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

[The exile]

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.

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Oh for a Time Machine!

 

[Beebman]

Back in 1975 I went on a family holiday to Brussels and we stayed in a hotel on the Place Rogier where there was a tram terminus. I remember spending some time there watching the trams and my Dad took some cine film of them. We both thought that they were part of the city network but it wasn't until many years later that I discovered that they were actually Vicinal ones, they ended there in 1978 and I've often kicked myself that we didn't go for a ride on them (although I think my Mum would have objected!). I've found a photo taken in 1977 of one of the Type N trams on the Grimbergen route (source) which appears to show some double track gutter running. (although it might be a passing loop?)

 

[StephenHunter]

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.

May I ask what the drama's called?

 

[Whisky Papa]

May I ask what the drama's called?

It was called The Silence, it is available free on All4's Walter Presents collection of foreign dramas - it is subtitled from Croatian and some scenes in either Russian or Ukranian.

As well as Osijek, it features a few scenes in pre-conflict Kyiv, or mid-conflict in tbe second series. It's quite a tough watch at times, I should add.

Edited to fix quote, although I'd also like to add my thanks for all the posts, particularly the Belgian SNCV scenes.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Jul 2026 ==

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.

That's an interesting comment, and I would agree there definitely is more traffic in the centre than might be hoped for, given the public transport provision and the presence of a comprehensive system of tunnels to keep through traffic out. However, as a pedestrian and public transport user I've always found the motor traffic relatively compliant, certainly as far as its interactions with trams and buses goes.

The only place I've felt it to be moving intrusively fast is on the major remaining through route, ie the N-S axis that passes in front of Praha Hlavní nádraží - which perhaps makes it more prominent to users of this forum than 'general' tourists?

As a comparison, I found the speed and volume of the motor traffic in Paris genuinely alarming!

 

[AdamWW]

That's an interesting comment, and I would agree there definitely is more traffic in the centre than might be hoped for, given the public transport provision and the presence of a comprehensive system of tunnels to keep through traffic out. However, as a pedestrian and public transport user I've always found the motor traffic relatively compliant, certainly as far as its interactions with trams and buses goes.

The only place I've felt it to be moving intrusively fast is on the major remaining through route, ie the N-S axis that passes in front of Praha Hlavní nádraží - which perhaps makes it more prominent to users of this forum than 'general' tourists?

I think my views might be excessively coloured by having stayed in a hotel on that route, where the traffic seems to move unreasonably fast for what is actually a residential area.

But also I was somewhat unimpressed by the seeing what would otherwise be rather nice squares somewhat spoiled by being turned into a car park.

 

[The exile]

The only place I've felt it to be moving intrusively fast is on the major remaining through route, ie the N-S axis that passes in front of Praha Hlavní nádraží - which perhaps makes it more prominent to users of this forum than 'general' tourists?

Have to confess that it wasn’t until about my fifth or sixth stay in Prague (mostly rail related!) that I even realised that road existed!

 

[Beebman]

Gutter running is standard on the Pyongyang tramway.

Photos of each line on a Japanese site:

Line 1

Line 2

Line 3

Just randomly spotted this 6-year-old video on a Japanese site, it's 20 minutes long and shows a tram front view between Pyongyang Circus Theater and Pyongyang Station with gutter running:

The front view (Cab view) video from KT8D5K (Car No.1002). This is the first video in the world. The tram is going through the section (from Pyongyang Circus Theater to Pyongyang Station), which is the main attraction of Pyongyang Tram Line 1 (Songsang - Pyongyang Railway Station). From the train window, you can see the Kwangbok Department Store, the Ryugyong Hotel, Potonggang station, Pyongyang Metro Hwanggumbol Station, etc., and enjoy a variety of car windows.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

That's the same site.

 

[Beebman]

That's the same site.

It was a different one where I found it but yes I see now there's videos right down the bottom of the linked page where the photos are.

