond Europe.

It still exists in a way in Vienna along the main Ringstrasse boulevard with tracks at each side of the road which I'd guess makes it easier for tram stop siting but I've seen mention of it being dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists with some accidents over the years. I'm attaching a photo I took when I was in the city last month, it shows Flexity tram 416 at a stop opposite the Opera House with the track for the opposite direction visible on the other side of the road.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Gutter running is standard on the Pyongyang tramway.

Photos of each line on a Japanese site:

Line 1

Line 2

Line 3

 

[The exile]

It's called "gutter running" and I think it is/was quite common, possibly even standard, on tramways in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Further west, including Britain, the norm was for double lines to run in the centre of the street, though not universally. Can't speak for the world beyond Europe.

The arguments for/against either method must include considerations like access to utilities, access to properties, street drainage, road junctions, ease of wiring, impediment to other traffic etc., and (in modern times) street parking. With gutter running around 50% of passengers have to cross 100% of the road to access the stop; with centre running this is reversed. The general growth in road traffic since tramways were conceived has probably favoured centre running, notwithstanding increased safety issues for passengers boarding and alighting into the traffic.

Centre running is also better if you only have a bi-di single line. The few German examples I know of single-track, on-carriageway (but not central) running can be quite hairy with the modern increased likelihood that other road-users are not local!

 

[Whisky Papa]

Many thanks for all your replies.

My only real experience of the former Austro-Hungarian empire has been in Prague, which doesn't feature gutter running anywhere I can think of, with reserved tracks either central or double tracked on one side of the road. The relatively limited on-street sections run in the centre of the road but I've noticed in recent years, many of the pavements have been built out to meet the lines at the stops on such sections. This obviously makes near-level boarding a possibility as low-floor trams have become commonplace, as well as removing the possibility of traffic failing to stop for boarding/alighting passengers. The few remaining 'step-down into the traffic' stops really stand out now I'm of the age where my knees don't appreciate such manoeuvres!

Thanks for the links at #4, interesting to see a system not likely to be visited by many of us, despite the vintage Tatras.

 

[The exile]

The other disadvantage of gutter running as traffic levels increase is that everything turning in/out of a side road has to cross the tram tracks. I suspect this, rather than any concern for passengers boarding and alighting may have led to realignment as road improvements took place - the bigger the city, the more pressing the need for both.

 

[AlterEgo]

Turin also has gutter running along a few avenues. Here is one example:

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[30907]

The rural Klus branch in Halberstadt, the Naumburg and Kirnitschtal lines come immediately to mindm but no urban ones. All single track.

 

[The exile]

The rural Klus branch in Halberstadt, the Naumburg and Kirnitschtal lines come immediately to mindm but no urban ones. All single track.

I was thinking of a bit of the TWB in Waltershausen, but Streetview suggests that the car concerned was going the wrong way up a one way street (which explains a lot!)
It does still apply elsewhere in the town though - an unwitting motorist can suddenly be confronted by a team coming the other way on the “wrong side of the road”.

 

[Beebman]

I've just remembered a tram trip I made in 1989 in Belgium from Charleroi to La Louvière on what was probably the last remaining 'real' Vicinal route which closed past Anderlues in 1993. I recall that it had some sections of gutter running especially in Anderlues and Binche, and a small section of it survives today in the first of those towns - it's used as the Monument terminus for Charleroi Metro lines M1 & M2 and the best recent photo I can find is at the following Wikimedia link, it's dated 2024 and shows TEC tram 7414 waiting to return to Charleroi:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anderlues_Monument_IMG_0603.jpg

I'd guess that gutter running also existed elsewhere on the Vicinal network in the past.

 

[Whisky Papa]

Turin also has gutter running along a few avenues. Here is one example:

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

The reserved tracks on either side of the roadway is very much what I had in mind, so thanks for the link..

