Heavy rail - Definition and Overview

The term heavy rail is often used for regular railways, to distinguish from systems such as trams/light rail and metro.

Heavy rail typically refers to the standard inter-city rail network, which is built to be robust enough for heavy and high-speed trains, including freight trains, and long distance and high speed passenger trains. Heavy rail is almost always built on its own dedicated right of way and is separate from road traffic.

This distinguishes it from light rail which is built to lightweight construction, carries lightweight trains or trams and which is usually intended for passenger traffic only, usually around cities.

In the United States, the term is used as the general term for metro systems: underground systems and systems that are not running below the ground but are similar to underground systems in other respects; when the term is used in this way, it should be distinguished from commuter rail and inter-city rail services, which cover longer distances.