That brief "elevated" stretch around 125th Street is kinda unique in that there's a dramatic incline, and so they ran the subway tunnel straight through the valley. The subway line doesn't change elevation.

I don't believe Amtrak has any at-grade tracks anywhere in Manhattan except at the very northern tip.

In Midtown, the Amtrak line is mostly underground, though a few spots are still open trench (though being covered as part of Hudson Yards and ancillary West Side development). Then it enters a newer tunnel under the Riverside South development, which connects directly to the older Riverside Park tunnel. This tunnel ends around 125th Street, but then runs on an elevated structure. At some point the elevated structure descends into a trench between the Hudson River and Henry Hudson Parkway, and then goes at-grade.

North of 160th Street or so, it pretty much runs right along the river at grade. But there are no road crossings, of course, it's all separated with bridges/tunnels for pedestrians/traffic. You couldn't reach the tracks unless you're leaping over walls.

The other non-subway rail lines in Manhattan are either completely underground (Amtrak-LIRR-NJ Transit tunnel through Midtown) or underground/elevated (Metro North through East Side, which is subway from 42nd to 100th, then elevated till Bronx). The newest rail line, East Side Access (LIRR), is completely underground, and, by far the deepest rail tunnel in Manhattan. I'm counting PATH as subway, not commuter rail, BTW.

here's a breakdown of the CTA el system's 112 route miles* by ROW type:


elevated: 49.0 miles (44%)

expressway median: 27.6 miles (25%)

embankment: 17.8 miles (16%)

subway: 10.7 miles (10%)

at-grade: 5.6 miles (5%)

trench: 1.3 miles (1%)



95% of the el system is grade separated from street-crossings, but there are places at the extreme ends of 4 of the el lines where the el has at-grade street-crossings, most of them in the burbs:

6 at the end of the brown line in albany park/lincoln square
9 at the end of the pink line in lawndale/suburban cicero
7 at the end of the yellow line in suburban skokie
2 at the end of the purple line up in suburban wilmette

24 total at-grade street crossing on the el system, but none of them anywhere remotely close to downtown.



(*) the purple line's express run to the loop is not included here as it's a rush-hour only service, just the full service route through evanston/wilmette is included.

the blue/green (EW) lines in marta are elevated just east of downtown, where they pass underground just after entering the CBD.


https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7501...8i8192!5m1!1e2

Finally found a breakdown of route mileage by track type for the NYC Subway HERE.

Underground: 137 miles (60%)

Elevated: 70 miles (30%)

Embankment / Grade / Trench: 23 miles (10%)

Total: 230 miles

Didn't the OP say downtown? We know elevated rail exist.

it exists but does anyone have a city name or pic?

this is probably the only design that would be as good as a lot of subway systems.

the very middle could have those big power stations that take up a lot of room or a free energy generator. theres room for a center place to have water towers and there could be gardens in the middle.
the blue is elevated and white is at-grade

https://i.imgur.com/PRwbLNx.jpg

the 3d one again but its hard to see if your screens brightness is low.

https://i.imgur.com/cqsu34G.jpg

quoting myself here, but i live right by the 1st outbound at-grade street-crossing on the brown line in lincoln square. both me and my kids get a huge kick out of seeing el trains roll by across rockwell at-grade. it's so atypical chicago. even though we can watch el trains roll past the back of our building every couple minutes from our kitchen windows, my kids always demand that we wait for a train to cross whenever we're over by rockwell. there's something really cool about standing at the gates and only being a couple feet away from a massive el train as it rolls by.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p-pSw7MQr...715_122718.jpg
source: http://www.ericrojasblog.com/2017/07...ossing-in.html

They would love Tokyo. The at-grade train crossings through dense urbanity are certainly foreign to most North Americans (cool though, albeit a bit inconvenient).


https://live.staticflickr.com/1757/2...6e2acea2_b.jpg
2018-04-28 11.49.46 2 by Eric H, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/1754/4...54ec0e90_b.jpg
2018-04-25 05.28.08 1 by Eric H, on Flickr

^ those are cool shots!

there are a handful of at-grade rail crossings for metra/amtrak trains in the west loop section of downtown chicago.

https://c7.alamy.com/comp/D4GYM4/met...own-D4GYM4.jpg
source: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-me...ip%3d0%26pl%3d

That is as cool as cool can be.

I know my kids would get a kick out of that as well

There's nothing like a fast double decker diesel train wizzing by you at 90mph. I find it even more impressive than some HSR systems out there.

• Video Link

The Tri-rail and more recent Brightline trains in South Florida are good examples of at grade train lines. Almost every train system in Florida is at grade or elevated due to the high water table. It's pretty interesting to observe. As for the NYC discussion, a lot of the subways in Brooklyn and Queens are elevated. I've never seen an at grade train anywhere in NYC but that could change with light rail being placed into the system soon.

Don't for get the famous #6 line (Pelham Bay Line) that elevated in the Bronx from Whitlock Ave to Pelham Bay Park.

Southeast Asia has some nice sketchy at-grade rail crossings.

I was in Hanoi in February and we were having beers at a cafe in this alleyway with a railway running right though it. Half an hour later we got shuffled off the tracks a few meters back and a train came by within reaching distance of my seat.

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^ that video is just wild. thanks for sharing.

the closest thing i can think of here in my little corner in the world is the south shore commuter rail's ROW down the middle of 11th street in michigan city, IN.

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but yeah, not nearly as wild as that hanoi shit. crazy.

Ya it was pretty crazy. Peoples back doors literally open up onto the tracks. This person's dog was just chilling out and ran back inside when the train came by

Pictures by me:
https://i.imgur.com/Jm5LUo1l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gVosJUVl.jpg

Great viewing from Pizza Art over a Spinaci pizza. :cheers:

There is already light rail in NYC suburbs, Hudson-Bergen light rail. I think that light rail even goes through downtown Jersey City at grade level.