Top 10 WEIRDEST Railways in the World 

There's a funicular in my town of Fribourg/Switzerland that uses sewage water that flows into the top car as a counter weight for pulling up the bottom car. Then, at the bottom, the sewage water is let out into the canalization and so on. It's pretty unique.

CRT's quirks really represent Chongqing as a city. Within China, its seen as kind of hip and artsy (like Amsterdam I guess). It also has a bunch of other cool transit stuff like a cable car, funicular, and a public elevator to get between different levels of the city.

‘The Glass cow subway’ as someone from Glasgow got a right good laugh😂

Wuppertal isn't the only suspended railway, not even the only one in Germany, but a safety record of 121 years of operation with only falling down once is hard to beat.

I used to live in Lyon and Line C is known for its steepness. Tbh t's fun to see tourists trip and fall, as well as their shock when they see Croix-Paquet. Nobody realizes how steep the train is until you reach this station, since it's underground before and after that. The main problem is that this line is really not frequent at all. One small train every 10 minutes in peak hour is just not enough when other lines of Lyon get a train every 2 minutes.

You're like the David Attenborough for transit systems. Good job!

My favorite is the Budapest M1 line. Very simple contruction, small cars, unique design. The oldest subway in continental Europe.

Nice one! When you do Glasgow in full, note it's pronounced to rhyme with "show", not "cow" :)

While not a system per-se, Morgantown, West Virginia's weird 70s PRT system is fascinatingly weird, especially in context (a small town in Appalachia).

Another station with steeply graded platforms is Lausanne Gare on this Swiss cities' fully automated rubber tyre metro. At first this was a funicular but it was later rebuilt and extended as a cog wheel railway and more recently was rebuilt and extended again to become a fully fledged metro service. This metro is also unusual because the trains travel faster when going uphill than downhill. The reason is that the line is very steeply graded and special speed control measures prevent a runaway train careering downhill. Also, at stations the trains magnetically clamp to the tracks - again a safety measure. The Sapporo metro uses a centrally located guidance rail which in many ways makes it a straddle type of monorail. Having trains straddling the tracks helps reduce adhesion issues in snowy weather / prevents sliding sideways if the ground is icy! I was hoping to see the Japanese Linimo maglev metro

I live in Glasgow and I've never thought our subway too weird. Sure it's uncomfortable to stand up for more than 30 seconds (a nightmare if it's crowded as you're ducking your head in the doorway) but apart from its small size (and never being expanded) it's a pretty typical metro. The narrow platforms are a bit annoying in busy places like Kelvinbridge. At Hillhead, because they retro-fitted a second platform due to high passenger numbers, you climb up the stairs, over the other track's tunnel and back down 3 steps before continuing on up to the concourse. I fit that a bit weird and annoying. Oh! And only one station has accessible platforms for wheelchairs (St Enoch). Edit: I've found out that Govan and Partick are also accessible.

I'd love to see a video about Morgantown's PRT, love you content btw!

Fun video! I’ve taken Line C in Lyon. Waiting for a train at Croix-Paquet, the inclined station, and, especially, getting into the carriage is slightly… disconcerting… challenging!🤪

The Hakone-Tozan Railway is pretty unique. It is one of the oldest mountain railways in Asia, runs up a scenic mountain through a forest, and has lots of single track sections as well as 3 switch backs. Yet it still runs like a metro. Just wonderful 🤩

In Haifa, Israel there is an underground urban funicular called "Carmelit" that is actually acting like a metro with 6 stations along the way. the line is 1.8~ km long and the height difference between the top and the bottom is 274 m. It's believed to be the shortest metro in the world.

Reece your video's are the best. I've learned a ton about what good transit actually is and should look like. Anyways I know you've made videos in the past about upgrading transit if your city built the wrong mode but could you make one that gives examples of what it might take to actually do that. For ex: upgrading light rail to light metro or an actual metro. Would that involve upgrading/ replacing rails or bridges? Raising platforms? Signaling/ power supply? Grade separation? Would it be easier to just build a whole new line? I'd love to see a video that gets into those details a little more. Thanks!!

