Single-track railway

For other uses, seeSingle track.

Not to be confused withMonorail.

AClass 158DMU on theKyle of Lochalsh Line,a primarily single-track railway inScotland

A train on theLong Island Rail Road's single-trackedCentral Branch

A train on theJinhua–Wenzhou Railway,a single-track railway in SouthernZhejiang Province,China

Single track on theStony Point Linein the Australian state of Victoria

Asingle-track railwayis arailwaywheretrainstraveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is usually found on lesser-used rail lines, oftenbranch lines,where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the cost of constructing and maintaining asecond track.

Advantages and disadvantages

Single track is significantly cheaper to build and maintain, but has operational and safety disadvantages. For example, a single-track line that takes 15 minutes to travel through would have capacity for only two trains per hour in each direction safely. By contrast, a double track with signal boxes four minutes apart can allow up to 15 trains per hour in each direction safely, provided all the trains travel at the same speed. This hindrance on the capacity of a single track may be partly overcome by making the track one-way on alternate days, if the single track is not used for public passenger transit.

Longfreight trainsare a problem if thepassing stretchesare not long enough. Other disadvantages include the propagation of delays, since one delayed train on a single track will also delay any train waiting for it to pass. Also, a single track does not have a "reserve" track that can allow a reduced capacity service to continue if one track is closed.

Single-track operations

Passing loops

Passing Loop
Main line │ Passing loop

If a single-track line is designed to be used by more than one train at a time, it must havepassing loops(also calledpassing sidingsorcrossing loops) at intervals along the line to allow trains running in different directions to pass each other. These consist of short stretches of double track, usually long enough to hold one train. The capacity of a single-track line is determined by the number of passing loops. Passing loops may also be used to allow trains heading in the same direction at different speeds to overtake.

In some circumstances on some isolatedbranch lineswith a simple shuttle service (such as theAbbey Linein Great Britain orL202 railwayin Croatia) a single-track line may work under the "one train working" principle without passing loops, where only one train is allowed on the line at a time.

Safety operations

On single-track lines with passing loops, measures must be taken to ensure that only one train in one direction can use a stretch of single track at a time, ashead-on collisionsare a particular risk. Some form ofsignalling systemis required. In traditionalBritishpractice (and countries using British practice), single-track lines were operated using atoken systemwhere the train driver had to be in possession of a token in order to enter a stretch of single track. Because there was only one unique token issued at any one time for each stretch of single track, it was impossible for more than one train to be on it at a time. This method is still used on some minor lines but in the longest single-track lines in Britain (e.g. theHighlandsof Scotland) this has been superseded by radio communication, known asRadio Electronic Token Block.

In the early days of railways inNorth Americait was common to rely upon simpletimetable operationwhere operators knew where a train was scheduled to be at a particular time, and so would not enter a single-track stretch when they were not scheduled to. This generally worked but was inflexible and inefficient. It was improved with the invention of thetelegraphand the ability to issuetrain orders.

Doubling and singling

Kirkby railway stationsingle-track railwayinterchange(formerdouble-track railway)

Converting a single-track railway to double track is called duplication or doubling; converting double track to single track is known as singling. A double-track railway operating only a single track is known assingle-line working. Kirkby railway station(until 1977) andOrmskirk railway station(until 1970) weredouble-track railway,when they were converted into single-track railway withcross-platform interchange.

New bike paths and railway corridors

Buildingbike trails on rail corridorshas occurred in limited examples; however, developing rail rights of way for a bike trail can restrict a train corridor to a single track. Also reclaiming a railway corridor to use trains again limits the use of double tracks. The bike path is usually where the second track would be, and there may be fierce opposition by bikers and hikers. An example of a bike, single-track corridor is theE&N Railwayin Victoria, Canada.

External links

• Rails to Trails Conservancy