A shuttle train is a

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

that runs back and forth between two points, especially if it offers a frequent service over a short route. Shuttle trains are used in various ways, in various parts of the world. They commonly operate as a fixed consist, and run non-stop between their termini. They can be used to carry

passengers A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...

freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including transp ...

, or both.

Examples

Airport shuttle trains

An airport shuttle train may run between an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

and some other location, or connect two or more terminals. The second is usually in the form of a driverless

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

. Canada The

UP Express The Union Pearson Express (UP Express or UPX) is an airport rail link connecting Union Station (Toronto), Union Station in Downtown Toronto to Toronto Pearson International Airport. The UP Express began operation on 6 June 2015, in time for the ...

train in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

connects you to the

Pearson Airport Lester B. Pearson International Airport , commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport, is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surro ...

, making secondary stops at Bloor and Weston from

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

. The train connects with the provincial transit network,

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...

and the city-wide underground subway network, the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal transport, multimodal rail network consisting of three Pa ...

Italy

A shuttle train connects Galileo Galilei Airport in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

with Pisa Central railway station. It operates daily and takes five minutes.

United Kingdom

The

Gatwick Airport Shuttle Transit The Gatwick Airport Shuttle Transit is a long elevated automated people mover that links the North and South Terminals at London's Gatwick Airport. The line is ground-side, and besides linking the two terminals also serves to link the North termi ...

is a people mover used to transfer passengers between the North and South Terminals at

London Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

. It runs every few minutes 24 hours a day, and the journey takes two minutes.

Car shuttle trains

A car shuttle train is used to transport accompanied

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

s, and usually also other types of road vehicles, for a relatively short distance. Car shuttle trains usually operate on lines passing through a

rail tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...

and connecting two places not easily accessible to each other by road. On car shuttle train services, the occupants of the road vehicles being carried on the train usually stay with their vehicle throughout the rail journey.

Commuter shuttle trains

A shuttle train may be used to carry

commuters Commuting is periodically recurring travel between one's place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regul ...

, especially if at least one of the shuttle train's termini is an

interchange station An interchange station or a transfer station is a train station for more than one railway route in a public transport system that allows passengers to change from one route to another, often without having to leave a station or pay an additional ...

Japan

During the morning

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

, the Aichi Loop Line shuttle train runs over the

Aichi Loop Line The is a Japanese railway line connecting Okazaki Station in Okazaki and Kōzōji Station in Kasugai, operated by the . The company or the line is abbreviated as . This is the only line the company operates. Despite its name, the line is not ...

between

Mikawa-Toyota Station 260px, Platforms in May 2015 is a railway station in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, operated by the third sector Aichi Loop Railway Company. Lines Mikawa-Toyota Station is served by the Aichi Loop Line, and is located 15.9 kilom ...

and

Shin-Toyota Station 260px, Platforms in May 2015 260px, Track layout is a railway station in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, operated by the third sector Aichi Loop Railway Company. Lines Shin-Toyota Station is served by the Aichi Loop Line, and is ...

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

, Japan. The northeastern end of the

Tokyo Metro The is a major rapid transit system in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the Tokyo Metro Co. With an average daily ridership of 6.84 million passengers, the Tokyo Metro is the larger of the two subway operators in the city; the other being the Toei ...

Chiyoda Line The is a subway line owned and operated by Tokyo Metro in Tokyo, Japan. On average, the line carries 1,447,730 passengers daily (2017), the second highest of the Tokyo Metro network, behind the Tozai Line (1,642,378).Ayase Ayase may refer to: Places *Ayase, Kanagawa, Japan *Ayase, an area in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan ** Ayase Station, train station in Adachi, Tokyo People *Ayase (music producer) (born 1994), Japanese vocaloid producer *, Japanese actress *, Japanese foot ...

. The first section of the

Fukutoshin Line The , formally the , is a subway line operated by Tokyo Metro in west-central Tokyo and Wako, Saitama, Japan. The newest line in the Tokyo subway network, it opened in stages between 1994 and 2008. On average, the Fukutoshin line carries 362,654 ...

of the Tokyo Metro was named the 'New Line', with shuttle trains running express in parallel with the Yurakucho Line, between the

Ikebukuro is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits. It is considered the second largest ...

and Kotake-mukaihara stations.

New Zealand

A diesel shuttle train runs between

Papakura Papakura is a southern suburb of Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on the shores of the Pahurehure Inlet, approximately 32 kilometres south of the Auckland CBD. It is under the authority of the Auckland Council. Papakura is a M� ...

and

Pukekohe Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, it is in South Auckland, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. Th ...

on the Southern Line in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

as this section of the line has not yet been electrified. Battery powered EMUs have been ordered and will replace the ADL/ADC class DMU shuttle in 2019.

