Portion working
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A dividing train is a
passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...
that separates into two trains partway along its route, so as to serve two destinations. Inversely, two trains from different origins may be
coupled ''Coupled'' is an American dating game show that aired on Fox from May 17 to August 2, 2016. It was hosted by television personality, Terrence J and created by Mark Burnett, of '' Survivor'', ''The Apprentice'', '' Are You Smarter Than a 5th G ...
together mid-route to reach a common endpoint. Trains on complex routes may divide or couple multiple times. The general
term Term may refer to: * Terminology, or term, a noun or compound word used in a specific context, in particular: **Technical term, part of the specialized vocabulary of a particular field, specifically: ***Scientific terminology, terms used by scient ...
for coupling two or more trains along their shared route sections is portion working. For example, the westbound ''
Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...
'' travels from
Chicago Union Station Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The station is Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest. While serving long-distance passenger trains, it is also ...
to , Washington, where its cars are divided into two trains: one continues to
Portland Union Station Portland Union Station is a train station in Portland, Oregon, United States, situated near the western shore of the Willamette River in Old Town Chinatown. It serves as an intermediate stop for Amtrak's '' Cascades'' and ''Coast Starlight'' ro ...
and one to
King Street Station King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is served by Amtrak's '' Cascades'', ''Coast Starlight'', and ''Empire Builder'', as well as Sounder commuter trains run by Sound Transit. The station also anchor ...
, Seattle. On the eastbound trip, trains from Portland and Seattle are coupled at Spokane before traveling as one train to Chicago. Dividing trains are useful where line capacity is limited, allowing multiple trains to use the same
path A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail. Path or PATH may also refer to: Physical paths of different types * Bicycle path * Bridle path, used by people on horseback * Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle * Desire p ...
over a congested part of a network. The common sections will often be the busiest parts of the routes.


Operation

On the initial leg of its journey, the train is driven as normal by a single crew. At a designated station before a
junction Junction may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Junction'' (film), a 2012 American film * Jjunction, a 2002 Indian film * Junction (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille * Junction (EP), by Basement Jaxx, 2002 * Junction (manga), or ''Hot ...
, the train stops and some of the cars are detached, with passengers or goods still on board. The front part of the train then departs to run the remainder of its route. A second train is then formed from the detached cars, the points are changed at the junction, and a new crew drives the train on a different route to a second destination. Where the train is formed of ''
multiple unit A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit (MU) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined together, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train contr ...
s'' – self-contained trainsets with their own propulsion and driving cabs – two or more units work in multiple on the first leg. After detachment, the second crew drives in the trailing unit's front cab. On the return journey, the two trains may join at the same station where they divided. Special
signalling In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
is required at the station, both to recognise the division of the outbound train as intentional, and to allow the two inbound trains to enter the same
block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
. The British rail network uses a ''draw ahead'' signal for the latter.


Possible combinations

A variety of portion working combinations is possible. For example: * Two trains may each depart from separate termini, be coupled together ''en route'', and arrive at their single destination together. ** Vice versa, a pair of trains may depart together from the same terminus, be separated ''en route'', and then continue to separate destinations. * Two trains may each depart from separate termini, be coupled together, and later separated, ''en route'', and then continue to separate destinations. * A train may depart from a terminus, be coupled ''en route'' to another train departing from the point where the coupling occurs, and then the two trains will continue together to their single destination, thus providing a longer train for a busier portion of the route (or vice versa). * A train may depart from a terminus, and divide at a station en route, with both portions then continuing to the same destination, but the first running an
express Express or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid Music * ''Express'' ...
stopping pattern, and the second part stopping more frequently. In the reverse of this, the second portion is the faster of the two, catching up the slow train at the point where they join.


Issues

For portion working to be successful, the operator may need to address many issues. For example: * Locations for coupling and uncoupling must be designated. * The best combinations of services must be carefully considered. * Coupling and uncoupling takes time. * Portion working can transfer disruption from one section to the wider network. Dividing trains can sometimes cause issues for unwary travellers, who may board the wrong car and thus arrive at an unexpected destination.


Examples


Australia

*''
Canberra Monaro Express The Canberra Monaro Express was a passenger train operated by the New South Wales Government Railways between Central railway station, Sydney, Sydney, Canberra railway station, Canberra and Cooma from May 1955 until September 1988. It was forme ...
'' – Sydney Central to and
Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina. At the , Cooma had a po ...
dividing at (1955–73 and 1986–88)


Belgium

* IC trains between
Genk Genk () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality only comprises the town of Genk itself. I ...
and
Knokke Knokke () is a town in the municipality of Knokke-Heist, which is located in the province of West Flanders in Flanders, Belgium. The town itself has 15,708 inhabitants (2007), while the municipality of Knokke-Heist has 33,818 inhabitants (2009). ...
or
Blankenberge Blankenberge (; french: Blankenberghe; vls, Blanknberge) is a city and a municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Blankenberge proper and the settlement of Uitkerke. On 1 December 2014, Bla ...
(IC 1527–1542) used to be divided in
Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
, the front part went to Knokke (IC 1627–1642) while the rest continued to Blankenberge and the same occurred on the return leg (IC 1505–1520). The consists were either made up with AM96 EMU's (enable passage from set coach to another) or M6 coaches hauled by Class 19 locomotives. In the latter case, cab cars and engines are fitted with automatic couplers to allow quick separation. On periods with high affluence or when facing problems, these IC trains could run entirely to one destination (usually Blankenberghe) and another trainset was be provided for the leg between Bruges and Knokke. This dual service ended with the new transport timetable introduced in December 2017. Now, separate trains are used for each destination. * despite not being advertised as coupling trains, some IC trains between
Lille Flandres Lille-Flandres station ( French: ''Gare de Lille-Flandres'', Dutch: ''Rijsel Vlaanderen'') is the main railway station of Lille, capital of French Flanders. It is a terminus for SNCF Intercity and regional trains. It opened in 1842 as the ''Gare ...
and
Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...
are then coupled with one or two AM96 trainsets going from
Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...
or
Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Regio ...
to
Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...
, therefore allowing to travel directly from
Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...
to Namur. * The same happens with IC trains Between
Lille Flandres Lille-Flandres station ( French: ''Gare de Lille-Flandres'', Dutch: ''Rijsel Vlaanderen'') is the main railway station of Lille, capital of French Flanders. It is a terminus for SNCF Intercity and regional trains. It opened in 1842 as the ''Gare ...
and
Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...
. At Mouscron, they are coupled with AM96 multiple units which then run IC trains between
Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...
and Antwerp Centraal.


