Not Trams or street cars but Ordinary Trains running along the road…
Yes, there are two locations in Japan, where ordinary (Heavy Rail) trains run down public roads mingling with traffic. We are not talking about trams or streetcars (which Japan has in several cities), but regular trains.
Enoden in Fujisawa City
The first location is in Kanagawa Pref Fujisawa City where the Enoshima Electric Railway (known locally as Enoden) line
runs along the road between Koshigoe and Enoshima stations (for a distance of about 0.5km). This is a single track, but along a fairly narrow street.
Keihan in Otsu City
The second is in the city of Otsu in Shiga Prefecture, where two lines run along a couple of streets for several hundred meters before coming together and entering Keihan’s Biwako
Hamaotsu Station. The two lines are the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto Line and the Keihan Keishin Line. They are both double track whilst running on the street.
Interesting to watch…
As you can see from this TSJR video, it is interesting to watch these trains mingle with the road traffic. In both cases services are fairly frequent (about every 12 minutes in each direction for Enoden, every 10 minutes on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto Line and every 10 to 20 minutes on the Keihan Keishin line).
more….
Both the Keihan Lines and the Enoden Line are regular railways and were constructed and operate under the Railway Business Act as “heavy railway systems” and the roadway running sections have been granted a special exemption from the aforesaid law.
The reason is space and high cost of tunneling or making an overpass at the time the lines were built. The Keihan Keishin Line previously had a section in central Kyoto that also operated along the street, until replaced by the Kyoto City Subway Tozai Line.
