How about a rail running list for various countries!

[richb]

How about starting a list of which side (right or left) for multi rail lines in various countries around the world.
Example:
USA: mostly right side
Japan: left side tracks
U.K.: left side tracks
Mexico: right side
France: ?
Spain: ?
Italy: ?
Germany: ?
Netherlands: ?
Russia: ?
China: ?
Austria: ?
New Zealand: ?
Chile: right side
Peru: right side
Argentina: ?

[USRailFan]

USA: mostly right side
Japan: left side tracks
U.K.: left side tracks
Mexico: right side
France: Right
Spain: I think right
Italy: ?
Germany: Definately right
Netherlands: ?
Russia: Right
China: Left
Austria: Partly left, partly right (I think the change is at Salzburg). Locos set up with driver's position at right, or in the middle
New Zealand: ?
Chile: right side
Peru: right side
Argentina: Almost certainly right
Norway: Right
Sweden: Left
Denmark: Right

[richb]

What about trains?

It is the signaling equipment that determines whether a double track railway goes on the left or on the right. Many modern main-line railways are equipped to allow traffic at full speed in either direction on either track, and in some cases it is normal to use both tracks for trains in the same direction simultaneously. On tracks with older signaling equipment, as well as on lines with heavy traffic such as metros and suburban traffic, each track is almost always used in one direction only. Most railway authorities then have a general rule. (Jens Brix Christiansen)

Here are the rules for a few countries:

Left: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK.
Right: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, USA.

It is important that road traffic be consistently on the same side of the road, but since railways are highly controlled and don't always interconnect, there are many exceptions to the general rules of train operation.

Most trains in the United Kingdom operate on the left, and the driver sits on the left, allowing a better view of trackside signals and the possibility of sticking one's head out the window without it getting knocked off by a train on the other track (Thomas Murphy), although I doubt that many modern train drivers stick their heads out their windows very often when running at speed. There are a number of short sections on the London Underground where for one reason or another trains operate on the right -- for example, the Northern Line at Bank Station. On the line from Glasgow to Fort William in Scotland, trains keep to the right at stations because the station platform is an island between two tracks, and the train operator, who sits on the left, can more easily view the platform. (Martin Rich)

In France (where cars keep to the right), trains run on the left as a legacy from the days when they were first constructed by English engineers with equipment imported from England. "When the Paris Métro was being built (the first line opened in 1900) there was some debate about the rule of the road. The city authorities were quite keen to maintain their autonomy from central government which had been suggesting the metro should be built to allow troop movements within the city in the event of civil commotion. The first lines were only a short way below the surface and along the lines of streets so it was logical to have right hand running." (Notre Métro by Dr. J. Robert, reported by Norman Bartlett) French railways in Alsace-Lorraine run on the right, as it wasn't worthwhile converting them when the territory was returned to France. (Mark Brader)

In Korea, trains drive on the left, presumably because the railroad system was built by the Japanese (who drive on the left) when Korea was a Japanese colony. The Seoul subway, on the other hand, was constructed beginning in the 1980s with French aid; by that time, Korean and French drivers were both driving on the right, so the subway does too, except for one line which connects directly to the National Railway, and which therefore must be on the left. "It can be confusing when deciding which side of a concourse to board a train," says Douglas Clark.

In Russia, most trains run on the right, except for the line between Moscow and Ryazan, which was designed and built by British engineers (reported by Sergey Fedosov). Metros run on the right except for the Nizhniy Novgorod metro line 2, which runs on the left for easier interchanges with line 1; apparently this is a temporary measure and when the lines are extended past their interchange at Moskovskaya station, they will both revert to right-hand running (Andrey Chernyakhovsky).

In Taiwan, trains drive on the left because the railroads were mostly built during the period of Japanese rule -- and the Japanese drive on the left. Taiwan has since changed to driving on the right but the old trains remain on the left. The new Taipei Rapid Transit System, built in the 1990s with French aid, keeps to the right. (Justin Jih)

In the USA and Canada, trains keep to the right, with one major exception: the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. The line's construction was financed by British capital, which may have influenced the track plans. It may also be that the stations were arbitrarily placed all on one side of the tracks when the line was single-track, and when the second track was added it was impractical to change all the station alignments so the outbound track ended up on the left. (Don Howard, Eric Zimmerman) Another exception can be found in the approaches to New York City's Grand Central Station, which were run left-handed around 1900 because the new arrivals section of the terminal was built on the only available land, on the wrong side of the tracks. The crossing point was several miles north of the station, away from the worst congestion. (James F. Boylan)

The Rochester, New York, and Cleveland, Ohio trolley car (tram) subways ran left handed so that center platforms between the tracks could be shared in both directions by single direction cars with only curbside doors. In Rochester, many of the ramps to get cars down from the street to the subway were single-track, so you entered and exited the ramps from opposite sides of double track. There have been other smaller and isolated instances, sometimes for better visibility at a certain point. (James F. Boylan)

While American railroad engineers usually sit on the right side, there are exceptions. One is the above-mentioned Chicago & North Western Railway; in addition, sometimes self-propelled passenger cars (including most trolley cars) are designed to board passengers at the front from right-hand platforms, so the operator sits either center or left. (James F. Boylan)

Rui Gustavo Crespo notes that where neighboring countries run their trains on opposite sides of the track, trains must switch sides at the border. "In The Netherlands trains run on the right, but in Belgium they move on the left. Last Sunday I travelled between the two countries. At Roosendal (a Dutch city close to the border), the train stopped at the railway station and had to wait for permission to move to the left track: from then, although we were still in Netherlands, our train was conducted on the left."

A tunnel and bridge (the Øresund link) connects Copenhagen, Denmark, where trains run on the right, and Malm� Sweden, where they run on the left. The railway's signaling equipment allows full-speed traffic in either direction on both tracks, but it was decided that trains on the link would keep right, and Malmö Central Station is the cross-over point so that all traffic in Sweden south of Malmö Central now goes on the right. (Jens Brix Christiansen)

[USRailFan]

Did C&NW really have left-hand drive engines?

[pstraten]

Thanks, Rich--

That was a great summary.

[Keystoneaholic]

One point regarding the UK in steam days is that different railways had the driver on opposite sides of the locomotive, even though trains have 'always' run on the left. The Great Western and the Great Eastern had right hand drive, the majority of other lines had left hand drive.

Regarding the changeover at the Belgian / Dutch border, a similar thing happens at the Belgian / German border. Here, on the line between Liege and Aachen a flyover has been constructed to achieve this.

Rob.