Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. As with standard rail tracks, tram tracks have two parallel steel rails, the distance between the heads of the rails being the track gauge. When there is no need for pedestrians or road vehicles to traverse the track, conventional flat-bottom rail is used. However, when such traffic exists, such as in urban streets, grooved rails are used.

Tram rails can be placed on several surfaces, such as on ground over which track ballast topped by sleepers (US: ties) and flat-bottom rails are laid – as with railway tracks – or, for street running, with grooved rails usually embedded into a concrete pavement. In some places, tracks are laid into grass turf surfaces; they are known as green track, grassed track or track in lawn.

Tramway tracks have been in existence since the mid-16th century. They were made of wood, but during the late 18th century iron and later steel came into use and then predominated.

The first street tramways were laid in 1832 in New York by John Stephenson to assist horses pulling buses on dirt roads, especially when the roads were muddy from wet weather. The rails enabled a horse to easily pull a load of 10 tonnes compared to 1 tonne on a dirt road. The evolution of street tramway tracks paralleled the transition from horse power to mechanical and electric power. In a dirt road, the rails needed a foundation, usually a mass concrete raft. Highway authorities often made tramway companies pave the rest of the road, usually with granite or similar stone blocks, at extra cost.

The first tramways had a rail projecting above the road surface, or a step set into the road, both of which were apt to catch the narrow tyres of horse-drawn carriages. The invention by Alphonse Loubat in 1852 of grooved rail enabled tramways to be laid without causing a nuisance to other road users, except unsuspecting cyclists, who could get their wheels caught in the groove.

A grooved rail, groove rail, or girder rail is a special rail with a groove designed for tramway or railway track in pavement or grassed surfaces (grassed track or track in a lawn). The head on the right-hand side of the rail bears the vehicle's weight. The guard on the left-hand side, which has ample room for wheel flanges, carries no weight but serves to minimize the chance of derailment if the wheel were to be deflected from its normal position in which the flange is not laterally constrained.

Grooved rail was invented in 1852 by Alphonse Loubat, a French inventor who developed improvements in tram and rail equipment and helped develop tram lines in New York City and Paris. The invention of grooved rail enabled tramways to be laid without causing a nuisance to other road users, except unsuspecting cyclists, who could get their wheels caught in the groove. The grooves may become filled with gravel and dirt (particularly if infrequently used or after a period of idleness) and need clearing from time to time, this being done by a "scrubber" tram. Failure to clear the grooves can lead to a bumpy ride for the passengers, damage to either wheel or rail and possibly derailing.

The traditional form of grooved rail is the girder guard section illustrated below. This rail is a modified form of flanged rail and requires a special mounting for weight transfer and gauge stabilisation. If the weight is carried by the roadway subsurface, steel ties are needed at regular intervals to maintain the gauge. Installing these means that the whole surface needs to be excavated and reinstated.