Inter-city rail

Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that cover longer distances than commuter or regional trains.

There is no precise definition of inter-city rail; its meaning may vary from country to country. Most broadly, it can include any rail services that are neither short-distance commuter rail trains within one city area, nor slow regional rail trains calling at all stations and covering local journeys only. Most typically, an inter-city train is 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, due to the close proximity of its 50 countries in a 10,180,000 square kilometre (3,930,000 sq mi) area. Eurostar and EuroCity are examples of this. 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 of speed and comfort. This use of the term appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and has been widely imitated.

KiwiRail Scenic Journeys

KiwiRail Scenic Journeys is the long-distance passenger train brand of KiwiRail, previously Tranz Scenic (1995—2011) and InterCity Rail (1987—1995).

History

The first branding of long-distance trains was as InterCity Rail, in 1987, renamed Tranz Scenic in 1995.

As part of a restructuring programme, in November 2001 Tranz Scenic was incorporated as stand-alone subsidiary Tranz Scenic (2001) Ltd. Tranz Rail sold 50% of Tranz Scenic to two directors of the Victoria, Australia, rail operator West Coast Railway for $33 million. The sale included long-distance passenger rolling stock and ten diesel locomotives of the DC class (reclassified DCP), and two EF class electric locomotives. Tranz Rail was taken over by Australian transport firm Toll Holdings in 2003, and in July 2004 the 50% share of Tranz Scenic was purchased by Toll, as one of the West Coast Railway directors had died and the business was not performing adequately.

In July 2012 it was revealed that KiwiRail was considering selling the remaining services.