 

[Taunton]

I've just remembered a tram trip I made in 1989 in Belgium from Charleroi to La Louvière on what was probably the last remaining 'real' Vicinal route which closed past Anderlues in 1993. I recall that it had some sections of gutter running especially in Anderlues and Binche, and a small section of it survives today in the first of those towns - it's used as the Monument terminus for Charleroi Metro lines M1 & M2 and the best recent photo I can find is at the following Wikimedia link, it's dated 2024 and shows TEC tram 7414 waiting to return to Charleroi:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anderlues_Monument_IMG_0603.jpg

I'd guess that gutter running also existed elsewhere on the Vicinal network in the past.

I think the Belgian lines, and also some I encountered in East Germany, were a bit different in being just single lines, so operated in both directions on one side of the road. They were often inserted very close to the houses where there was no pavement, in some cases these all had narrow mirrors outside the front door so when you opened your door you could see if there was a tram coming. Not at all compatible with small children in the house. The linked photo is close, but some were a lot closer.

 

[JGurney]

I was thinking of a bit of the TWB in Waltershausen, but Streetview suggests that the car concerned was going the wrong way up a one way street (which explains a lot!)
It does still apply elsewhere in the town though - an unwitting motorist can suddenly be confronted by a team coming the other way on the “wrong side of the road”.

Gmuden, Austria has a narrow street, the Kuferzeile, which is one-way for road vehicles but has trams running both ways on a single bi-directional line.

​

 

[in_luzern]

Gmuden, Austria has a narrow street, the Kuferzeile, which is one-way for road vehicles but has trams running both ways on a single bi-directional line.

In Switzerland, both La Chaux-de-Fonds and Montbovon have sections similar to this this, with tram-trains running on a single line that occupies one side of the street, although unlike the Gmuden example the streets are two-way for road traffic. The one in Montbovon is quite a major road.

Google Street View links:
La Chaux-de-Fonds (Chemin de fer du Jura)
Montbovon (RER Fribourg)

 

[Prime586]

This was how the still-born Merseytram system was planned to run in Liverpool. When the city boundaries were expanded in the 1920s with the new suburbs, the main roads were constructed as dual carriageways with the tramlines running in the central reservations, with the utilities running under the pavements.

When the Merseytram system was proposed, the central reservations were considered too narrow for modern trams and too dangerous for pedestrians to use for tram stops. so the new lines would be built on the wide verges of the pavements. This meant a lot of utilities would need to be moved out into the roads to avoid having to dig the tram tracks up to work on them, and the initial £170m government funding funding along with the remainder of the £225m budget to be provided by borrowing by Liverpool and Knowsley councils. Merseytravel spent £70m the initial project work, which included moving the utilities, the compulsory purchase orders for the route and buying 18km worth of rails in advance (at a cost of £821,000), with £50m of that coming from borrowing.

The projected budget had increased to £316m by this point, and the government refused to fund the increase, so the scheme was cancelled. The rails were sold off at basically scrap price to the Isle Of Man to renew the track for the Douglas Horse Tramway, Crich tram museum and the Black Country Museum.

 

[duesselmartin]

The Bernina Express does a fair bit of gutter running between Brusio and Tirano.

 

[AdamWW]

In Switzerland, both La Chaux-de-Fonds and Montbovon have sections similar to this this, with tram-trains running on a single line that occupies one side of the street, although unlike the Gmuden example the streets are two-way for road traffic. The one in Montbovon is quite a major road.

And in Aigle there is a single track stretch of street running railway featuring trains running in the wrong direction up a one way road, with cars having to pull in to the side to let the train through.

 

[MarcVD]

You mean something like this ? That was Charleroi, a long time ago... pictures found on Internet, none of them belong to me, I was too young to take pictures when this still existed.

 

[jumble]

I've just been watching a TV drama partly set in Osijek, Croatia. Some scenes have featured the city's trams, which are 1000mm gauge and at the time of filming in 2019 featured modified Tatra T3 vehicles, plus some secondhand Duewag cars from Germany.