Commented this on your original post but I live in Australia and have literally never heard of the SkiTube (except for your original upload)

9:49 as former resident of Sapporo who used to use that exact line, I looked around for a reason why southern end of Nanboku Line is above ground. The particular route was built to transport guests of Sapporo Olympic to Makomanai Skating Arena from the downtown core. The very simple reason was to hasten the construction In order to ensure the construction would complete prior to the start of the Olympic 1971, THE END. (picture building Canada Line on time, in Edmonton climate, if you're Canadian) Also note that it was one of the first transit in Japan to use fully automated gate/ticket check system.

Other interesting examples are the Shonan suspended Monorail west of Tokyo is fascinating - it even goes through tunnels and across huge heights above the street. I've seen You-tube videos of a strange urban railway near Hiroshima in Japan (possibly called Sky-rail or something) that is somewhere between a suspended monorail and a cable car! It climbs up this amazingly steep hill. Plus of course the Jeddah metro that only operates during Hajj!

Been on the Glasgow Subway a few times and it a lovely quirky subway line, great video

Ohhhh!!!! Lyon line C!!! I lived in Lyon when I was a young child and we took that metro line often! I can't not remember Croix Paquet but I never would've guessed it's actually the steepest metro station in the WORLD. My favorite thing about this metro line is at the final stop Hôtel de Ville/Louis Pradel, there is a tiny replica of the metro at the steep angle and I loved looking at it when I got down at the stop.

Nice to see the inclusion of Glasgow. The city is pronounced "Glaz Go", just fyi, and people in Glasgow never call it the "clockwork orange" 👍

The Opicina Tramway in Trieste It's a conventional tram line for most of it, but due to a steep grade it also runs as a cable hauled funicular for part of the route with special cable hauled pusher sleds that push the tram cars up and down the grade

12:42 Yeah I used to live in Lyon and indeed the C line is like a rollercoaster. It is also the only line in the city that kept its seats on the center (like a bus) instead of throughout the length of the train, due to the inclination, it may cause people to fall down 😂

Nice video, and such unique railways!

when you said australia, I thought you were going to talk about the vintage solar powered train in Byron Bay, but then you talked about a system I didn't even know exited here!

I highly recommend checking the Karmelit underground rail system in Haifa, Israel. This is the only underground in Israel, and it has 6 stations only. Haifa is built as an upper-under city (that means it builds half on a mountain and half on beach land). Karmel was built to allow easier integration between the city's two parts. Now, here's the interesting fact - one couch to the under part of the city moves the couch from the opposite site. The system works on gravity. And in a small part of the system, there's an interchange that always replaces the two couches between the rails.

Hi Reese. I really enjoy your videos! I grew up in Hamilton Ontario and have ridden the TTC for longer than I can imagine, well before GO was even thought about! I have also ridden many of the systems that you describe -- Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, London, Istanbul. I find that the former Soviet block countries and cities such as Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, etc have very interesting systems combining Metro, trams, trolleys and buses. I was in Sofia Bulgaria 3 weeks ago and they have what can be best described as a museum of operating vehicles, ranging from 50 year old rattle trap trams manufactured by various Iron Curtain countries that are still in use as well as modern bendy trams. There is dual gauge trackage as both metre and standard gauges are in use! The older Metro vehicles are Russian built and look exactly like the ones you will find in Moscow! Somehow it all works and unlimited rides for a day are about CDN $2.50. I would love to hear your thoughts about these old Soviet cities -- some how they make motley collections of rolling stock survive and work well! Thank you

If you don't mind doing a video on a defunct railway system the M-Bahn in Berlin might be worth a look/video, they built an experimental maglev-train as a replacement for a subway-line severed by the separation of Germany, and it ran for a few years in testing before managing all of 1 year in full operation before the Berlin wall came down and reunification put an end to the oddball.

Hey RMTransit! Love your videos. You should do a video on the SF Cable Cars. Would fit very nicely with your strange and unique railways video! Love your vids!

My favourite funicular is the Haifa Carmelit - it's delightfully weird. It's totally underground, running up Mt. Carmel with a 200m-ish elevation gain. However, the two trains are on one single track, with a short passing section in the middle. This means the middle stations need to be exactly equidistant, and so they're in weird locations and hidden off behind buildings and on side streets. The mountain gets steeper as it goes up, so the cars are only level at the middle two stations. It's very useful for going between the neighbourhoods at the very top and bottom of the mountain, however, and it's fun and kitschy, and it's connected in with the larger Israeli national transit system (only one fare card needed!).

