page_title: Left- and right-hand traffic
section_title: Rail traffic
hierarchical_section_title: Left- and right-hand traffic / Rail traffic
context_page_description: Left-hand traffic and right-hand traffic are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to as the rule of the road.
  RHT is used in 165 countries and territories, with the remaining 75 countries and territories using LHT. Countries that use LHT account for about a sixth of the world's land area, with about a third of its population and a quarter of its roads. In 1919, 104 of the world's territories were LHT and an equal number were RHT. Between 1919 and 1986, 34 of the LHT territories switched to RHT.
  Many LHT countries were formerly part of the British Empire, although many were not, such as Sweden, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal and Suriname, among others. Conversely, many RHT countries were part of the French colonial empire.
  In LHT traffic keeps left, and cars have the steering wheel on the right, putting the driver on the side closest to the centre of the road. Roundabouts circulate clockwise. RHT is the opposite of this: traffic keeps right, the driver sits on the left side of the car, and roundabouts circulate anticlockwise.
context_section_description: In most countries, rail traffic travels on the same side as road traffic. However, in many cases, railways were built using LHT British technology and, while road traffic switched to RHT, rail remained LHT. Examples include: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Egypt, France, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Laos, Monaco, Myanmar, Nigeria, Peru, Portugal, Senegal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Venezuela, and Yemen. In Indonesia it is the reverse (RHT for rails (even for LRT systems) and LHT for roads). France is mainly LHT for trains, except for the classic lines in Alsace-Lorraine, which belonged to Germany from 1870 to 1918, when the railways were built, along with most metro systems. China is basically LHT for long-distance trains and RHT for metro systems. Spain, which is RHT for railways has LHT for metros in Madrid and Bilbao. Metros and light rail sides of operation vary, and might not match railways or roads in their country. Trams generally operate at the same side as other road traffic because they frequently share roads.
caption:   Trains use right-hand track  Trains use left-hand track  Rail traffic is mixed or lacking