Inter-city rail
Inter-city rail services are express trains that run services that connect cities over longer distances than commuter or regional trains. They include rail services that are neither short-distance commuter rail trains within one city area nor slow regional rail trains stopping at all stations and covering local journeys only. An inter-city train is typically an express train with limited stops and comfortable carriages to serve long-distance travel.
Inter-city rail sometimes provides international services. This is most prevalent in Europe because of the proximity of its 50 countries to a 10,180,000-square-kilometre area. Eurostar and EuroCity are examples. In many European countries, the word InterCity or Inter-City is an official brand name for a network of regular-interval and relatively long-distance train services that meet certain criteria of speed and comfort. That use of the term appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and has been widely imitated.Speed
The speeds of inter-city rail lines are quite diverse, ranging from in a mountainous area or on undeveloped tracks to on newly constructed or improved tracks. As a result, Inter-city rail may or may not fall into the category of higher-speed rail or high-speed rail. Ideally, the average speed of inter-city rail service would be faster than in order to be competitive with car, bus and other methods of transport.Distance of inter-city rail
The distance of an inter-city rail journey is usually at least, although in many large metropolitan areas commuter and regional services cover equal or longer distances. Examples of countries with relatively short intercity rail distances with service patterns comparable to regional rail include Belgium, Israel, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.
A distance of is a common journey distance for inter-city rail in many countries. In many cases, railway travel is most competitive at about two to three hours journey time. Inter-city rail can often compete with highways and short-haul air travel for journeys of this distance. Most major intercity railway routes in Europe, such as London to Birmingham, Paris to Lyon, and Lisbon to Porto cover this range of distances.
In journeys of, the role of inter-city rail is often replaced by faster air travel. Development of high-speed rail in some countries increases the share of railway for such longer-distance journeys. The Paris-Marseille TGV and Tokyo-Aomori Shinkansen are examples of this type of journey. In conventional non high-speed rail, overnight trains are common for this distance.
In some countries with a dense rail network, large territory, or less air and car transport, such as China, India, and Russia, overnight long-distance train services are provided and used practically.
In many other countries, such long-distance rail journey has been replaced by air travel except for tourism or hobbyist purposes, luxury train journeys, or significant cost benefit. Amtrak long-distance services in the United States, Via Rail's Canadian service in Canada, and the Indian Pacific in Australia are examples.
Faster high-speed rail of at least per hour, such as the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway in China and Tokyo-Sapporo in the proposed Hokkaido Shinkansen in Japan, may play a significant role in long-distance travel in the future.List of inter-city rail by country
Railways in Africa are still developing or not practically used for passenger purposes in many countries, but the following countries have inter-city services between major cities:
East Asia
China
Trains run by China Railway link almost every town and city in the People's Republic of China, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Xi'an, and onwards from Shenzhen across the border to Kowloon, in Hong Kong. New high-speed lines from operation are constructed, and many conventional lines are also upgraded to operation. Currently there are seven High-Speed Inter-City lines in China, with up to 21 planned. They are operated independently from the often parallel High-Speed-Rail-Lines.Japan
has six main regional passenger railway companies, known collectively as Japan Railways Group or simply as JR. Five JR companies operate the "bullet trains" on very fast and frequent Shinkansen lines that link all the larger cities, including Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and many more.
Many other cities are covered by a network of JR's limited express inter-city trains on narrow-gauge lines. Major cities are covered by convenient train services of every one hour or more frequent. In addition to the JR Group, Japan has major private rail operators such as the Kintetsu, Meitetsu, Tobu Railway and Odakyu Electric Railway that operate "limited express" inter-city services.Hong Kong
Inter-city railway services crossing the Hong Kong-China border were jointly operated by Hong Kong's MTR Corporation Limited and the Ministry of Railways of the People's Republic of China. Hung Hom station was the only station in the territory where passengers can catch these cross-border trains. Passengers are required to go through immigration and customs inspections of Hong Kong before boarding a cross-border train or alighting from such a train. There were three cross-border train services on the conventional line:
A new border-crossing service, the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link, has been approved and has been granted HKD 6.6 billion in funding by the Legislative Council's Finance Committee. The line has been opened in 2018 with a new station West Kowloon Terminus in the city centre. In response to the opening of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link， demand for the Throgh Train service dwindled, and such services had since been discontinuedTaiwan
's coastline is connected by frequent inter-city train services by Taiwan Railway Administration. Taiwan High Speed Rail, opened in 2007, covers the most populated west-coast corridor. Chinese：對號列車
There are Chu-kuang express and Tze-chiang limited express.Almost every major town and city in South Korea is linked by railway, run by Korail. ITX-Saemaeul is operated in most Main railway lines like Japanese limited express or German Intercity. Also, Mugunghwa-ho is the most common and most popular type of intercity rail travel like German Regional-Express. In addition, Seoul and Busan are linked by a high-speed train line known as KTX, which was built using French TGV technology.South Asia
Bangladesh
India
's inter-city trains are run by Indian Railways. With of rail routes and 7,308 stations, the railway network in India is the third-largest in the world and the largest in the world in terms of passenger kilometres. It connects almost every part of the country, linking major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kochi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Surat, Vadodara, Agra and countless others. The Vande Bharat Express, Gatimaan Express, Tejas Express, Tejas-Rajdhani Express, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Jan Shatabdi Express and Duronto Express are the fastest inter-city services in India; of these, the Vande Bharat is the fastest one. All long-distance journeys generally require a reservation, although unreserved travel is allowed in some trains.Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Burma
There is only one train service in Cambodia, from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, stopping at Doun Kaev and Kampot.Indonesia
In Indonesia, PT Kereta Api operates inter-city services between some of the country's major cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Padang, and Palembang. In the Jakarta metropolitan area, KRL Jabotabek operates inter-city and commuter services. Indonesia also currently operates Southeast Asia's first high-speed rail line between Jakarta and Bandung.In recent years construction has started on a China-funded higher-speed railway link, the Boten–Vientiane railway, commonly referred to as the China-Laos Railway. A fully electrified higher-speed railway line, it is part of a long-term goal of connecting China with the rest of Southeast Asia. The line runs from Boten near the China-Laos border to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, using CRRC high/higher-speed EMU trains.operates loco-hauled express trains called KTM Intercity along Peninsular Malaysia and into Singapore. At the Malaysia-Thailand border, connections to State Railway of Thailand trains are available. KTM Intercity trains are diesel-powered and run on a single-track system. The rail track is gradually being duplicated and electrified. On the completed Central to Northern section, KTM runs the higher-speed Electric Train Service.Philippines
As of February 2020, the Philippine National Railways does not have a regular inter-city rail service although the agency is planning on rebuilding new railway lines. Prior to the 1970s, the main island of Luzon had a relatively expansive narrow-gauge railway network, but government prioritization towards highway construction and the effects of multiple natural disasters gradually led to the decline and abandonment of most intercity rail services. Until the 2000s, PNR had two inter-city rail services: the Bicol Express and the Mayon Limited. The Bicol Express leaves Manila and passes through Manila, Pasay, and Muntinlupa and the provinces of Laguna, Quezon, and Camarines Sur before arriving at Naga. The trip takes 10 hours, or 600 minutes. The Mayon Limited connects Minola and Ligao in hours. The Philippine government is planning the revival of inter-city rail with projects such as the PNR South Long Haul which aims to reconstruct the railway in Southern Luzon.