What struck me most though was the layout of the tramway, with single lines running on reservations at each side of the carriageway, rather than a double track on one side or in the central resevation of a dual-carriageway. I can't recall seeing anything similar elsewhere, have any of our better-travelled members found this sort layout elsewhere?

I've added a link a to Google Street View, showing the layout near the Zeleno Polje terminus of route 1. All of route 1 seems to adopt this layout, or when running on street, runs close to the kerb rather than in the centre.

Although not reserved I found it a bit hairy driving in Bad Schandau following the Kirnitzschtalbahn Tram with trams coming head on a quite narrow road
It certainly qualified as a gutter tramway

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Jul 2026 ==

It's called "gutter running" and I think it is/was quite common, possibly even standard, on tramways in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Further west, including Britain, the norm was for double lines to run in the centre of the street, though not universally. Can't speak for the world beyond Europe.

The arguments for/against either method must include considerations like access to utilities, access to properties, street drainage, road junctions, ease of wiring, impediment to other traffic etc., and (in modern times) street parking. With gutter running around 50% of passengers have to cross 100% of the road to access the stop; with centre running this is reversed. The general growth in road traffic since tramways were conceived has probably favoured centre running, notwithstanding increased safety issues for passengers boarding and alighting into the traffic.

As I understand it in Prague there are some hefty penalties for drivers who do not give priority to tram passengers crossing from the middle
Certainly on our visit last year the car drivers were meticulous in observing this by stopping and waiting and we never felt unsafe.
Of course if you are bought up driving in a place where this will happen you naturally expect it and drive accordingly

 

[Beebman]

This video has some 1980s amateur film of SNCV trams in and around La Louvière and in particular the section from 7:14 onwards has footage of the more modern BN-built vehicles doing some very hairy single-track running on the wrong side and in the centre of busy roads:

The start of that section could well have been filmed in Binche as it brings back memories of my trip from Charleroi to La Louvière in 1989 which went through the town.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

The Woltersdorf tramway in Germany has sections with bidirectional running on one side of the road, which can be seen in the first few minutes of this video.

 

[MarcVD]

The start of that section could well have been filmed in Binche as it brings back memories of my trip from Charleroi to La Louvière in 1989 which went through the town.

All of that has been filmed in La Louvière. I spent all my childhood there and have ridden all those tracks and trams extensively until their end.

 

[izvor]

All of that has been filmed in La Louvière. I spent all my childhood there and have ridden all those tracks and trams extensively until their end.

Oh I envy you! That interurban line, west of Anderlues, was an exhilarating ride, all single track with passing places, across country and along village streets, veering from one side of the road to the other and back just to annoy motorists it seemed. And the SNCV motormen took no prisoners with them, sounding the horn/klaxon if a confrontation looked likely, before even considering applying the brake! Defensive driving was definitely not on the menu there. Shame it couldn't last, especially since most or all of the track and overhead was renewed not long before it closed, I seem to remember.

 

[AdamWW]

The Woltersdorf tramway in Germany has sections with bidirectional running on one side of the road, which can be seen in the first few minutes of this video.

And if I recall correctly, unlike the Kirnitzschtalbahn it doesn't even have signs warning drivers they might meet a tram heading straight towards them.

I thought that gutter running only referred to single track tramways that have trams running facing oncoming traffic so I have perhaps learned something here.

The relatively limited on-street sections run in the centre of the road but I've noticed in recent years, many of the pavements have been built out to meet the lines at the stops on such sections. This obviously makes near-level boarding a possibility as low-floor trams have become commonplace, as well as removing the possibility of traffic failing to stop for boarding/alighting passengers.

They seem to have quite a few stops where the carriageway is built up to pavement height between the tram line and the pavement. So road vehicles can still use the outer carriageway but as well as acting as a platform it provides a sort of speed bump which presumably encourages appropriate behaviour when a tram is stopped.

