Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron
How would you distinguish between streetcars, light rail, light metros, and metros?
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You can punch holes in this with plenty of exceptions, but
broadly speaking as a rhetorical shortcut I'd say:
- Streetcars run in the street and have stops every couple blocks.
- Light rail runs in a mix of street and off-street and goes to the suburbs with stops every half mile outside downtown.
- Light metro is fully grade separated but trains have 4 railcars or fewer.
- Metro is fully grade separated but trains are longer.
That said, personally I think we should just say "trams" for anything that has the ability to run in the street, metro for anything that inherently requires its own tracks & row, and regional rail for anything that can run on freight tracks (even if it has its own tracks). But sadly I'm not in charge.