Commuter rail


Commuter rail or suburban rail is a passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting the central city to its suburbs and commuter towns. Commuter rail systems can use locomotive-hauled trains or multiple units, using electric or diesel propulsion. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used.
The term can refer to systems with a wide variety of different features and service frequencies, but typically refers to mainline rail services connecting suburban communities with city centres over medium distances; it is distinguished from rapid transit systems which operate inside the urban core.
Some services blur the line between suburban rail and rapid transit; examples include German S-Bahn in some cities, the Réseau Express Régional in Paris, the S Lines in Milan, many Japanese commuter systems, the East Rail line in Hong Kong, and some Australasian suburban networks, such as Sydney Trains and Metro Trains Melbourne. Many commuter rail systems share tracks with other passenger services and freight.
In North America, commuter rail sometimes refers only to systems that primarily operate during rush hour and offer little to no service for the rest of the day, with regional rail being used to refer to systems that offer all-day service.

Characteristics

Most commuter trains are built to main line rail standards, differing from light rail or rapid transit systems by:
  • being larger
  • providing more seating and less standing room, owing to the longer distances involved
  • having a lower frequency of service
  • having scheduled services
  • serving lower-density suburban areas, typically connecting suburbs to the city center
  • sharing track or right-of-way with intercity and/or freight trains
  • not fully grade separated
  • being able to skip certain stations as an express service due to normally being driver controlled

Train schedule

Compared to rapid transit, commuter/suburban rail often has lower frequency, following a schedule rather than running to a headway, and wider station spacing. Such services primarily serve lower density suburban areas, generally only having one or two stops in a city's central business district, and often share right-of-way with inter-city and freight trains. Often, service is concentrated in the peak, with fewer trains per hour running during the day; service late into the evening and on weekends may be reduced or not run at all. Average speeds are usually higher than rapid transit, often or higher. These higher speeds better serve the longer distances involved. Some suburban networks include skip-stop or express trains which serve only high-demand central, interchange and other major stations.
The general range of commuter trains' travel distance varies between, but longer distances can be covered when the trains run between two or several cities. Distances between stations may vary, but are usually much longer than those of urban rail systems. In the city centre, the train may terminate, or run through the city centre to serve suburbs on the other side before returning.

Track

Suburban trains' ability to coexist with freight or intercity services in the same right-of-way can drastically reduce system construction costs. However, as lines converge near the city centre and the number of trains per hour increases, dedicated tracks may be built or existing tracks set aside for suburban trains only; commonly, two tracks of a quadruple-track line running through a city centre are used for suburban services only.
Most such trains run on the local standard gauge track. Some systems may run on a narrower or broader gauge. Examples of narrow-gauge systems are found in some systems in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and on the Genoa-Casella line in Italy. Some countries and regions, such as San Francisco in the US and the Keikyu system in Japan, use wider track gauges relative to their national standard.

Distinction between other modes of rail

Metro

Metro rail and rapid transit usually cover smaller inner-urban areas within of city centers, with shorter stop spacing, use rolling stocks with larger standing spaces, lower top speed and higher acceleration, designed for short-distance travel. They also run more frequently, to a headway rather than a published timetable and use dedicated tracks, whereas commuter rail often shares tracks, technology and the legal framework within mainline railway systems, and uses rolling stocks with more seating and higher speed for comfort on longer city-suburban journeys.
However, the classification as a metro or rapid rail can be difficult; many highly developed suburban networks run over dedicated rights of way in the city centre and may primarily serve densely built-up inner suburbs. The fact that the terminology is not standardised across countries further complicates matters. This distinction is most easily made when there are two systems such as New York's subway and the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad, Paris' Métro and RER along with Transilien, Washington D.C.'s Metro along with its MARC and VRE, London's tube lines of the Underground and the Overground, Elizabeth line, Thameslink along with other commuter rail operators, Madrid's Metro and Cercanías, Barcelona's Metro and Rodalies, and Tokyo's subway and the East Japan Railway Company#Greater [Tokyo Area|JR lines] along with various privately owned and operated commuter rail systems.