Brilliantly entertaining and informative. I would like to have a full video on all those systems. Keep up the good work.

Lyon trains have very fun designs. I especially love the design of the trams, they look very futuristic.

I just clicked the old video to watch it and it said privated so I came to find the repost.

Here as they are titled in Wikipedia: 10. New Shuttle (Saitama Prefecture, Japan) 9. Uetliberg railway line (Zürich, Switzerland) 8. Stoosbahn (Stoos, Switzerland) 7. Chongqing Rail Transit (China) 6. Wuppertal Schwebebahn (Germany) 5. Skitube Alpine Railway (Australia) 4. Sapporo Municipal Subway (Japan) 3. U-Bahn Serfaus (Austria) 2. Glasgow Subway (Scotland) 1. Lyon Metro Line C (France)

I don't know if you could make a while video on it, or if it would end up being a series.. But, living close enough to Boston for long enough to know a lot of it's history, I wonder if there's an appetite for "Lowest Hanging Fruit that Should be Done but Still Hasn't Happened". My example is the proposed North South Rail Link in Boston. A project that would connect a dozen different commuter lines, allow for electrification to turn commuter lines into regional rapid transit and get more cars off the road than I can count. ...but because the MBTA (the local transit authority) didn't think of it, they don't like it and go so far as to lie about things like projected costs to "prove" it's un-doable (even though Philadelphia did the exact same thing decades ago). Closing a 1-mile gap with a tunnel isn't QUITE as easy as it sounds because, well, it's Boston and they're much happier spending $20B on The Big Dig that hasn't had all that much effect on traffic. For the cost of less than the 3 stations in New York's 2nd Avenue Subway, Boston could have 12 new rapid transit lines knitting the entire metro area together.

Another example of a train with lots of individual doors is the British Rail Class 423 (Southern Railway Class 4VEP) which used to operate south of London in what is now the South Eastern, Southern and South Western Railways. They had about 8 single doors per carriage.

Love that you featured the Serfaus subway!

I've not ridden that Leon line, but I was up the track in Lausanne, CH, again, just last week, where the metro has stepped floors to overcome the steepness issue. It's also apparently the smallest city in the world with a metro, and a very pretty city. You really should check it out. 🙂

Haifa's Carmelit is interesting, in that it's a short funicular railway, but it was originally meant to serve as the city's main rapid transit system, similar to a metro, i.e. it's not one of those novelty systems "just to take people up the hill". It has six stations, at quite a steep incline. Its popularity severely declined in the 80s, 90s and 2000s, but in the 2010s it resurged; so much so that there were talks of 24/7 operation. However, first it had a major fire and then its main cable snapped, so the system was offline for the better part of 3 years, and its popularity dropped once again. Now it works until 00:00, and is closed on weekends like most public transport in Israel.

Still waiting for you to talk about the Norristown high speed line, probably the weirdest local transit line in North America

So fun to see my hometown subway, Glasgow, on the list at #2! Really looking forward to seeing a dedicated video on it. I would note that the city's pronounced "Glazgo"... people pronouncing the 'w' (with the '-ow' sound) will always make locals wince when we hear it. Great video tho!

In Denmark we have a rather newly built and just ring-extended Metro under Copenhagen. It was intended to be Driverless from the beginning, so you may sit just behind the front window and look at the tracks while it functions all day and night. It had some faults in the beginning so people didn't always end up where intended, but today it mostly functions fine!! A few places it runs on the ground and out of the tube system. On stations it has a glass wall towards the tracks, which open only in front of the doors on the train!

How about Keihan Keishin line from Shiga Japan. It's a combo of street car, metro, and there's even a 61% mountain section making it the most steepest subway in Japan.

It doesn't really count as transit, I suppose... but Tom Scott just made a video about Doppelmayr/Garaventa's Monorack, which is a small monorail that is also a rack railway, used mostly for getting cargo up and down hills at vineyards and building sites. The advantage of it being a monorail is that it makes the track very easy to set up and tear down, possibly on a temporary basis. But they try to sell it as a low-volume transportation system for passengers too, with sideways-mounted exposed seats.

