fbpx
Wikipedia

Rail directions

Rail directions are used to describe train directions on rail systems. The terms used may be derived from such sources as compass directions, altitude directions, or other directions. These directions are often specific to system, country, or region.

Radial directions edit

Many rail systems use the concept of a centre (usually a major city) to define rail directions.

Up and down edit

In British practice, railway directions are usually described as "up" and "down", with "up" being towards a major location. This convention is applied not only to the trains and the tracks, but also to items of lineside equipment and to areas near a track. Since British trains run on the left, the "up" side of a line is usually on the left when proceeding in the "up" direction.[citation needed]

On most of the network, "up" is the direction towards London. In most of Scotland, with the exception of the West and East Coast Main Lines , and the Borders Railway, "up" is towards Edinburgh. The Valley Lines network around Cardiff has its own peculiar usage, relating to the literal meaning of travelling "up" and "down" the valley. On the former Midland Railway "up" was towards Derby. On the Northern Ireland Railways network, "up" generally means toward Belfast (the specific zero milepost varying from line to line); except for cross-border services to Dublin, where Belfast is "down". Mileposts normally increase in the "down" direction, but there are exceptions, such as the Trowbridge line between Bathampton Junction and Hawkeridge Junction, where mileage increases in the "up" direction.[1]

Individual tracks will have their own names, such as Up Main or Down Loop. Trains running towards London are normally referred to as "up" trains, and those away from London as "down". Hence the down Night Riviera runs to Penzance and the up Flying Scotsman to London King's Cross.[citation needed] This distinction is less meaningful for trains not travelling towards or away from London; for instance a CrossCountry train from Manchester to Bournemouth uses "up" lines as far as Reading and "down" lines thereafter.

In China, railway directions with terminus in Beijing are described as "up" (上行, shàngxíng) and "down" (下行, xiàxíng), with "up" towards Beijing; while trains leaving Beijing are "down". Trains run through Beijing may have two or more numbers, for example, the train from Harbin to Shanghai K58/55 uses two different numbers: on the Harbin–Tianjin section, the train runs toward Beijing, the train is known as K58, but on the Tianjin–Shanghai section, the train is known as K55; the opposite train from Shanghai to Harbin is known as K56/57, while K56 is used from Shanghai to Tianjin and K57 is used from Tianjin to Harbin.[2] Generally even numbers denote trains heading towards Beijing while odd numbers are those heading away from the capital.

In Japan, railway directions are referred to as "up" (上り, nobori) and "down" (下り, kudari), and these terms are widely employed in timetables[3] and station announcements for the travelling public. For JR Group trains, trains going towards the capital Tokyo are "up" trains, while those going away from the capital are "down" trains. For private railway operators, the designation of "up" or "down" (if at all) usually relies on where the company is headquartered as "up".

In Hong Kong, most lines have their "down" direction towards the terminal closer to Central, with the exception of Disneyland Resort line, where the down line is towards Disneyland to be consistent with Tung Chung line where it branches from. On Tuen Ma line, the "down" end is Wu Kai Sha. The up/down direction was switched in the former Ma On Shan line such that it could be connected with the former West Rail line.[4] The direction is signposted along the track, with the mileage increasing in the up direction, and also on the platform ends.

The railway systems of the Australian states have generally followed the practices of railways in the United Kingdom. Railway directions are usually described as "up" and "down", with "up" being towards the major location in most states, which is usually the capital city of the state. For example, in New South Wales, trains running away from Sydney are "down" trains, while in Victoria, trains running away from Melbourne are "down" trains. An interstate train travelling from Sydney to Melbourne is a "down" train until it crosses the state border at Albury, where it changes its classification to an "up" train. Even in states that follow this practice, exceptions exist for individual lines. In the state of Queensland, "up" and "down" directions are individually defined for each line. Therefore, a train heading towards the main railway station in Brisbane (Roma Street station) would be classified as an "up" train on some lines but as a "down" train on other lines.[5]

In Taiwan, trains travelling north towards Keelung on the west-coast Main Line and towards Badu on the Yilan Line are considered "up" trains. However, on other parts of the network, the terminology "clockwise" and "counter-clockwise" is used instead.

Inbound and outbound edit

In many commuter rail and rapid transit services in the United States, the rail directions are related to the location of the city centre. The term inbound is used for the direction leading in toward the city centre and outbound is used for the opposite direction leading out of the city centre.[6][7]

City name directions edit

Some British rail directions commonly used are London and Country. The London end of a station platform or train is the end nearer to London. First class accommodation, where provided, is usually at this end. The country end is the opposite end. This usage is problematic where more than one route to London exists (e.g. at Exeter St Davids, or Edinburgh Waverley).

