Rapid transit

Rapid transit is the name for a type of railway which has trains that run very often and carry many passengers at one time. It is usually in a city or urban area and takes people in and out of it. Unlike buses or trams, trains go between places very quickly because they do not mix with other traffic. Most rapid transit railways do not have level crossings, but the tracks go over and under other roads, or run in tunnels or over bridges, so they do not meet.

Many places call their rapid transit system a metro. Other words for rapid transit, which vary around the world, are subway, underground, tube, elevated, or heavy rail. These words sometimes describe how the system is built: some systems are completely below or above ground, while others may have both below-ground and above-ground sections.

A single rapid transit system can have many lines that go to different places and many stations where people can get on and off trains. They often have stations where people can change from one line to another to go in a different direction, or change between other forms of public transport. These stations are called interchange stations, and many of the biggest rapid transit systems have several of these stations.

1. ↑ "urbanrail.net > metro - subway - light rail". www.urbanrail.net. Retrieved 2021-07-26.