rapid transit

...Train buses have the characteristics of guideway railways, but because the vehicles can run freely as buses when they leave the tracks, they have the technical characteristics of both trains and automobiles. Regular trains are further classified into railways in the narrow sense, which use dedicated tracks to transport large amounts of goods at high speed between regions and in suburban areas (particularly called rapid transit in urban areas), and tramways, which use shared tracks on roads to provide simple and accessible transport. Traditionally, Japan's railway laws and regulations were determined by the types of railway licenses, and private railways (private railways) other than the national railways were legally divided into four types: local railways, tracks, dedicated railways, and cableways.

*Some explanations of terms that mention "rapid transit" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…軌道バスは，案内軌条式鉄道の性質をもつが，軌道を離れた車両がバスとして自在に走行するため，鉄道と自動車の双方の技術特性を備えている。普通鉄道はさらに，専用軌道を用いて地域間や都市近郊などの大量高速輸送を行う狭義の鉄道railway(都市交通ではとくに高速鉄道rapid transitと呼ばれる)と，道路上に設けられた併用軌道を用いて簡便で身近な輸送を行う軌道tramwayに分類される。　日本の鉄道法規は，従来は日本国有鉄道法，地方鉄道法，軌道法，専用鉄道規程，索道規則の5種の法規により鉄道に関する免許の種類を決めており，国鉄以外の民営鉄道(民鉄)路線は法制上，地方鉄道，軌道，専用鉄道，索道の4種類に分けられていた。…

※「rapid transit」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報