Holy Moly I've been to Serfaus so often but never knew that the rail is so weird! And that this little village exactly is mentioned here is something i never expected!

The Getty Center trams are a really unique hovercar/funicular setup. I have ridden it numerous times to get from the parking area to the museum as a kid and when I figured out how it actually worked, it blew me away. Also, the BART Oakland shuttle is pretty neat even if it is a bit bespoke for the task at hand.

What a surprise, that's my picture at 12:44 😄😄😄 Thx for the correct credit 👍

The Naples metro is, to my knowledge, the only one with a spiral tunnel.

The Cartagena-Los nietos is a really weird one, because it has 1m gauge, trains are like train/tram, makes stops at the middle of nowhere, has one rail for both sides and, best of all, it's considered as a intercity rail service but sometimes a commuter Murcia has really weird trains out there

Yes! I was wondering if you'd mention the Glasgow subway.

As soon as you mentioned Australia, my mind immediately went to the Zig Zag Railway in Lithgow, NSW.

Great video, but I know a funicular in Asturias (Northem Spain) called Funicular de Bulnes, which was built to provide acces to a remote villager in the "Picos de Europa" mountain range. The funicular, which goes through a mountain, is completely underground and connects two valleys. One of the two cars has a external platform for carrying supplies. In my honest opinion i really think that this particular railway would be an interesting topic for a video. Thanks for your attention, love your videos!

The CRT is monorail for 2 reasons: there are steep grades that benefit from the traction, and to build-out the elevated sections great use of prefabricated concrete spans as used.

Have you ever listen about Minimetro in Perugia Italy? It's nice, a kind of big people mover, that rotate around itself in the end instead of using a loop... I suggest you to check It. Thanks for your videos.

Just got back from Glasgow: platform screen doors would definitely be a great upgrade, as some of the platforms are worryingly narrow.😅 More importantly, when is the full video coming? 😜

My favourite is Keihan-Keishin Line in Japan. It's operated as Tram in Otsu city and operated as Subway in Kyoto city (through service) and in order to connect them, it's operated in mountainous area as well. That makes this railway unique and weird I think.

You should look into the Personal Rapid Transit System at West Virginia University, it's been going pretty much non-stop since the 70s

I live in Glasgow, never thought of the Underground as being weird. It’s small, cramped and some station layouts could use and update but it’s well used. They trains now are also automated, I am Looking forward to the new trains though!

Ngl, I really was surprised by the Serfaus one, DESPITE having once experienced it for myself (ages ago, I almost forgot about it, but the Ski-tube actually made me remember it, and then you even mentioned it fully)

So, not a railway, but in Geneva (Switzerland again) we recently had an amazing innovation: an electric bus that's between a trolley-bus and a battery powered regular bus. Basically, instead of having a huge battery that lasts the whole day, it has a much smaller capacity, but can be recharged extremely fast at some of the stops. This means you don't have the ugly and constraining overhead lines of trolley-buses, but you're much more efficient and constantly operating than a full battery vehicle. And the bus can take a detour if needed, without being helplessly stranded (doesn't happen with trolleys, but you see what I mean, it's much more flexible). Added bonus, all the electricity is carbon free, because it's hydroelectricity coming directly from the river flowing in the area :) it's called the TOSA if you want to check it out!

My favourite unique railway is the Listowel and Ballybunion, aka the Lartigue Monorail, now closed and partially preserved. It ran through Co. Kerry in rural Ireland, now part of the Republic of Ireland. It opened in 1888 and closed in 1924. The trains were divided into two halves (two boilers, for instance) and balanced on a raised single rail. The design was intended to be suitable for dry sand desert as there were no rails on the ground which could be covered by sand in a strong wind.