Even and odd edit

In France, railway directions are usually described as Pair and Impair (meaning Even and Odd), corresponding to Up and Down in the British system. Pair means heading toward Paris, and Impair means heading away from Paris. This convention is applied not only to the trains and the tracks, but also to items of lineside equipment. Pair is also quasi-homophonic with Paris, so direction P is equivalent either with direction Pair or with direction Paris.

A similar system is in use in Italy, where directions can be Pari or Dispari (Even and Odd respectively). Pari (Even) trains conventionally travel north- and west-bound. The city of Paris is referenced in colloquial use (Parigi in Italian), with Pari trains virtually leading towards it (Paris being in a north-western direction from any point in Italy).

Polish railways also use parzysty and nieparzysty (even and odd) to designate line directions, with odd directions usually heading away from major cities (with historical exceptions in place) and thus functionally the equivalent of the British "down" direction. The odd direction is the direction of increasing mileage. With rail traffic in Poland operating on the right-hand side, down/odd tracks are usually on the right on double-track lines, and signalling equipment numbering follows this. Train numbers adhere to this directional principle to the extreme: trains entering a line in opposite direction of their previous line will change numbers accordingly (with numbering pairs: 0/1, 2/3, 4/5, 6/7, 8/9), and to give an example, 1300 and 1301 are the exact same train in Poland, with the even and odd numbers applying over different sections of its journey.

In Russia (and ex-USSR countries), the "even direction" is usually north- and eastbound, while the "odd direction" is south- and westbound. Trains travelling "even" and "odd" usually receive even and odd numbers as well as track and signal numbers, respectively.

Circumferential directions edit

In double track loop lines – such as those encircling a city – the tracks, trains and trackside equipment can be identified by their relative distance from the centre of the loop. Inner refers to the track and its trains that are closer to the geographic centre. Outer refers to the track and its trains that are furthermost from the geographic centre. One example is the City Circle line in the Sydney Trains system.

For circle routes, the directions may indicate clockwise or counterclockwise (anti-clockwise) bound trains. For example, on the Circle line of London Underground or the loop of the Central line, the directions are often referred to as "inner rail" (anti-clockwise) or "outer rail" (clockwise).

The same practice is used for circle routes in Japan, such as the Yamanote Line in Tokyo and the Osaka Loop Line, where directions are usually referred to as "outer" (外回り, soto-mawari) and "inner" (内回り, uchi-mawari), in a system where trains go clockwise on the outer track and counter-clockwise on the inner track.

Geographical directions edit

Cardinal directions edit

Most railroads in the United States use nominal cardinal directions for the directions of their lines, which often differ from actual compass directions. These directions are often referred to as "railroad" north, south, east, or west, to avoid confusion with the compass directions.

Typically an entire railroad system (the lines of a railroad or a related group of railroads) will describe all of its lines by only two directions, either east and west, or north and south. This greatly reduces the possibility of misunderstanding the direction in which a train is travelling as it traverses lines which may twist and turn or even reverse direction for a distance. These directions also have significance in resolving conflicts between trains running in opposite directions. For example, many railroads specify that trains of equal class running to the east are superior to those running west. This means that, if two trains are approaching a passing siding on a single-track line, the inferior westbound train must "take the siding" and wait there for the superior eastbound train to pass.

In the United States, most railroads use "east and west", and it is unusual for a railroad to designate "north and south" (the New York City Subway, the Chicago "L", and the Washington Metro are rare examples). Even-numbered trains (superior) travel east (or north). Odd-numbered trains (inferior) travel west (or south).

On the London Underground, geographic direction naming generally prevails (e.g. eastbound, westbound) except for the Circle line where it is Outer Rail and Inner Rail.

Other names for north and south edit

In New York City, the terms uptown and downtown are used in the subway to refer to northbound and southbound respectively.[8] The nominal railroad direction is determined by how the line will travel when it enters Manhattan.

For railways in China that are not connected with Beijing, north and west are used as "up", and east and south as "down". Odd numbered train codes are used for "down" trains, while even numbers are used for "up"; for example, train T27 from Beijing West to Lhasa is "down" (going away from Beijing) since 27 is odd.

