mehrgleisigen

Mehrgleisigen is the inflected form of the German adjective mehrgleisig, which describes something that has more than one track. In railway contexts it is commonly used to refer to lines, stations, or networks with multiple parallel tracks. Mehrgleisige Strecken and mehrgleisige Bahnhöfe allow trains to pass, overtake, or operate in both directions simultaneously, thereby increasing capacity and reducing bottlenecks. The term can describe various configurations, from two-track to highly complex multi-track systems. It is regularly contrasted with eingleisig (single-track) and is often used in planning and operations to indicate higher throughput and flexibility.

Grammatical note: mehrgleisigen is the form used when the adjective modifies a plural noun in specific cases, such as dative or genitive plural. Examples include in mehrgleisigen Bahnhöfen (in multi-track stations) or die Vorteile mehrgleisiger Strecken (the advantages of multi-track routes). The base form before a plural noun is mehrgleisig, or mehrgleisige before singular or plural nouns in other cases.

Beyond railways, mehrgleisig is also used metaphorically to describe strategies or policies pursued along several tracks at once, for example mehrgleisige Politik or mehrgleisige Strategien, indicating a multi-faceted or parallel approach rather than a single line of action.

Related terms include Gleis (track), Eingleisig (single-track), Doppelgleisig (double-track), and Mehrgleisigkeit (the property of being multi-track). The concept is most common in transport planning, civil engineering, and discussions of network capacity.