 

[Gordon]

One or two comments on what has been said so far:

1) gutter running can of course occur 'by default' if the double track tramway runs along a 'two-way' road narrow enough. One example is on route 68 in Marseille which was one of the three French original tramways that survived the disintegration of French street tramway systems contemporary with the same fate of tramways in Britain

2) In Switzerland, where the 'difference' between a tramway and a 'light railway' has always been fuzzy, there were lots of examples of single track gutter running. On the WSB in Aarau 'against the traffic' running on single track survived until quite recently on a busy road section. In many places in Switzerland where this occurs, lines have been diverted off the road or the road furniture changed to cater for 'reserved track' running

3) Mention has been made of the Bernina Railway at the southern end of the line. This occurs notably in Le Prese, where long trains fight with heavy traffic along a narrow main street. This came about because the Bernina Railway was built as a light railway and until late 20th century tourism arrived only small trains ran; today's train lengths and road traffic density were never envisaged by the builders.

Taking the Le Prese example a step further - we do of course have street running featuring huge trains in the Americas - notably in Jack London Square, Oakland

 

[The Pelican]

Taking the Le Prese example a step further - we do of course have street running featuring huge trains in the Americas - notably in Jack London Square, Oakland

And, until recently, on the South Shore line out of Chicago to Michagan City. It looks to have been a single track in the middle of the road, which seems the obvious place to put a single track rail line to me. I've always liked the double decker railway carriages that line operates- double decker trams were extreamly rare on American interurbans and streetcars during their heyday, so it's great to see a modern street running double decker train!

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

The Kochi tramway in Japan has bidirectional gutter running.

Коти, Naniwa Kōki № 801; Коти — Движение по системе Straßenbahn-Gegenverkehr — Фото

Крупнейшая фотогалерея городского электротранспорта России и мира. Базы подвижного состава, видеокаталог.

transphoto.org

Kamobe — Akebonocho higashimachi
Operation via the Straßenbahn-Gegenverkehr system.
Outbound trams face oncoming traffic that is obliged to pull over on the 'wrong' side of the road to yield for trams.
The tram in this photo nevertheless moves at the full speed.

 

[py_megapixel]

For some reason there is a short section of road in Sheffield that uses this arrangement.

It's only just over 200m long and I'm not really sure why it's built like this. At one end the trams join the carriageway and run in mixed traffic, and at the other end they cross the carriageway and enter the central reservation.

 

[Tester]

For some reason there is a short section of road in Sheffield that uses this arrangement.

It's only just over 200m long and I'm not really sure why it's built like this. At one end the trams join the carriageway and run in mixed traffic, and at the other end they cross the carriageway and enter the central reservation.

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That is very interesting - hopefully someone will be along to tell us!

 

[edwin_m]

That is very interesting - hopefully someone will be along to tell us!

At a guess it's to reduce conflicts with other traffic at the junction with City Road.

 

[sk688]

The Luas Green Line has a similar arrrangement for northbound services when crossing Westmoreland Street in the City Centre but it's only a short stretch of street from College Green to O'Connell Bridge

 

[StephenHunter]

How did it work with the LCC tramways in London?

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

The Luas Green Line has a similar arrrangement for northbound services when crossing Westmoreland Street in the City Centre but it's only a short stretch of street from College Green to O'Connell Bridge

Also a one-way section of tramway on a wide (one-way for general traffic too) single carriageway, so gutter running is perhaps more logical in that situation.

There's a more extensive example of gutter running in the current proposals for Luas Cork - see https://luascork.ie/media/pjlnqdfo/luas-cork-map-book-4-cork-city-east-a3-web_18th-may.pdf (pages 12 through 21, on Churchyard Lane, Skehard Road and Blackrock Avenue). I think the reason here is to enable the trams to share bus lanes (which don't currently exist but will have been implemented under a separate project before Luas gets built).

 

[izvor]

Mention has been made of the Bernina Railway at the southern end of the line. This occurs notably in Le Prese, where long trains fight with heavy traffic along a narrow main street.

Le Prèse in 2008, note train and car both going "wrong road"!