References edit

  1. ^ Yonge, John; Padgett, David (August 2010) [1989]. Bridge, Mike (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. maps 4C, 11C. ISBN 978-0-9549866-6-7.
  2. ^ Train numbers
  3. ^ JR Timetable, March 2012 issue.
  4. ^ "鐵流 Railic on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2022-04-30.[user-generated source]
  5. ^ "Directional Running of Trains in QLD". Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  6. ^ Ferry, J. Amanda (20 May 2003). "Boston's subway". Boston Globe. Boston. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  7. ^ "Muni Metro Map". The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  8. ^ "How to Ride the Subway". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 31 October 2013.

rail, directions, line, redirects, here, 1969, novel, line, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, ne. Up the line redirects here For the 1969 novel see Up the Line This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Rail directions news newspapers books scholar JSTOR September 2008 Learn how and when to remove this template message Rail directions are used to describe train directions on rail systems The terms used may be derived from such sources as compass directions altitude directions or other directions These directions are often specific to system country or region Contents 1 Radial directions 1 1 Up and down 1 2 Inbound and outbound 1 3 City name directions 1 4 Even and odd 2 Circumferential directions 3 Geographical directions 3 1 Cardinal directions 3 2 Other names for north and south 4 ReferencesRadial directions editMany rail systems use the concept of a centre usually a major city to define rail directions Up and down edit In British practice railway directions are usually described as up and down with up being towards a major location This convention is applied not only to the trains and the tracks but also to items of lineside equipment and to areas near a track Since British trains run on the left the up side of a line is usually on the left when proceeding in the up direction citation needed On most of the network up is the direction towards London In most of Scotland with the exception of the West and East Coast Main Lines and the Borders Railway up is towards Edinburgh The Valley Lines network around Cardiff has its own peculiar usage relating to the literal meaning of travelling up and down the valley On the former Midland Railway up was towards Derby On the Northern Ireland Railways network up generally means toward Belfast the specific zero milepost varying from line to line except for cross border services to Dublin where Belfast is down Mileposts normally increase in the down direction but there are exceptions such as the Trowbridge line between Bathampton Junction and Hawkeridge Junction where mileage increases in the up direction 1 Individual tracks will have their own names such as Up Main or Down Loop Trains running towards London are normally referred to as up trains and those away from London as down Hence the down Night Riviera runs to Penzance and the up Flying Scotsman to London King s Cross citation needed This distinction is less meaningful for trains not travelling towards or away from London for instance a CrossCountry train from Manchester to Bournemouth uses up lines as far as Reading and down lines thereafter In China railway directions with terminus in Beijing are described as up 上行 shangxing and down 下行 xiaxing with up towards Beijing while trains leaving Beijing are down Trains run through Beijing may have two or more numbers for example the train from Harbin to Shanghai K58 55 uses two different numbers on the Harbin Tianjin section the train runs toward Beijing the train is known as K58 but on the Tianjin Shanghai section the train is known as K55 the opposite train from Shanghai to Harbin is known as K56 57 while K56 is used from Shanghai to Tianjin and K57 is used from Tianjin to Harbin 2 Generally even numbers denote trains heading towards Beijing while odd numbers are those heading away from the capital In Japan railway directions are referred to as up 上り nobori and down 下り kudari and these terms are widely employed in timetables 3 and station announcements for the travelling public For JR Group trains trains going towards the capital Tokyo are up trains while those going away from the capital are down trains For private railway operators the designation of up or down if at all usually relies on where the company is headquartered as up In Hong Kong most lines have their down direction towards the terminal closer to Central with the exception of Disneyland Resort line where the down line is towards Disneyland to be consistent with Tung Chung line where it branches from On Tuen Ma line the down end is Wu Kai Sha The up down direction was switched in the former Ma On Shan line such that it could be connected with the former West Rail line 4 The direction is signposted along the track with the mileage increasing in the up direction and also on the platform ends The railway systems of the Australian states have generally followed the practices of railways in the United Kingdom Railway directions are usually described as up and down with up being towards the major location in most states which is usually the capital city of the state For example in New South Wales trains running away from Sydney are down trains while in Victoria trains running away from Melbourne are down trains An interstate train travelling from Sydney to Melbourne is a down train until it crosses the state border at Albury where it changes its classification to an up train Even in states that follow this practice exceptions exist for individual lines In the state of Queensland up and down directions are individually defined for each line Therefore a train heading towards the main railway station in Brisbane Roma Street station would be classified as an up train on some lines but as a down train on other lines 5 In Taiwan trains travelling north towards Keelung on the west coast Main Line and towards Badu on the Yilan Line are considered up trains However on other parts of the network the terminology clockwise and counter clockwise is used instead Inbound and outbound edit In many commuter rail and rapid transit services in the United States the rail directions are related to the location of the city centre