What is the difference between light and heavy rail

Question

What is the difference between light and heavy rail

Answer 1

light rail usually operates more like trams. eg, street level, shorter trains and have the cable thing on top of them, heavy rail, on the other hand is usually built underground and features longer trains.  

Answer 2

Many people (even professionals) get this confused.

In the United States, both terms refer to passenger transportation.  

Light rail usually is descriptive of street cars or trolleys and other intra-urban transportation that moves people short distances.  

Heavy rail, on the other hand, usually is confined to subways and other high density and higher-speed modes of rail transport.

As defined by APTA (American Public Transportation Association):

Light Rail is lightweight passenger rail cars operating singly (or in short, usually two-car, trains) on fixed rails in right-of-way that is not separated from other traffic for much of the way. Light rail vehicles are typically driven electrically with power being drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley or a pantograph. Also known as "streetcar," "tramway," "trolley car."

Heavy Rail is high-speed, passenger rail cars operating singly or in trains of two or more cars on fixed rails in separate rights-of-way from which all other vehicular and foot traffic are excluded. Also known as "rapid rail," "subway," "elevated (railway)," or "metropolitan railway (metro)."

There is a third type of passenger transport, called "commuter rail".  This is longer-haul rail passenger service operating between metropolitan and suburban areas, whether within or across the geographical boundaries of a state.  These often use regular railroad track that can be used by freight trains, too.

Answer 3

Light rail is like a monorail, and heavy rail is a regular train.