• lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    Not sure about English terminology but I thought tram and metro are the same and it’s small trains that go on the street or maybe have a separate lane?

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      22 hours ago

      When it comes to anything on rails it’s all VERY arbitrary and hard to define, but probably the single most useful and objective line you can draw is between systems that run on line-of-sight (like normal, cars/buses/bikes/walking) and systems that run on signals (99.999% of trains do this, the main exceptions being in places like depots and yards where the trains will go 40km/h max so they have time to stop if needed).

      Other than that, “tram” almost always means it’s a smaller vehicle (primarily in width, but they’re also usually shorter as well) and it tends to at least partially run in/next to the street like buses do.

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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      5 months ago

      Tram (also known as streetcar or trolley) usually goes on rails in a street that is shared with cars. A metro (also known as subway or underground) usually has it’s own separated tracks that are often underground or elevated.