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 a single city area nor slow regional rail trains that stop at every station and serve only local journeys. An intercity train is typically an express train with limited stops and comfortable carriages for 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-kilometer (3,930,000-square-mile) 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, relatively long-distance train services that meet certain criteria for speed and comfort. That use of the term appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and has been widely imitated.