Apparently French trains
mostly drive on the left, but German trains on the right:
Quote:
In most countries, the “rule of the road” for trains is the same as for road traffic. For example, in England, where cars drive on the left of the road, trains run on the left hand of a pair of rail tracks, while in Germany, where cars drive on the right, trains use the right hand track of the pair. France is an exception to this rule. Cars drive on the right, but trains run on the left. This is because the early railways were mainly built using British expertise and standard equipment “out of the box”. No major operational problems are caused by this discrepancy, but it did give rise to an oddity: between the end of Franco-Prussian war of 1871 and the end of the First World War, the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine formed part of the German Empire, and during this time their lines were converted to right-hand running. When the provinces were returned to France in 1919, right hand running was left in place. To cope with the change from left hand to right hand running at places where there was no necessity to stop for a border crossing, a number of flyovers or sauts de mouton (literally, “sheep jumps”) were installed whose sole purpose was to take one running line over the top of another in the opposite direction.
The Paris Métro also runs on the right; this is believed to be because the first lines, opened at the beginning of the 20th century, were closely based on electric tram technology and operation. Paris trams of course had to run on the right when operating in the streets.