Slightly off-topic, but you can do a pleasant trip getting the Woldersdorf tramway in one direction, then a quite pretty lakeside walk and then the Rüdersdorf tramway back towards Berlin. No gutter running but interesting nevertheless as it's narrow gauge and has an interestingly varied fleet. And some unusual stations on single track sections with platforms on both sides as the single ended trams only have doors on one side.

 

[Whisky Papa]

As I understand it in Prague there are some hefty penalties for drivers who do not give priority to tram passengers crossing from the middle
Certainly on our visit last year the car drivers were meticulous in observing this by stopping and waiting and we never felt unsafe.

I'd agree there must be such penalties. Personally, I think the almost total lack of cycle traffic helps too.

For 'general' tourists, I think the only such stop likely to be encountered now is the outbound stop at Újezd, for the Petřín funicular. It certainly caused some complaint from older members of my family when we were all staying at a hotel around the corner, but mostly on step height rather than traffic worries.

Brew-pub completists may also find Nuselská radnice outbound and Orionka inbound on their radar. The latter is like Újezd, approaching a junction where the nearside lane is too valubale to sacrifice, but I'm not sure why the former hasn't had the pavement built out to it.

Of course if you are bought up driving in a place where this will happen you naturally expect it and drive accordingly

Possibly one for another thread, but the leeway automatically given to bus drivers there is something quite alien to British eyes!

 

[Beebman]

Oh I envy you! That interurban line, west of Anderlues, was an exhilarating ride, all single track with passing places, across country and along village streets, veering from one side of the road to the other and back just to annoy motorists it seemed. And the SNCV motormen took no prisoners with them, sounding the horn/klaxon if a confrontation looked likely, before even considering applying the brake! Defensive driving was definitely not on the menu there. Shame it couldn't last, especially since most or all of the track and overhead was renewed not long before it closed, I seem to remember.

I remember that some of the interurban line west of Anderlues had new OLE which wouldn't have looked out of place on an SNCB main line! As I said I made my trip in September 1989 and in La Louvière there was a lot of intact infrastructure still in place from closed routes, at least one of which had only stopped just 18 months before I went. I recall an article at the time in 'Modern Tramway' which said that plans were in place for infrastructure renewals for the recently closed lines in order to provide feeders into the Charleroi Metro system but if that was true then like so many plans for that city's transport it never happened.

 

[AdamWW]

I'd agree there must be such penalties. Personally, I think the almost total lack of cycle traffic helps too.

I find Prague a bit odd in that on the one hand it has a very impressive public transport system. But also an awful lot of road traffic often moving at speeds that seem a bit excessive to me for city streets.

 

[izvor]

I remember that some of the interurban line west of Anderlues had new OLE which wouldn't have looked out of place on an SNCB main line!

Yes and the track on the off-street sections was relaid with heavy rail that looked rather ridiculous on the metre gauge. However it did allow for some decent speeds. I seem to remember a long period of line closure in the 1980s for rebuilding.

The whole Charleroi Light Metro scheme was an expensive but half-baked (and half-completed) farce, born out of Belgium's ethnic division and the perceived need for something grand in industrial Wallonia. Along the way it killed off several existing lines that were useful.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Yes and the track on the off-street sections was relaid with heavy rail that looked rather ridiculous on the metre gauge. However it did allow for some decent speeds. I seem to remember a long period of line closure in the 1980s for rebuilding.

The whole Charleroi Light Metro scheme was an expensive but half-baked (and half-completed) farce, born out of Belgium's ethnic division and the perceived need for something grand in industrial Wallonia. Along the way it killed off several existing lines that were useful.

It certainly should have been something more, and even with the current upgrades, it needs plans for better connections in some areas like from Gosselies to the airport, but soon the network will have 5 branches soon I believe (with the resurrected line to the new hospital in eastern Charleroi), serving the key areas of the city with some quite high quality transport infrastructure for a city of its size.
As someone who grew up in a comparably sized British city, I'm very envious of what Charleroi has and wish our mid-sized cities had anything similar!