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This list presents an overview of railway track gauges by size. A gauge is measured between the inner faces of the rails.
For ridable miniature railways and minimum gauge railways, the gauges are overlapping. There are also some extreme narrow gauge railways listed. See: Distinction between a ridable miniature railway and a minimum gauge railway for clarification.
Model railway gauges are covered in rail transport modelling scales.
Railways with a track gauge between 500 mm (19+3⁄4 in) and 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge.
Gauge | Country or Region | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Metric | Imperial | ||
1,432 mm | 4 ft 8+3⁄8 in | Hong Kong | Disneyland Resort line, Island line (excluding West Island line), Kwun Tong line (excluding Kwun Tong line extension), Tseung Kwan O line, Tsuen Wan line, Tung Chung line [34] |
Bucharest | Bucharest Metro | ||
1,435 mm | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in | See Category:Standard gauge railways | Standard gauge is defined both in metric and in imperial units. It is also the best-known gauge worldwide; 55% of the world uses this track. In 2020, China’s rail network is standard gauge, with around 79,685 km (49,514 mi) of line. [35] |
1,440 mm | 4 ft 8+11⁄16 in | Switzerland | St. Moritz–Corviglia funicular (upper section of 1,616 metres or 5,302 feet route-length only - lower section is 1,200 mm (3 ft 11+1⁄4 in) gauge) |
Gauge | Country or Region | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Metric | Imperial | ||
1,445 mm | 4 ft 8+7⁄8 in | Italy | Tramway networks in Milan, Turin and Rome; Orvieto Funicular; railway network until 1930. |
Spain | Madrid Metro | ||
1,448 mm | 4 ft 9 in | England | Manchester and Leeds Railway |
United States | Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad, Strasburg Rail Road (converted to standard gauge).[ citation needed] | ||
1,450 mm | 4 ft 9+3⁄32 in | Germany | Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG, Trams in Dresden |
1,458 mm | 4 ft 9+13⁄32 in | Germany | Trams in Leipzig |
1,473 mm | 4 ft 10 in | United States | The Midwest, until after the Civil War (Ohio gauge) |
1,492 mm | 4 ft 10+3⁄4 in | Canada | Toronto Suburban Railway [36] from 1891–1917. 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) until the end at 1931 |
1,495 mm | 4 ft 10+7⁄8 in | Canada | Toronto gauge: Halton County Radial Railway, Toronto streetcar system, and Toronto subway (Lines 1, 2, and 4) [36] |
1,520 mm | 4 ft 11+27⁄32 in | Former USSR | Also named Russian gauge. See 5 ft and 1520 mm gauge railways & Confederate railroads in the American Civil War |
1,522 mm | 4 ft 11+29⁄32 in | Finland | Helsinki Metro [37] |
1,524 mm | 5 ft | Finland | In 1862 the first railway connection in Grand Duchy of Finland were built with five foot railway gauge, [38] however that gauge was first introduced in United Kingdom. [39] |
1,537 mm | 5 ft 1⁄2 in | England | London and Blackwall Railway 1840–1849, converted to standard gauge |
1,575 mm | 5 ft 2 in | Spain | Ferrocarril de Langreo |
United States | Columbus Ohio streetcar [40] | ||
1,581 mm | 5 ft 2+1⁄4 in | United States | Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), [41] Philadelphia |
1,588 mm | 5 ft 2+1⁄2 in | United States | Pennsylvania trolley gauge [41] |
1,600 mm | 5 ft 3 in | Germany | Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway 1840-1854, converted to standard gauge |
Ireland | See 5 ft 3 in gauge railways | ||
Australia | States of Victoria and South Australia | ||
1,613 mm | 5 ft 3+1⁄2 in | United States | Sacramento Valley Railroad (1852–77) |
1,620 mm | 5 ft 4 in | South Korea | U Line |
1,638 mm | 5 ft 4+1⁄2 in | United States | Baltimore, Baltimore Streetcar System (defunct) [42] and Baltimore Streetcar Museum (operating) |
1,664 mm | 5 ft 5+1⁄2 in | Portugal | 5
Portuguese feet Converted to 1,668 mm from 1955 [43] |
1,668 mm | 5 ft 5+21⁄32 in | See Iberian gauge | |
1,672 mm | 5 ft 5+13⁄16 in |
Spain | 6
Castilian feet Spanish national rail network Converted to 1,668 mm (5 ft 5+21⁄32 in) Iberian gauge from 1955; [43] The current Barcelona metro line 1 and Cercanías Málaga. |
1,676 mm | 5 ft 6 in | India | See 5 ft 6 in gauge railway |
