Tram-train

This article is about trams sharing tracks with main-line railways. "Tram-train" can also refer to a train of two or more coupled trams operating on a regular tramway.
Not to be confused with Train-tram.
Stadtbahn street running, in Heilbronn
Stadtbahn on main-line railway

A tram-train, also known as a dual-system tram, is an interoperable urban rail transit system in which specially designed vehicles operate as trams on urban street-level networks and as trains on mainline railway tracks, alongside mainline trains.

By complying with both light rail and heavy rail technical and safety standards, these vehicles can use existing tram infrastructure as well as railway lines and stations, enabling a single service to operate across both networks. A tram-train combines the urban accessibility of a tram or light rail with a mainline train's greater speed in the suburbs.

The modern tram-train concept was pioneered by the German city of Karlsruhe in the late 1980s, resulting in the creation of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. This concept is often referred to as the Karlsruhe model, and it has since been adopted in other cities such as Mulhouse in France and in Kassel, Nordhausen and Saarbrücken in Germany. It can be regarded as an evolution of the earlier interurban operations model.

An inversion of the concept is a train-tram – a mainline train adapted to run on-street in an urban tramway, also known as the Zwickau Model.

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