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A quadruple-track railway (also known as a four-track railway) is a railway line consisting of four parallel tracks, with two tracks used in each direction. Quadruple-track railways can handle large amounts of traffic, and so are used on very busy routes.
In quadruple track, trains are sorted in various ways in order to make maximum use of track capacity. These can include one or a combination of:
A faster express line and a stopping local line are separated, with each having a separate pair of tracks. Construction of new double tracks dedicated to high-speed rail alongside existing conventional double track used by regional and local passenger trains and freight trains is a form of quadruple track. It increases the capacity of that route significantly, and allows for significant increases in inter-city high-speed train frequency with reduced travel times.
Long distance inter-city rail and freight trains are separated from short distance commuter rail. This helps to prevent delays on one service affecting the other, and is commonly seen in metropolitan areas. Quadrupling may be necessary when a new commuter rail service begins to operate on an existing line. Sometimes the local trains have separate technology, such as electrical system or signalling, which requires strict separation, for example in Berlin or Copenhagen.
When a quadruple track line divides to different destinations part way along, trains need to be sorted by their destination.
Passenger trains and freight trains can be separated with each different track.
A variation of this can be found on the quadruple track section of the Main Northern line in New South Wales between Waratah and Maitland where one pair of tracks are used exclusively for coal trains and the other pair are used for passenger trains and general freight. A similar process, but with all intercity and commuter passenger trains on the outer tracks and thru-freight trains on the inner tracks, was done by the Pennsylvania Railroad on its New York-Washington and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh mainlines prior to the takeover of operations by Amtrak and Conrail (and later Norfolk Southern). This is somewhat still done to this day by NS, CSX, and Conrail Shared Assets trains on Amtrak-owned trackage in the Philadelphia area.
Two double track lines along opposite sides of a river can operate as a quadruple track. Examples of this can be found in Rhone in France and Rhine in Germany.
As it can be seen from the pictures below in the Gallery of diagrams, the four tracks can be paired either by direction (slow and fast in each pair) or by purpose (speed or direction in each pair). Sometimes two of the tracks go more straight and with a little distance from the two other. This is a design decision when widening a double track section, and allows higher speed on the faster tracks.
Several lines radiating from Brussels are quadrupled, for instance the Ghent-Ostend line as far as Essene-Lombeek. Further quadrupling has recently been carried out as part of the development of the Brussels Regional Express Network. The building of high-speed lines has also led to quadrupling - for instance the HSL 2 high-speed line between Brussels and Cologne runs inside the local lines as far as Leuven. Meanwhile since 1934 Brussels and Antwerp have been connected by two separate pairs of double track. Fast trains normally use line 25, while line 27 serves slow trains. In places they run parallel, but at times diverge and cross over each other.
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are considered heavy rail, using electrified or diesel trains. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used.
Italy has a well developed transport infrastructure. The Italian rail network is extensive, especially in the north, and it includes a high-speed rail network that joins the major cities of Italy from Naples through northern cities such as Milan and Turin. Italy has 2,507 people and 12.46 km2 per kilometer of rail track, giving Italy the world's 13th largest rail network.
Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that cover longer distances than commuter or regional trains.
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow along with Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest mixed-traffic railway routes in Europe, carrying a mixture of intercity rail, regional rail, commuter rail and rail freight traffic. The core route of the WCML runs from London to Glasgow for 399 mi (642 km). With additional lines deviating to Northampton, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh, this totals a route mileage of 700 miles (1,127 km). The Glasgow–Edinburgh via Carstairs line connects the WCML to Edinburgh, however the main London–Edinburgh route is the East Coast Main Line. Several sections of the WCML form part of the suburban railway systems in London, Coventry, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, with many more smaller commuter stations, as well as providing links to more rural towns.
The S-train is a type of hybrid urban-suburban rail serving a metropolitan region. Some of the larger S-train systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble commuter or even regional rail. They are especially common in Germany and Austria, where they are known as S-Bahn, which in the 1930s was an abbreviation of either Schnellbahn, Stadtbahn or Stadtschnellbahn, depending on the city, but they must not be confused with U-Stadtbahnen. Similar S-train systems exist also in Switzerland known as S-Bahn as well. In Denmark, they are known as S-tog[ˈesˌtsʰɔˀw], in the Czech Republic as Esko or S-lines, and northern Italy as Servizio ferroviario followed by either the word "metropolitano" or "suburbano".
