Hello all!
I have a question that doesn't seem to come up here...do Irish trains (both Republic and UK) travel on the left (opposite of US)? I'm trying to pick seats for our Dublin-Belfast train and don't remember from prior trips.
Thanks much!
Best, Linda
As far as I know trains, everywhere, do not travel on the left or right, they travel straight down the middle of the tracks. I'm not sure what you are saying. Picking seats on the trains usually depend on what you want to see outside the train, at least for me, and that means doing some research about what's likely to be on view on either side based on the direction you are going. If I'm missing the point of this question, I apologize and you can set me straight. If you mean which side do they pass trains going in the opposite direction, I think that depends also on which train happens to be on which track.
On dual track rail lines, they travel on the left, like cars. Surprisingly, since British engineers were designing the French railways in the 19th century, French trains also run on the left, but not Metro (subway) trains, which run on the right like French auto traffic.
I'm still trying to figure out why it would matter even on a bus if you aren't doing the driving, unless the best scenery is on one side, for instance along a coastline. For me, what's important on a train is whether I'm facing forward or backward.
Wikipedia has the answer for some countries, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#Worldwide_distribution_by_country
It says Ireland is left, which is what I would expect as they drive on the left.
More countries have trains running on the left than drive on the left. Partially inertia, when cars switched to the right, trains stayed on the left as there was no advantage and big cost in changing (Italy, Portugal), partially because the British build the first railways (France).
As French trains run on the left, there is no crossover in the Channel Tunnel. But, as both Germany and Spain run on the right there are crossovers near the border. On High Speed lines they have to build a flyover to cross over, as crossing on the flat would cause too many delays.
Platforms can be on either side, at the sides of the two tracks or between them.
This of course only applies to double tracks, not single tracks. And around stations it is all complicated as trains cross over. And 4-track routes can have more complications.
It doesn't make much difference to which side you sit, it only affects which side trains coming in the other direction pass.
Other posters, elsewhere, have noted that when a train reaches a station that was built on a spur, it has to reverse direction to leave. That would put you on the other side and facing the other way during your journey. How often that happens is hard to predict if you don't know the topology of the route. I've found that some national rail websites don't show the direction of travel.
Thx all! I was just trying to face as much scenery as possible versus looking across the aisle and tracks. The website does actually tell you which direction which is nice but I couldn't remember if they ride to the left when going north (opposite of us). Btw, with all of my years in Italy, the trains do travel on the right like most of Europe (somebody, I think, mentioned the opposite for Italy)...Thanks again!
