A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard 1,435 mm. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.
Transport in Poland involves air, water, road and rail transportation. The country has a large network of municipal public transport, such as buses, trams and the metro. As a country located at the 'cross-roads' of Europe, Poland, with its highly developed economy, is a nation with a large and increasingly modern network of transport infrastructure.
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge broader than the 1,435 mm used by standard-gauge railways.
Renfe Feve is a division of state-owned Spanish railway company Renfe Operadora. It operates most of Spain's 1,250 km (777 mi) of 1,000 mmmetre gauge railway. This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named FEVE. On 31 December 2012, the Spanish government simplified the organization of train companies merging Feve into Renfe and Adif. The rolling stock and the brand FEVE was transferred to Renfe and the infrastructures were transferred to Adif.
A dual gauge railway line has track consisting of two rails spaced according to one track gauge, to which are added either one or two more rails spaced according to another track gauge. Since tracks of two gauges are more expensive to configure with signals and sidings, and to maintain, than two separate single-gauge tracks, it is usual to build dual-gauge tracks only when necessitated by lack of space. Dual-gauge track can consist of three rails, sharing one "common" rail; or four rails, with the rails of the narrower gauge lying between those of the broader gauge.
With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, leading to passengers having to change trains and freight requiring transloading or transshipping; this can add delays, costs, and inconvenience to travel on such a route.
The Finnish railway network consists of a total track length of 9,216 km (5,727 mi) of railways built with 1,524 mm Old Russian gauge track having electrified track length of 3,249 km (2,019 mi). Passenger trains are operated by the state-owned VR which covers track length of 7,225 km (4,489 mi). They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, though railway connections are available to fewer places than bus connections. Most passenger train services originate or terminate at Helsinki Central railway station, and a large proportion of the passenger rail network radiates out of Helsinki. VR also operates freight services. Maintenance and construction of the railway network itself is the responsibility of the Finnish Rail Administration, which is a part of the Finnish Transport Agency. The network is divided in six areal centres, that manage the use and maintenance of the routes in co-operation. Cargo yards and large stations may have their own signalling systems.
Railways with a railway track gauge of 5 ft first appeared in the United Kingdom and the United States. This gauge became commonly known as Russian gauge because the government of the Russian Empire later chose it in 1843 — former areas of the Empire have inherited this standard. In the 1960s Soviet Railways re-defined the gauge as 1,520 mm.
The Jokioinen Museum Railway is located in Jokioinen, Finland. It is located on the last operating commercial narrow gauge railway in Finland, the 750 mm gauge Jokioinen Railway.
The rail transport system in Estonia consists of about 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) of railway lines, of which 900 kilometres (560 mi) are currently in public use. The infrastructure of the railway network is mostly owned by the state and is regulated and surveyed by the Estonian Technical Surveillance Authority.
Rail transport in Montenegro is operated by four separate companies, which independently handle railway infrastructure, passenger transport, cargo transport and maintenance of the rolling stock. The four companies were a part of public company Railways of Montenegro until it was split up in 2008.
The Jokioinen Railway located in Jokioinen, Finland, was opened for temporary traffic on December 9, 1898. On October 25 1899, the railway began permanent passenger and freight services.
A number of narrow-gauge lines survive, largely as a consequence of German reunification, in the former East Germany where some of them form part of the public transport system as active commercial carriers. Most extensive of those still employing steam traction is the Harz mountain group of metre-gauge lines, the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen. Other notable lines are the Zittau–Oybin–Jonsdorf line in Saxony, the Mollibahn and the Rügensche Kleinbahn on the Isle of Rügen on the Baltic coast and the Radebeul-Radeburg line, Weisseritztalbahn in the suburbs of Dresden. Although most rely on the tourist trade, in some areas they provide significant employment as steam traction is particularly labour-intensive.
Sweden once had some fairly extensive narrow-gauge networks, but most narrow-gauge railways are now closed. Some were converted to 1,435 mmstandard gauge and some remain as heritage railways. The most common narrow gauge, 891 mm, exists only in Sweden. A smaller 3 ft 6 in gauge network existed, and 600 mm gauge was used mostly by smaller, industrial railways. Still other but lesser used gauges in the country were 693 mm, 802 mm, 1,099 mm, 1,188 mm and 1,217 mm, all converted or removed.
There are hundreds of kilometres of 600 mm, 750 mm, 785 mm, and 1,000 mm narrow-gauge lines in Poland. The metre-gauge lines are mostly found in the northwest part of the country in Pomerania, while 785 mm lines are found only in the Upper Silesia region. 750 mm is the most commonly used narrow gauge; it is used, for example, in the Rogów Narrow Gauge Railway and in Tarnowskie Góry with the world's oldest narrow-gauge railway in continuous service since 1853. Some narrow-gauge lines in Poland still operate as common carrier, while others survive as tourist attractions. One of the finest of the latter is the 600 mm narrow-gauge railway running from Żnin via Wenecja and famous Biskupin to Gąsawa in the Pałuki region. Railway traditions of Pałuki date back to July 1894 when the first two lines were opened.
In Spain there is an extensive 1,250 km (780 mi) system of 1,000 mmmetre gauge railways. The majority of these railways was historically operated by FEVE,. Created in 1965 FEVE started absorbing numerous private-owned narrow-gauge railways. From 1978 onwards, with the introduction of regionalisation devolution under the new Spanish constitution, FEVE began transferring responsibility for a number of its operations to the new regional governments. On 31 December 2012 the company disappeared due to the merger of the narrow-gauge network FEVE and the broad-gauge network RENFE.
Numerous industrial narrow-gauge lines were built for peat extraction, clay extraction for brickworks and construction sites. The dominant gauge for industrial lines was 700 mm, contrary to the 600 mm gauge used in neighbouring countries.
Around 1935, Latvian narrow-gauge railways consisted of 536 km of 600 mm gauge, 432 km of 750 mm gauge, and 48 km of meter gauge.
Europe inherited a diversity of rail gauges. Extensive narrow-gauge railway networks exist in Spain, Central Europe and Southeastern Europe.
Metre and 3 ft gauge lines are found in South America. Some of the 1,000 mm gauge lines cross international borders, though not as efficiently as they might.