United States

There are three shuttle services in the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

, as well as several other non-shuttle services cut back to shuttle portions during overnights. However, of these services, only the

42nd Street Shuttle The 42nd Street Shuttle is a New York City Subway shuttle train service that operates in Manhattan. The shuttle is sometimes referred to as the Grand Central/Times Square Shuttle, since these are the only two stations it serves. The shuttle runs ...

is a true shuttle that stops only at two locations. Five shuttle services were formerly run in the subway. The Yellow Line on the

Chicago "L" The Chicago "L" (short for "elevated") is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the fourth-largest rapid tr ...

originally ran as a nonstop shuttle from

Dempster Street Dempster Street is a major east-west street in the northern suburbs of Chicago. It is assigned 8800 North in the Chicago address system, being located north of Madison Street. The road begins at Illinois Route 62 (Algonquin Road) in Mount Pr ...

in Skokie to

Howard Street Howard Street may refer to: *Howard Street (Baltimore), a major street in Downtown Baltimore, Maryland **Howard Street Tunnel fire, a disaster that struck the freight railroad tunnel under Baltimore's Howard Street in 2001 *Howard Street (Sheffield ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, offering connections to the

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and

Purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...

Lines. In 2012, an infill station opened on Oakton Street, no longer making the Yellow Line a true shuttle.

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

Princeton Branch The Princeton Branch is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The line is a short branch of the Northeast Corridor Line, running from Princeton Junction northwest to Prin ...

, or "dinky", is a shuttle line.

Unit Train A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. They are dist ...

s that are dedicated to move on a regular basis between origin and destination are known as shuttle trains by the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

Others

Austria

The National Intermodal Network Austria, operated by

Rail Cargo Austria Rail Cargo Austria (RCA) is an Austrian rail freight transportation company with its headquarters in Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , pos ...

, uses a hub-and-spoke system of shuttle trains to provide overnight links between the highest volume

intermodal freight Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of cargo, freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail transport, rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freigh ...

terminals in Austria. The hub of the network is located at

Wels Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the eighth largest city in Austria. Geography Wels is in the H ...

Hong Kong

The MTR

Disneyland Resort line The Disneyland Resort line is a heavy rail MTR line connecting Sunny Bay to the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, coloured pink on the network diagram. It is the seventh line of the former MTR network before the merger of MTR and KCR, and the ...

is a themed shuttle line linking the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort with the rest of the network. Another shuttle train runs between the

Tseung Kwan O Tseung Kwan O New Town is one of the nine new towns in Hong Kong, built mainly on reclaimed land in the northern half of Junk Bay (known as Tseung Kwan O in Chinese/Cantonese language) in southeastern New Territories, after which it is named. ...

and

LOHAS Park LOHAS Park () is a Hong Kong seaside residential development of the MTR Corporation, located in Tseung Kwan O Area 86, New Territories. After its full completion, it will be the largest single residential enclave in the territory. Name and ...

stations, on a spur serving a new residential development.

Spain

The R line, part of the Madrid subway, is a shuttle line connecting Ópera station (lines 2 and 5) with Príncipe Pío station (lines 6 and 10).

Switzerland

The Zermatt shuttle connects the

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

and

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

Zermatt Zermatt () is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is classified as a town by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO). ...

(which has no road access) with nearby

Täsch Täsch is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is located about north of Zermatt. The local language is Swiss German. History Täsch is first mentioned in 1302 as ''Tech''. In Latin it was known as ...

, where people travelling to and from Zermatt by motor vehicles are required to park their cars. For the better part of most days, the service operates every 20 min and takes 12 min.

United Kingdom

The

Waterloo and City Line The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Hampsh ...

on the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

runs between Waterloo and

Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

in the City. The

Slough to Windsor & Eton Line Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, ...

runs between and . The Butetown Branch Line runs between

Cardiff Queen Street , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Cardiff Queen St. (19366639218).jpg , caption = Cardiff Queen Street seen from the north. , borough = Cardiff, City and County of Cardiff , country = Wales , coordinates = , grid_name = ...

and

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...

. The Stourbridge Town Branch Line runs between Stourbridge Junction and

Stourbridge Town Stourbridge Town is a railway station near the centre of Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It is situated at the end of a short branch line linking the station with Stourbridge Junction, 0.8 miles away, where passengers can change for mai ...

References

{{reflist Trains Rail transport articles in need of updating

Examples

Airport shuttle trains

Italy

United Kingdom

Car shuttle trains

Commuter shuttle trains

Japan

New Zealand

United States

Others

Austria

Hong Kong

Spain

Switzerland

United Kingdom

See also

References