The Saikyō Line is a Japanese railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company. It connects Ōsaki Station in Shinagawa, Tokyo, and Ōmiya Station in Saitama Prefecture. The line's name is an abbreviation of the two areas the line connects: Saitama (埼玉) and Tōkyō (東京).
The Yamanote Line is a railway loop line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company. It is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important lines, connecting most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres, including Marunouchi, the Yūrakuchō/Ginza area, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Ueno, with all but two of its 30 stations connecting to other railway or underground (subway) lines.
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a 393-mile long (632 km) electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broadly parallel to the A1 road.
The Iida Line is a Japanese railway line connecting Toyohashi Station in Toyohashi, Aichi with Tatsuno Station in Tatsuno, Nagano, operated by Central Japan Railway Company. The line links eastern Aichi Prefecture and southern Nagano Prefecture through northwestern Shizuoka Prefecture. It goes through steep mountains as well as cities such as Iida and Ina. The line was originally four different private railway lines, the first of which opened in 1897.
A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.
The Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway is a Chinese high-speed railway that runs 117 km line between Beijing and Tianjin. Designed for passenger traffic only, the Chinese government built the line to accommodate trains traveling at a maximum speed of 350 km/h (217 mph), and currently carries CRH high-speed trains running speeds up to 330 km/h (205 mph).
Guangshen railway or Guangzhou–Shenzhen railway, also known as the Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton railway (廣九鐵路華段) in 1911–1949, is a railway in Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China, between Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is operated by Guangshen Railway Co., Ltd., a publicly traded company.
The Oslo Tunnel is a 3,632-metre (11,916 ft), double-track, railway tunnel which runs between Olav Kyrres plass and Oslo Central Station (Oslo S) in Oslo, Norway. The tunnel constitutes the eastern-most section of the Drammen Line and runs below the central business district of Oslo. It features the four-track Nationaltheatret Station, Norway's second-busiest railway station, where the Oslo Tunnels lies directly beneath the Common Tunnel of the Oslo Metro. At Frogner, the Elisenberg Station was built, but has never been used. The tunnel is the busiest section of railway line in Norway and serves all west-bound trains from Oslo, including many services of the Oslo Commuter Rail and the Airport Express Train.
The Belfast–Dublin Main Line is a main and busiest railway route on the island of Ireland that connects Dublin Connolly station in the Republic of Ireland and Belfast Lanyon Place station in Northern Ireland.
The Main Suburban railway line is the technical name for the trunk railway line between Redfern railway station and Parramatta railway station in Sydney, Australia, but now generally refers to the section between Redfern and where the Old Main South Line branches off at Granville Junction. The railway line then continues on as the Main Western line towards the Blue Mountains. This term distinguished this trunk line from the Illawarra Line which branched south from the Illawarra Junction to Wollongong, and later the North Shore tracks which carried trains north over the Harbour Bridge.
Limerick Suburban Rail are a group of Iarnród Éireann commuter train services from Limerick Colbert to various other destinations on three different lines.
The Istanbul–Ankara railway is a 576.6 km (358.3 mi) long electrified railway in Turkey. The line connects Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, to the capital and second largest city, Ankara; making it one the busiest railways in the country in terms of passenger and freight rail traffic. The railway runs parallel to the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway and in several sections, the railway hosts YHT high-speed trains.
The Chicago Subdivision or Chicago Sub is a railroad line in Illinois that runs about 38 miles (61 km) from Chicago to Aurora and hosts Metra's BNSF Railway Line commuter service. It is operated by BNSF Railway as the easternmost part of the railroad's Northern Transcon to Seattle, Washington. This line is known as the Racetrack because it is mostly triple-tracked and supports fairly fast trains. It had been operated by a BNSF ancestor, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which introduced high-speed Zephyr passenger trains in 1934 and ran many of them along this subdivision from Chicago to points west.
The Toyohashi Railroad Atsumi Line is a railway line in eastern Aichi Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Toyohashi Railroad ("Toyotetsu"). The line runs from the centre of Toyohashi, traversing the centre of the Atsumi Peninsula, a largely rural district noted also for its hot spring resorts and marine sports as part of Mikawa Wan Quasi-National Park. The line is entirely within the cities of Toyohashi and Tahara.
Ningbo–Yuyao intercity railway is a commuter rail line in Ningbo, Zhejiang, part of the planned Ningbo Intercity Railway network. It runs from Ningbo railway station in Haishu District to Yuyao railway station in Yuyao along the Xiaoshan–Ningbo railway. Passengers can transfer to Line 2 of Ningbo Metro at Ningbo railway station.