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I once read that the Paris metro drives on the right, specifically so that it can't interoperate with the mainline railways. I wonder how true that is, though.
by twic 2y ago
I once read that the Paris metro drives on the right, specifically so that it can't interoperate with the mainline railways.
I wonder how true that is, though. The metro is sort of a glorified tramway, and trams have to operate the same way round as street traffic.
- grishka 2y agoHow would that make them not interoperable? A metro system is just an underground electric railway. The only serious difference is how the power is delivered to the trains, it's usually some sort of third rail instead of an overhead wire. The whole "which side it drives on" is moot for trains. There exist regular railways with single-track sections that trains use in different directions. I've seen terminal metro stations with two platforms where only one is used, the train arrives and then goes back into the tunnel the way it came. Many metro systems have separate tunnels for each of the two tracks connecting two stations so this notion of driving on a particular side isn't applicable to them at all.