Regional rail

usually provides rail services between towns and cities, rather than purely linking major population hubs in the way inter-city rail does. Regional rail operates outside major cities. Unlike Inter-city, it stops at most or all stations between cities. It provides a service between smaller communities along the line that are often byproducts of ribbon developments, and also connects with long-distance services at interchange stations located at junctions, terminals, or larger towns along the line. Alternative names are "local train" or "stopping train". Examples include the former BR's Regional Railways, France's TER, Germany's Regionalexpress and Regionalbahn, and South Korea's Tonggeun and Mugunghwa-ho services.

Inter-city rail

In some European countries, the distinction between commuter trains and long-distance/intercity trains is subtle, due to the relatively short distances involved. For example, Nederlandse Spoorwegen runs more than 80 direct trains a day over some 50 km between Amsterdam and The Hague, used daily by numerous commuters, despite notionally being an intercity route. Likewise, many suburban services in the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan connect downtown Tokyo with cities which are substantial in their own right, such as Yokohama, Saitama, and Chiba but are less than 50 km from the centre of Tokyo.
The United Kingdom has a largely privatized rail system, with different routes and services covered by different private operators. The distinction between commuter and intercity rail is not as clear as it was before privatisation, but usually it is still possible to tell them apart. Some operators, for example Thameslink, focus solely on commuter services. Others, such as Avanti West Coast and LNER, run solely intercity services. Others still, such as GWR and EMR, run a mixture of commuter, regional and intercity services. Some of these operators use different branding for different types of service but even for those operators that do not, the type of train, amenities offered, and stopping pattern, usually tell the services apart.
Russian commuter trains, on the other hand, frequently cover areas larger than Belgium itself, although these are still short distances by Russian standards. They have a different ticketing system from long-distance trains, and in major cities they often operate from a separate section of the train station.
Some consider "inter-city" service to be that which operates as an express service between two main city stations, bypassing intermediate stations. However, this term is used in Australia to describe the regional trains operating beyond the boundaries of the suburban services, even though some of these "inter-city" services stop all stations similar to German regional services. In this regard, the German service delineations and naming conventions are clearer and better used for academic purposes.

High-speed rail

Sometimes high-speed rail can serve daily use of commuters. The Japanese Shinkansen high speed rail system is heavily used by commuters in the Greater Tokyo Area, who commute between by Shinkansen. To meet the demand of commuters, JR sells commuter discount passes. Before 2021, they operated 16-car bilevel E4 Series Shinkansen trains at rush hour, providing a capacity of 1,600 seats. Several lines in China, such as the Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway and the Shanghai–Nanjing High-Speed Railway, serve a similar role with many more under construction or planned.
In South Korea, some sections of the high-speed rail network are also heavily used by commuters, such as the section between Gwangmyeong Station and Seoul Station on the KTX network, or the section between Dongtan Station and Suseo station on the SRT Line.
The high-speed services linking Zurich, Bern and Basel in Switzerland have brought the Central Business Districts of these three cities within 1 hour of each other. This has resulted in unexpectedly high demand for new commuter trips between the three cities and a corresponding increase in suburban rail passengers accessing the high-speed services at the main city-centre stations. The Regional-Express commuter service between Munich and Nuremberg in Germany runs at on the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt high-speed railway.
The regional trains Stockholm–Uppsala, Stockholm–Västerås, Stockholm–Eskilstuna and Gothenburg–Trollhättan in Sweden reach and have many daily commuters.
In Great Britain, the HS1 domestic services between London and Ashford runs at a top speed of 225 km/h, and in peak hours the trains can be full with commuters standing.
The Athens Suburban Railway in Greece consists of five lines, 4 of which are electrified. The Kiato–Piraeus line and the Aigio–Airport Station|Airport] lines reach speeds of up to. The Athens–Chalcis line is also expected to attain speeds of up to upon upgrading of the SKA–Oinoi railway sector. These lines also have many daily commuters, with the number expected to rise even higher upon full completion of the Acharnes Railway Center.
Eskişehir-Ankara and Konya-Ankara high speed train routes serve as high speed commuter trains in Turkey.

Train types

Commuter/suburban trains are usually optimized for maximum passenger volume, in most cases without sacrificing too much comfort and luggage space, though they seldom have all the amenities of long-distance trains. Cars may be single- or double-level, and aim to provide seating for all. Compared to intercity trains, they have less space, fewer amenities and limited baggage areas.

