Commuter rail
The term can refer to systems with a wide variety of different features and service frequencies, but is often used in contrast to rapid transit or light rail.
Some services share similarities with both commuter rail and high-frequency rapid transit; examples include German S-Bahn in some cities, the Réseau Express Régional (RER) in Paris, the S Lines in Milan, many Japanese commuter systems, the East Rail line in Hong Kong, and some Australasian suburban networks, such as Sydney Trains.
They primarily serve lower density suburban areas (non inner-city), generally only having one or two stops in a city's central business district, and often share right-of-way with intercity or freight trains.
Some countries and regions, including Finland, India, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil and Sri Lanka, as well as San Francisco (BART) in the US and Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia, use broad gauge track.
[citation needed] However, the classification as a metro or rapid rail can be difficult as both may typically cover a metropolitan area exclusively, run on separate tracks in the centre, and often feature purpose-built rolling stock.
Examples include the former BR's Regional Railways, France's TER (Transport express régional),[10] Germany's Regionalexpress and Regionalbahn, and South Korea's Tonggeun and Mugunghwa-ho services.
The high-speed services linking Zurich, Bern and Basel in Switzerland (200 km/h (120 mph)) have brought the Central Business Districts (CBDs) of these three cities within 1 hour of each other.
This has resulted in unexpectedly high demand for new commuter trips between the three cities and a corresponding increase in suburban rail passengers accessing the high-speed services at the main city-centre stations (Hauptbahnhof).
In Great Britain, the HS1 domestic services between London and Ashford runs at a top speed of 225 km/h, and in peak hours the trains can be full with commuters standing.
These lines also have many daily commuters, with the number expected to rise even higher upon full completion of the Acharnes Railway Center.
[15][16] In Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, longitudinal (sideways window-lining) seating is widely used in many commuter rail trains to increase capacity in rush hours.
Metrorail operates in the major cities of South Africa, and there are some commuter rail services in Algeria, Botswana, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.
Many Japanese commuter systems operate various stopping patterns to reduce the travel time to distant locations, often using station passing loops instead of dedicated express tracks.
It is notable that the larger Japanese commuter rail systems are owned and operated by for-profit private railway companies, without public subsidy.
They use rolling stocks with a faster maximum speed and have longer stop spacing compared to other lines which only run in the inner urban area, but in order to maximise capacity and throughput, these rolling stocks have longitudinal seatings, 5 pairs of doors in each carriage with large standing spaces like the urban lines, and run as frequent as well.
In India, commuter rail systems are present in major cities and form an important part of people's daily lives.
Well-known examples include BG Voz in Belgrade (Serbia), S-Bahn in Germany, Austria and German-speaking areas of Switzerland, Proastiakos in Greece, RER in France and Belgium, Servizio ferroviario suburbano in Italy, Cercanías and Rodalies (Catalonia) in Spain, CP Urban Services in Portugal, Esko in Prague and Ostrava (Czech Republic), HÉV in Budapest (Hungary) and DART in Dublin (Ireland).
In the centre the RER has high frequency underground corridors where several suburban branches feed similar to a rapid transit system.
While in some major cities S-Bahn services run on separate lines exclusively other systems use the existing regional rail tracks.
Separate tracks have been built for these trains, so they can call frequently without disturbing high-frequent Intercity services parallel to these routes.
Before 2022 Oslo had the largest commuter rail system in the Nordic countries in terms of line lengths and number of stations.
In Spain, Cercanías networks exist in Madrid, Sevilla, Murcia/Alicante, San Sebastián, Cádiz, Valencia, Asturias, Santander, Zaragoza, Bilbao and Málaga.
[20] There are two companies that manage the Catalan commuter network: The Government of Catalonia will assume full control of the current R12 regional line in 2024 and it will be owned by the FGC.
In particular, the Athenian network is undergoing modifications to completely separate it from mainline traffic, by re-routing the tracks via a tunnel underneath the city center.
Between the early 1990s and mid-2010s, there was another system, known as Beovoz, that was used to provide mass-transit service within the Belgrade metropolitan area, as well as to nearby towns, similarly to RER in Paris.
In Russia, Ukraine and some other countries of the former Soviet Union, electrical multiple unit passenger suburban trains called Elektrichka are widespread.
Most North American commuter railways utilize diesel locomotive propulsion, with the exception of services in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and Mexico City; New York's commuter rail lines use a combination of third rail and overhead wire power generation, while Chicago only has two out of twelve services that are electrified.
The networks in each state developed from mainline railways and have never been completely operationally separate from long distance and freight traffic, unlike metro systems.
In contrast, comparable systems of this type are generally rare in the United States and Canada, where peak hour frequencies are more common.
In Asia, the construction of higher speed urban-suburban rail links has gained traction in various countries, such as in India, with the Delhi RRTS, in China, with the Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region intercity railway, and in South Korea, with the Great Train eXpress system.