Canada

*


Germany

* There are several dividing regional and high-speed trains all over Germany. ICE trains from Munich often split at Hanover into sections for Bremen and for Hamburg. ICE from Berlin split at Hamm into sections for Cologne and for Düsseldorf. *
Munich S-Bahn The Munich S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn München) is an Railway electrification system, electric rail transit system in Munich, Germany. "S-Bahn" is the German abbreviation for ''Stadtschnellbahn'' (literally, "urban rapid rail"), and the Munich S-Bahn ...
: Line S1 serves both
Freising Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising ''Landkreis'' (district), with a population of about 50,000. Location Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the Is ...
and
Munich Airport Munich International Airport- Franz Josef Strauß (german: link=no, Flughafen München) is an international airport serving Munich and Upper Bavaria. It is the second-busiest airport in Germany in terms of passenger traffic after Frankfurt A ...
by splitting at
Neufahrn bei Freising station Neufahrn (b Freising) station is located in the town of Neufahrn bei Freising in the German state of Bavaria and is served by the Munich S-Bahn. The station is on the Munich–Regensburg railway and is served by . North of the station, a link ...
*
Hanover Stadtbahn The Hanover Stadtbahn is a Stadtbahn (light rail) system in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Stadtbahn opened on 29 September 1975, gradually replacing the city's tramway network over the course of the following 25 years. Current ...
: In the evenings and on Sundays the lines 2 and 8 of Hanover's light rail system work with dividing trains. Trains start in Alte Heide as line 2 and divide in Peiner Straße stop. One part continues as line 8 to Messe Nord, the other as line 2 to Rethen. In the other direction, trains reconnect at Bothmerstraße station and run as line 2 to Alte Heide. *
Hamburg S-Bahn The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the s ...
: The trains on the line S1 of Hamburg's S-Bahn system usually split at Ohlsdorf into sections for
Hamburg Airport Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...
and for Poppenbüttel. * Since 2014, the
Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at f ...
services RE 1
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...
Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...
Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...
and RE 11
Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...
–Trier–Koblenz operate jointly with trains dividing in Trier main station. The RE 1 part is operated by the German
DB Regio DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio bus ...
South-West with a Stadler FLIRT single-deck EMU as part of the Süwex network, while the RE 11 part is operated by the Luxembourgish
Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois The Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (''Luxembourg National Railway Company'', abbreviated CFL) is the national railway company of Luxembourg. In 2013, it carried approximately 25 million passengers and 804 million to ...
with a double-deck Stadler KISS EMU. This is probably the only situation where a single-deck and a double-deck train of two countries' national railways divide * Since 2018, the Regional-Express service RE 7
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
Elmshorn Elmshorn (; nds, Elmshoorn) is a town in the district of Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. It is 30 km north of Hamburg on the small river Krückau, a tributary of the Elbe, and with about 50,000 inhabitants is the sixth-largest to ...
Neumünster Neumünster () is a city in the middle of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. With more than 79,000 registered inhabitants, it is the fourth-largest municipality in Schleswig-Holstein (behind Kiel, Lübeck and Flensburg). History The city was fi ...
Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
/
Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
is split in Neumünster with the front train continuing to Kiel, the rear to Flensburg.


Japan

There are several dividing train services in Japan, and each route has its own name.


United Kingdom

The practice of portion working has been followed for a long time on the third rail network of lines in the South East of England, and has been more widely practised in continental Europe. Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, the practice has been less common, because of a general reluctance to design the necessary modern signalling systems, and because of legal constraints on competition between operators. Dividing trains operate on several lines on the British railway network, commonly (although not exclusively) in the south of the country. To ensure consistent journey times, the front part of a dividing train usually becomes the rear of the returning service when it reunites. In addition, some services discard carriages part-way along the route, & pick them back up on the return journey. This may be because a portion of the line has short platforms at a number of its stations, or because of demand being much higher on one section than another.


United States


See also

* Interchange *
Slip coach A slip coach, slip carriage or slip portion in Britain and Ireland, also known as a flying switch in North America, is one or more carriages designed to be uncoupled from the rear of a moving train. The detached portion continued under its own m ...
*
Through coach In rail terminology, a through coach is a passenger car (coach) that is re-marshalled during the course of its journey. It begins the journey attached to one train, and arrives at its destination attached to another train. Through coaches save t ...
*
Sections Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...
in North America *
Express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes a small number of stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, allowing faster service than Local train, local trains that stop at most or all of the s ...


References

{{Reflist Rail transport operations Passenger rail transport