Multiple unit type

Commuter rail trains are usually composed of multiple units, which are self-propelled, bidirectional, articulated passenger rail cars with driving motors on each bogie. Depending on local circumstances and tradition they may be powered either by diesel engines located below the passenger compartment or by electricity picked up from third rails or overhead lines. Multiple units are almost invariably equipped with control cabs at both ends, which is why such units are so frequently used to provide commuter services, due to the associated short turn-around time.

Locomotive hauled services

Locomotive hauled services are used in some countries or locations. This is often a case of asset sweating, by using a single large combined fleet for intercity and regional services. Loco hauled services are usually run in push-pull formation, that is, the train can run with the locomotive at the "front" or "rear" of the train. Trains are often equipped with a control cab at the other end of the train from the locomotive, allowing the train operator to operate the train from either end. The motive power for locomotive-hauled commuter trains may be either electric or diesel–electric, although some countries, such as Germany and some of the former Soviet-bloc countries, also use diesel–hydraulic locomotives.

Seat plans

In the US and some other countries, a three-and-two seat plan is used. Middle seats on these trains are often less popular because passengers feel crowded and uncomfortable.
In Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, longitudinal seating is widely used in many commuter rail trains to increase capacity in rush hours. Carriages are usually not organized to increase seating capacity even in the case of commuting longer than 50 km and commuters in the Greater Tokyo Area, Seoul metropolitan area, and Jabodetabek area have to stand in the train for more than an hour.

Commuter rail systems around the world

Africa

Currently there are not many examples of commuter rail in Africa. Metrorail operates in the major cities of South Africa, and there are some commuter rail services in Algeria, Botswana, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.
In Algeria, the Algiers suburban rail network serves the capital Algiers and its southern and eastern suburbs. It also connects Algiers' main universities to each other. The Dar es Salaam commuter rail offers intracity services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In Botswana, the "BR Express" has a commuter train between Lobatse and Gaborone.

Asia

East Asia

In Japan, commuter rail systems have extensive network and frequent service and are heavily used. In many cases, Japanese commuter rail is operationally more like a typical metro system than it is like commuter rail in other countries. Japanese commuter rail commonly interline with city center subway lines, with commuter rail trains continuing into the subway network, and then out onto different commuter rail systems on the other side of the city. Many Japanese commuter systems operate various stopping patterns to reduce the travel time to distant locations, often using station passing loops instead of dedicated express tracks. It is notable that the larger Japanese commuter rail systems are owned and operated by for-profit private railway companies, without public subsidy.
East Japan Railway Company operates a large suburban train network in Tokyo with various lines connecting the suburban areas to the city center. While the Yamanote Line, Keihin Tohoku Line, Chūō–Sōbu Line services arguably are more akin to rapid transit with frequent stops, simple stopping patterns no branching services and largely serving the inner suburbs; other services along the Chūō Rapid Line, Sōbu Rapid Line/Yokosuka Line, Ueno–Tokyo Line, Shōnan–Shinjuku Line etc. are mid-distance services from suburban lines in the outer reaches of Greater Tokyo through operating into these lines to form a high frequency corridor though central Tokyo.
Other commuter rail routes in Japan include:
Commuter rail systems have been inaugurated in several cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and the Pearl River Delta. With plans for large systems in northeastern Zhejiang, Jingjinji, and Yangtze River Delta areas. The level of service varies considerably from line to line ranging high to near high speeds. More developed and established lines such as the Guangshen Railway have more frequent metro-like service.
The two MTR lines which are owned and formerly operated by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, and MTR's own Tung Chung line connect the new towns in New Territories and the city centre Kowloon together with frequent intervals, and some New Territories-bound trains terminate at intermediate stations, providing more frequent services in Kowloon and the towns closer to Kowloon. They use rolling stocks with a faster maximum speed and have longer stop spacing compared to other lines which only run in the inner urban area, but in order to maximise capacity and throughput, these rolling stocks have longitudinal seatings, 5 pairs of doors in each carriage with large standing spaces like the urban lines, and run as frequent as well. Most of the sections of these four lines are overground and some sections of the East Rail Line share tracks with intercity trains to mainland China. The three KCR lines are integrated into the MTR network since 2008 and most passengers do not need to exit and re-enter the system through separate fare gates and purchase separate tickets to transfer between such lines and the rest of the network of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway which mostly travel in the dense parts of Seoul, some track sections extend far outside of the city, and operate large sections at ground level, such as on the Line 1, Line 3 and Line 4. In Busan, the Donghae Line, while part of the Busan Metro system, mostly functions as a commuter rail line.