The term inbound is used for the direction leading in toward the city centre and outbound is used for the opposite direction leading out of the city centre 6 7 City name directions edit Some British rail directions commonly used are London and Country The London end of a station platform or train is the end nearer to London First class accommodation where provided is usually at this end The country end is the opposite end This usage is problematic where more than one route to London exists e g at Exeter St Davids or Edinburgh Waverley Even and odd edit In France railway directions are usually described as Pair and Impair meaning Even and Odd corresponding to Up and Down in the British system Pair means heading toward Paris and Impair means heading away from Paris This convention is applied not only to the trains and the tracks but also to items of lineside equipment Pair is also quasi homophonic with Paris so direction P is equivalent either with direction Pair or with direction Paris A similar system is in use in Italy where directions can be Pari or Dispari Even and Odd respectively Pari Even trains conventionally travel north and west bound The city of Paris is referenced in colloquial use Parigi in Italian with Pari trains virtually leading towards it Paris being in a north western direction from any point in Italy Polish railways also use parzysty and nieparzysty even and odd to designate line directions with odd directions usually heading away from major cities with historical exceptions in place and thus functionally the equivalent of the British down direction The odd direction is the direction of increasing mileage With rail traffic in Poland operating on the right hand side down odd tracks are usually on the right on double track lines and signalling equipment numbering follows this Train numbers adhere to this directional principle to the extreme trains entering a line in opposite direction of their previous line will change numbers accordingly with numbering pairs 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and to give an example 1300 and 1301 are the exact same train in Poland with the even and odd numbers applying over different sections of its journey In Russia and ex USSR countries the even direction is usually north and eastbound while the odd direction is south and westbound Trains travelling even and odd usually receive even and odd numbers as well as track and signal numbers respectively Circumferential directions editIn double track loop lines such as those encircling a city the tracks trains and trackside equipment can be identified by their relative distance from the centre of the loop Inner refers to the track and its trains that are closer to the geographic centre Outer refers to the track and its trains that are furthermost from the geographic centre One example is the City Circle line in the Sydney Trains system For circle routes the directions may indicate clockwise or counterclockwise anti clockwise bound trains For example on the Circle line of London Underground or the loop of the Central line the directions are often referred to as inner rail anti clockwise or outer rail clockwise The same practice is used for circle routes in Japan such as the Yamanote Line in Tokyo and the Osaka Loop Line where directions are usually referred to as outer 外回り soto mawari and inner 内回り uchi mawari in a system where trains go clockwise on the outer track and counter clockwise on the inner track Geographical directions editCardinal directions edit Most railroads in the United States use nominal cardinal directions for the directions of their lines which often differ from actual compass directions These directions are often referred to as railroad north south east or west to avoid confusion with the compass directions Typically an entire railroad system the lines of a railroad or a related group of railroads will describe all of its lines by only two directions either east and west or north and south This greatly reduces the possibility of misunderstanding the direction in which a train is travelling as it traverses lines which may twist and turn or even reverse direction for a distance These directions also have significance in resolving conflicts between trains running in opposite directions For example many railroads specify that trains of equal class running to the east are superior to those running west This means that if two trains are approaching a passing siding on a single track line the inferior westbound train must take the siding and wait there for the superior eastbound train to pass In the United States most railroads use east and west and it is unusual for a railroad to designate north and south the New York City Subway the Chicago L and the Washington Metro are rare examples Even numbered trains superior travel east or north Odd numbered trains inferior travel west or south On the London Underground geographic direction naming generally prevails e g eastbound westbound except for the Circle line where it is Outer Rail and Inner Rail Other names for north and south edit In New York City the terms uptown and downtown are used in the subway to refer to northbound and southbound respectively 8 The nominal railroad direction is determined by how the line will travel when it enters Manhattan For railways in China that are not connected with Beijing north and west are used as up and east and south as down Odd numbered train codes are used for down trains while even numbers are used for up for example train T27 from Beijing West to Lhasa is down going away from Beijing since 27 is odd References edit Yonge John Padgett David August 2010 1989 Bridge Mike ed Railway Track Diagrams 3 Western 5th ed Bradford on Avon Trackmaps maps 4C 11C ISBN 978 0 9549866 6 7 Train numbers JR Timetable March 2012 issue 鐵流 Railic on Facebook Facebook Archived from the original on 2022 04 30 user generated source Directional Running of Trains in QLD Retrieved 20 July 2014 Ferry J Amanda 20 May 2003 Boston s subway Boston Globe Boston Retrieved 2016 02 27 Muni Metro Map The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Retrieved 31 October 2013 How to Ride the Subway Metropolitan Transportation Authority Retrieved 31 October 2013 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Rail directions amp oldid 1197479824, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.