Eckhard,
It is all explained in our proposal at
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/3rd_and_4th_rail - electrified=rail
is retained and the definition tightened so that it explicitly means 3rd rail. This means
that almost the whole worldwide mapped network is unaffected - and the lines that are,
I'm happy to retag correctly.
And yes, we are keeping the separate top/bottom/side tag as it is currently - we will need
it for 4th rail as well!
Hope that clarifies, and hope you can support.