Southeast Asia

In Indonesia, the KRL Commuterline is the largest commuter rail system in the country, serving the Greater Jakarta. It connects the Jakarta city center with surrounding cities and sub-urbans in Banten and West Java provinces, including Depok, Bogor, Tangerang, Serpong, Rangkasbitung, Bekasi and Cikarang. In July 2015, KRL Commuterline served more than 850,000 passengers per day, which is almost triple of the 2011 figures, but still less than 3.5% of all Jabodetabek commutes. Other commuter rail systems in Indonesia include the Metro Surabaya Commuter Line, Commuter Line Baraya, Yogyakarta–Solo Line, Kedung Sepur, and the Sri Lelawangsa.
In the Philippines, the Philippine National Railways has two commuter rail systems currently operational; the PNR Metro Commuter Line in the Greater Manila Area and the PNR Bicol Commuter in the Bicol Region. A new commuter rail line in Metro Manila, the North–South Commuter Railway, is currently under construction, with completion targeted for 2031.
In Malaysia, there are two commuter services operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu. They are the KTM Komuter that serves Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding Klang Valley area, and the KTM Komuter Northern Sector that serves the George Town Conurbation, Perak, Kedah and Perlis in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia.
In Thailand, the Greater Bangkok Commuter rail and the Airport Rail Link serve the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The SRT Red Lines, a new commuter line in Bangkok, started construction in 2009. It opened in 2021.
Another commuter rail system in Southeast Asia is the Yangon Circular Railway in Myanmar.

South Asia

In India, commuter rail systems are present in major cities and form an important part of people's daily lives. Mumbai Suburban Railway, the oldest suburban rail system in Asia, carries more than 7.24 million commuters on a daily basis which constitutes more than half of the total daily passenger capacity of the Indian Railways itself. Kolkata Suburban Railway, one of the largest suburban railway networks in the world, consists of more than 450 stations and carries more than 3.5 million commuters per day. The Chennai Suburban Railway along with the Chennai MRTS, also covers over 300 stations and carries more than 2.5 million people daily to different areas in Chennai and its surroundings. Other commuter railways in India include the Hyderabad MMTS, Delhi Suburban Railway, Pune Suburban Railway and Lucknow-Kanpur Suburban Railway.
In 2020, Government of India approved Bengaluru Suburban Railway to connect Bengaluru and its suburbs. It will be unique and first of its kind in India as it will have metro like facilities and rolling stock.
In Bangladesh, there is one suburban rail called the Chittagong Circular Railway. Another suburban railway called the Dhaka Circular Railway is currently proposed.
Karachi in Pakistan has a circular railway since 1969.

West Asia

In Israel, the Israel Railways is the largest commuter rail system in the country, serving the North, Tel Aviv, Central, Jerusalem, and South. It connects the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv center with surrounding cities and sub-urbans in their regions.
Tehran Metro currently operates the Line 5 commuter line between Tehran and Karaj.
Turkey has commuter rail in the cities of Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul and Gaziantep.

Europe

Major metropolitan areas in most European countries are usually served by extensive commuter/suburban rail systems. Well-known examples include BG Voz in Belgrade, S-Bahn in Germany, Austria and German-speaking areas of Switzerland, Proastiakos in Greece, RER in France and Belgium, Servizio ferroviario suburbano in Italy, Cercanías and Rodalies in Spain, CP Urban Services in Portugal, Esko in Prague and Ostrava, HÉV in Budapest and DART in Dublin.