United States | Bay Area Rapid Transit (excluding eBART and OAK Airport line); Some lines in New England were built to this gauge including Androscoggin (until 1861), Maine Central (until 1871), Vermont Central (until 1870s), Grand Trunk (until 1877), Buckfield Branch / Portland & Oxford Central (until 1878), European & North American (until 1877), and Bangor & Piscataquis (until 1877). | ||
1,700 mm | 5 ft 7 in[ citation needed] | South Korea | Busan Metro Line 4, Sillim Line |
1,727 mm | 5 ft 8 in | England | Babbacombe Cliff Railway and Fisherman's Walk Cliff Railway |
1,750 mm [44] | 5 ft 8+7⁄8 in | France | Ligne de Sceaux Paris to Limours via Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, until 1891 |
1,800 mm | 5 ft 10+7⁄8 in | Germany | Oberweißbacher Bergbahn ( funicular section only) [45] [46] |
United States | Hogwarts Express (located in Universal Orlando Resort) | ||
1,829 mm | 6 ft | India | In the 19th century, engineers considered this gauge but finally settled on 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) |
Russia | Saint Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo Railways, 1837–1897. | ||
United States | Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, Erie Railroad until June 22, 1880, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad March–May 1876, Predominant gauge used by railroads along southern tier of New York State that connected to the pioneering Erie Railroad. Most lines converted to standard gauge 1876-1880, along with the Erie. | ||
1,850 mm | 6 ft 27⁄32 in | Canada | Falls Incline Railway [47] in the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario |
1,880 mm | 6 ft 2 in | Ireland | Ulster Railway, 1839–1846, re-gauged to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) |
Taiwan | Taipei Metro medium-capacity rubber-tired trains (with 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) rails) | ||
Japan | SCMaglev train depots for Chuo Shinkansen. | ||
1,945 mm | 6 ft 4+9⁄16 in | Netherlands | Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij, 1839–1866 [42] |
1,980 mm / 1,981 mm | 6 ft 6 in | Israel | Haifa, Carmelit subway railway line - Funicular |
England | North Cliff Lift, Scarborough | ||
2,000 mm | 6 ft 6+3⁄4 in | Scotland | Cairngorm Mountain Railway - Funicular |
2,134 mm | 7 ft | England | Original definition of Brunel's broad gauge. This rail gauge was soon changed to 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) [48] to ease running in curves. |
2,140 mm | 7 ft 1⁄4 in | South Africa | East London and Table Bay harbour railways |
England |
Brunel's
Great Western Railway until
converted to
standard gauge by May 1892, see Great Western Railway The "gauge war". Also, harbour railways at the Isle of Portland and Brixham | ||
Isle of Man | Port Erin Breakwater Railway | ||
Portugal ( Azores) | Ponta Delgada and Horta harbour (using rolling stock from Holyhead harbour) | ||
Wales | Holyhead harbour railway | ||
2,286 mm | 7 ft 6 in | England | St Nicholas Cliff Lift, Scarborough |
2,440 mm | 8 ft | United States | Johnstown Inclined Plane, Johnstown, Pennsylvania |
2,642 mm | 8 ft 8 in | China | Guangzhou Metro APM Line (uses the Bombardier Innovia APM 100) |
2,743 mm | 9 ft | Japan | Lake Biwa Canal, an inclined plane near Kyoto |
United States | Knoxville Incline, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | ||
3,000 mm | 9 ft 10+1⁄8 in | Nazi Germany | See Breitspurbahn |
3,048 mm | 10 ft | United States | Fort Pitt Incline, Penn Incline, Monongahela Freight Incline and Castle Shannon Incline, Pittsburgh [49] |
3,327 mm | 10 ft 11 in | Scotland | Dalzell Iron and Steel Works, Motherwell, Lanarkshire. [50] |
5,486 mm | 18 ft | England | Magnus Volk's Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway [51] |
8,200 mm | 26 ft 10+27⁄32 in | Austria | Lärchwandschrägaufzug [52] |
9,000 mm | 29 ft 6+5⁄16 in | Russia | Krasnoyarsk ship lift [53] |
The work on laying tracks, which were 1,534 metres in length and had a track gauge of 620 mm, started in March 1872
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In laying the rails an extra quarter of an inch was allowed on the straight, making the gauge 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm), strictly speaking, but it was always referred to as 7 feet.