An honorary mention would probably be Swiss ski resorts train lines, like you can see in Zermatt for example. Forget about boring gondolas or char lifts, some ski resorts use actual trains instead! Many resorts have funiculars, but cog railways are much less common

One of the most unique Funiculairs in my opinion is also the Funi in Fribourg (CH), because it runs with sewage. I just made a small video about this more than 100 years old transit line in my channel. The only problem there is: you can smell it ;)

Have you seen the modernisation of the Serfaus system? Apparently the stations look less like elevators, the train is modern with "supposedly" walkthrough cars, and overall has more windows, which I don't think are needed for an entirely underground rail

Have you heard of Hannovers or Bielefelds Stadtbahn Systems? Also very interesting, as it combines subway and surface tracks and both stretches out far.

I think as far as North America transit systems, the Loop in downtown Chicago is incredibly unique. In some ways it reminds me of the Wuppertal in Germany as it’s a structure that could have only been brought up during a very specific time period (late 1800s-early 1900s) and stands today as a relic of a bygone era. There are lots of elevated metro rail systems all over the world but most aren’t running through the heart of downtown like in Chicago

I'd recommend the Stuttgart U-bahn as an honorable mention. It's mostly a surface railway with high level platforms, but what makes it more unique is that the steep gradients and tight turns precluded standard light rail or metro equipment. The original trains had two body segments and only 2 bogies linked together under the floor because conventional 2-body 3-bogie vehicles lacked sufficient flexibility in yaw and pitch to negotiate the curvy, hilly tracks. The modern equipment they use now looks more mainstream, but the infrastructure remains more acrobatic than most transit systems worldwide.

I really like the laundromat train in Switzerland. Looks like you step into the drum of a washing machine. Such a shame you’re not washed and centrifuged during the ride, arriving tiptop at the terminus.

Another weird thiny thing is Ascensore Castello d'Albertis-Montegalletto close to Genoa Piazza Principe Station. A couple of cabins moves along an horizontal tunnel as funicular and a vertical shaft as a lift. They retrofitted an older elevator to do it. Maybe we will see other solutions like this in future because combining vertical and horizontal tracks could be extremely useful in many difficult urban environments with underground already crowded of structures and buildings. Tracks and "stations" could be even at high floors of buildings.

They are long gone but here in the Netherlands we had a lot of steam and electric tramways on the side of the road. Kind of like the interurban in the Midwest of the USA.

Talking home here, Budapest's metro line 1. It is an underground tram line really based on its real function, but it had to be put under the ground because people did not want to ruin the view on the avenue it travels along. So, in the mid-1890's, they decided to carve a tunnel, build the railway, then cover the tunnel. It came out to the surface near Heroes Square, resulting in Hungary's first concrete steel bridge, that is still visible, even though the system has been put completely subsurface during the 1980(not sure on the exact year) renovation, when it has been prolonged until an inner-city ring road. Now the reason why it is interesting is because it was supposed to be a tram, and yet it is underground and it is considered to be a metro. The height of the tunnel is 2.65 meters, resulting in the need of special vehicles to travel in it. First vehicles were manufactured by Siemens-Halske, the current ones were made by Hungarian manufacturer Ganz in the early 1980's. Due to the dimensions, no regular tram can fit for the route. It had influence on other metro lines of Budapest, as well. During the renovation of metro line 2, Budapest citizens had the chance to take part in a poll to decide some aspects of the look of the new trains, and they decided to put the lights in the middle, because it makes it look like the "Kis Földalatti" / "Little Subterranean/Underground". The trains on line 4 received the same look, as they were delivered by the same manufacturer, Alstom. And, during the construction of metro line 2, the station at Deák Ferenc tér, where the two lines met and later line 3 also joined, the station and platforms had to be placed elsewhere to be able to build the underpass system and platform entrances for all the lines. This resulted in building a new section of tunnel, and a section of the original tunnel being left basically empty. A decision was made to put this section to good use, and a museum presenting the Budapest metro was built here, still open.

Japan is also quite fond of suspended monorails, not surprising since they have to deal with very crowded cities. ...and now I wonder how difficult it would be to add another, ordinary, monorail on top of the suspended one to double the capacity...

8:26 re skitube the terminal stations are at Bullocks Flat and Blue Cow with an intermediate one at Perisher Valley. When it first opened only the line between bullocks flat and Perisher valley was running and buses were running in the tunnel between Perisher and blue cow.