Western Europe

has multiple commuter rail routes:
The Merseyrail network in Liverpool consists of two commuter rail routes powered by third rail, both of which branch out at one end. At the other, the Northern line continues out of the city centre to a mainline rail interchange, while the Wirral line has a city-centre loop.
Birmingham has four suburban routes which operate out of Birmingham New Street & Birmingham Moor Street stations, one of which is operated using diesel trains.
The Tyneside Electrics system in Newcastle upon Tyne existed from 1904 to 1967 using DC third rail. British Rail did not have the budget to maintain the ageing electrification system. The Riverside Branch was closed, while the remaining lines were de-electrified. 13 years later, they were re-electrified using DC overhead wires, and now form the Tyne & Wear Metro Yellow Line.
Many of the rail services around Glasgow are branded as Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. The network includes most electrified Scottish rail routes.
The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive run eleven services which feed into Leeds, connecting the city with commuter areas and neighbouring urban centres in the West Yorkshire Built-up Area.
MetroWest is a proposed network in Bristol, northern Somerset & southern Gloucestershire. The four-tracking of the line between Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway stations will enable local rail services to be separated from long-distance trains.
The Réseau express régional d'Île-de-France is a commuter rail network in the agglomeration of Paris. In the centre the RER has high frequency underground corridors where several suburban branches feed similar to a rapid transit system.
Commuter rail systems in German-speaking regions are called S-Bahn. While in some major cities S-Bahn services run on separate lines exclusively other systems use the existing regional rail tracks.
Randstadspoor is a network of Sprinter train services in and around the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. For the realisation of this network, new stations were opened. Separate tracks have been built for these trains, so they can call frequently without disturbing high-frequent Intercity services parallel to these routes. Similar systems are planned for The Hague and Rotterdam.

Northern Europe

In Sweden, electrified commuter rail systems known as Pendeltåg are present in the cities of Stockholm and Gothenburg. The Stockholm commuter rail system, which began in 1968, shares railway tracks with inter-city trains and freight trains, but for the most part runs on its own dedicated tracks. It is primarily used to transport passengers from nearby towns and other suburban areas into the city centre, not for transportation inside the city centre. The Gothenburg commuter rail system, which began in 1960, is similar to the Stockholm system, but does fully share tracks with long-distance trains.
In Norway, the Oslo commuter rail system is from 2022 more limited but the remaining commuter lines go on tracks mostly not much used by other trains. From 2022 several lines with hourly frequency and travel times to endpoints of over one hour are redefined as regional trains. Before 2022 Oslo had the largest commuter rail system in the Nordic countries in terms of line lengths and number of stations. Also Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim have commuter rail systems. These have only one or two lines each and they share tracks with other trains.
In Finland, the Helsinki commuter rail network runs on dedicated tracks from Helsinki Central railway station to Leppävaara and Kerava. The Ring Rail Line serves Helsinki Airport and northern suburbs of Vantaa and is exclusively used by the commuter rail network. On 15 December 2019, the Tampere region got its own commuter rail service, with trains running from Tampere to Nokia, Lempäälä and Orivesi.

Southern Europe

In Spain, Cercanías networks exist in Madrid, Sevilla, Murcia/Alicante, San Sebastián, Cádiz, León, Ferrol, Valencia, Asturias, Santander, Zaragoza, Bilbao and Málaga. All these systems include underground sections in the city centre.
Cercanías Madrid is one of the most important train services in the country, more than 900,000 passengers move in the system. It has underground stations in Madrid like Recoletos, Sol or Nuevos Ministerios and in the metropolitan area in cities like Parla or Getafe.
File:Trens de Rodalies Renfe a l'Estació de França.jpg|thumb|Rodalies Renfe trains in Estació de França, Barcelona
[File:FGC 211.03 i 213.34.jpg|thumb|Trains in circulation on the Generalitat de Catalunya|FGC] Llobregat-Anoia line in 2009]
In the autonomous community of Catalonia, and unlike the rest of Spain, the commuter service is not managed by Renfe Operadora. Since 2010, the Government of Catalonia has managed all the regular commuter services with the "transfer of Rodalies". There are two companies that manage the Catalan commuter network:
Since 2024, the Government of Catalonia has full control of the current R12 regional line and it is now owned by the FGC. It will eliminate the current line and replace it with the new commuter lines RL3 and RL4, towards Cervera and Manresa from Lleida respectively.
[File:Milano staz Porta Venezia TSR linea S6.JPG|thumb|A TSR train at Milano Porta Venezia railway station on the Milan Passerby railway, Italy]
File:I08 119 Bf Napoli Garibaldi, ETR 211.jpg|thumb|A Metrostar train at Napoli Garibaldi railway station on the Circumvesuviana railway network
In Italy fifteen cities have commuter rail systems:

Eastern Europe

In Poland, commuter rail systems exist in Tricity, Warsaw, Kraków and Katowice. There is also a similar system planned in Wrocław and Szczecin. The terms used are "Szybka Kolej Miejska" and "kolej aglomeracyjna". These systems are:
The Proastiakos is Greece's suburban railway services, which are run by TrainOSE, on infrastructure owned by the Hellenic Railways Organisation. There are three Proastiakos networks, servicing the country's three largest cities: Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras. In particular, the Athenian network is undergoing modifications to completely separate it from mainline traffic, by re-routing the tracks via a tunnel underneath the city center. A similar project is planned for the Patras network, whereas a new line is due to be constructed for the Thessalonian network.
In Romania, the first commuter trains were introduced in December 2019. They operate between Bucharest and Funduea or Buftea.
BG Voz is an urban rail system that serves Belgrade. It currently has only two routes, with plans for further expansion. Between the early 1990s and mid-2010s, there was another system, known as Beovoz, that was used to provide mass-transit service within the Belgrade metropolitan area, as well as to nearby towns, similarly to RER in Paris. Beovoz had more lines and far more stops than the current system. However, it was abandoned in favor of more accurate BG Voz, mostly due to inefficiency. While current services rely mostly on the existing infrastructure, any further development means furthering capacities. Plans for further extension of system include another two lines, one of which should reach Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.
In Russia, Ukraine and some other countries of the former Soviet Union, electrical multiple unit passenger suburban trains called Elektrichka are widespread. The first such system in Russia is the Oranienbaum Electric Line in St. Petersburg. In Moscow the Beskudnikovskaya railway branch existed between the 1940s and 1980s. The trains that shuttled along it did not go to the main lines, so it was a city transport. Today there are the Moscow Central Circle and the Moscow Central Diameters.
In Turkey, Marmaray line stations from Sirkeci to Halkalı are located at the European side.

Americas

North America

In the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico regional passenger rail services are provided by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies, with the busiest and most expansive rail networks located in the Northeastern US, California, and Eastern Canada. Most North American commuter railways utilize diesel locomotive propulsion, with the exception of services in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and Mexico City; New York's commuter rail lines use a combination of third rail and overhead wire power generation, while Chicago only has two out of twelve services that are electrified. Many newer and proposed systems in Canada and the United States are often geared to serving peak-hour commutes as opposed to the all-day systems of Europe, East Asia, and Australia.
United States
Eight commuter rail systems in the United States carried over ten million trips each in 2018, those being in descending order:
Other commuter rail systems in the United States are:

South America

Examples include an commuter system in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, the long Supervia in Rio de Janeiro, the Metrotrén in Santiago, Chile, and the Valparaíso Metro in Valparaíso, Chile.
Another example is Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos in Greater São Paulo, Brazil. CPTM has 94 stations with seven lines, numbered starting on 7, with a total length of. Trains operates at high frequencies on tracks used exclusively for commuter traffic. In Rio de Janeiro SuperVia provides electrified commuter rail services.

Oceania

The five major cities in Australia have suburban railway systems in their metropolitan areas. These networks have frequent services, with frequencies varying from every 10 to every 30 minutes on most suburban lines, and up to 3–5 minutes in peak on bundled underground lines in the city centres of Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. The networks in each state developed from mainline railways and have never been completely operationally separate from long distance and freight traffic, unlike metro systems. The suburban networks are almost completely electrified.
The main suburban rail networks in Australia are:
New Zealand has two frequent suburban rail services comparable to those in Australia: the Auckland rail network is operated by Auckland One Rail and the Wellington rail network is operated by Transdev Wellington.

Hybrid systems

Hybrid urban-suburban rail systems exhibiting characteristics of both rapid transit and commuter rail serving a metropolitan region are common in German-speaking countries, where they are known as S-Bahn. Other examples include: Lazio regional railways in Rome, the RER in France and the Elizabeth line, London Underground Metropolitan line, London Overground and Merseyrail in the UK. Comparable systems can be found in Australia such as Sydney Trains and Metro Trains Melbourne, and in Japan with many urban and suburban lines operated by JR East/West and third-party companies running at metro-style frequencies. In contrast, comparable systems of this type are generally rare in the United States and Canada, where peak hour frequencies are more common.
In Asia, the construction of higher speed urban-suburban rail links has gained traction in various countries, such as in India, with the Delhi RRTS, in China, with the Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region intercity railway, and in South Korea, with the Great Train eXpress system. These systems usually run on dedicated elevated or underground tracks for most of their route and have features comparable to Higher-speed rail.