Thank you, I really enjoyed that. 🇬🇧🇯🇵😃

Wow, cool, I didn't know that Glasgow had a metro system. I'll be there soon. I like Seoul's metro system. It's stations are very clean and bright.

When speaking of trains on an incline, i missed seeing the metro in Haifa, Israel which is quite short but has really steeply inclined stations

Angels Flight is such a neat little train. I love using it. Its right outside grand central market, so to any tourists in LA, its worth the visit.

Will we ever get that Glasgow video? If we ever do please cover the Metro, Suburban Rail plus Future plans

Dude I love your channel but SF cable cars are definitely on this list if not #1!!!

My personal favourite one is Ascensore Castello d'Albertis-Montegalletto, Genoa, which is the most insane mixture of an elevator and a railway one can ever come up with.

Have you considered doing a video on the DMV used on the Asatō Line in Japan?

GlasGO not GlasGOW. Great channel, really love your content.

I live near the metroline C in Lyon, I was expecting you to talk about it lol

I think the speed of Lyon line C is really incredible. There's a cogwheel at my hometown (Stuttgart line 10), but it goes at a relatively slow speed compared to the normal lines. Line C though just goes brrr.

Le Petite Train Jaune. Perpignan to Villefranche. It is narrow gauge. It connects with Iberian gauge and standard gauge and a bus to Andorra. There is one in Switzerland that goes to within sight of Mont Blanc. It changes between 3rd rail and catenary and connects at the border with SNCF.

VERY interesting, thank you. . . I subscribe, by the way. I rode the SKITUBE many years ago, and it was well patronized. I rode GLASGOW in 2011 and was aware of the 4'gauge. On a related issue, the trams in Wellington New Zealand had 4' gauge but they were replaced by TROLLEY BUSES. . . . . and in turn, the trolleys were replaced by BATTERY powered buses. I rode the trolley buses in 2014, as a farewell to the system. I enjoyed seeing those high capacity MONORAIL lines in China! Which demonstrates that a MONORAIL can. . . . and should. . . be used for serious transit rather than a novelty.

Wait Reece, is this a re-upload? I'm sure I've seen this. I see you use Unique correctly, maybe that's why. Good on ya. Is there a Geoff Marshall cross-over soon?

not really unique but shout out to Shonan monorail -- one of the only SAFEGE systems, so suspended monorail with laminated wood track and rubber tires, and the only one that goes underground!

Perugias mini metro is very unique. It has 7 Stopps an is like an 1 Car Fenicular systhem

I like the rack tram in Stuttgart (Zacke) with its seperate bike trailer

I live close to the Stoosbahn. If you possibly come here to ride it, you also have to come to Vitznau for the Rigi rack train and also to Grindelwald for the trsin to jungfraujoch. Also the pilatusbahn is interessting for you.

I live in Lyon, and I was quite impressed the very first time I took the metro line C! You slide out of your seat haha

I'm excited about the potential Øresundsmetro, that would add an additional link between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden.

I am missing the Isle of Wight Railway which uses old (converted) London Underground stock. Also there used to be a rail line (at least if you can call it a rail line) in Genoa Italy which had an elevator in it. Or maybe you can call that one just an elevator.

one of the first fully automated metro/transit system was the «ExpoExpress» train back in 1967 in Montreal during the International exhibition Expo67.

Isn't there a rural trolleybus somewhere in Eastern Europe? Actually, tram or metro lines which serve an urban core but also extend outside the city are fascinating.

I don’t think theses are weird, theses are special, really unique.

The Schewbebahn in Dresden is an absolutely fun and weird railway system as it's a suspension railway funicular. Yes, you read that right, a suspension railway funicular. One which entered into service the same year as the Wuppertal supsension railway system did in 1901. Another one that is cool and odd is the Pyongyang Metro. Not just because of the fact that it is the last spot to see old Eastern Bloc metro cars from places like East Germany and Czechoslovakia, or the unique and ornate stations designed similar to that which you would see in places like Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also because it is the deepest metro in the world as they go 360 ft (110m for metric people) down into the ground.

The Detroit Metro Airport has a cable people-mover using the same hovercraft technology as the line in Austria. It has 3 stations, and is entirely indoors. As far as I know, it is the world's longest fully-interior rail transit line