Skip-stop

Skip-stop is a public transit service pattern which reduces travel times and increases capacity by not having all vehicles make all designated stops along a route. Skip-stops are used in both rail transit and bus transit operations. It is also used to describe elevators that stop at alternating floors and hence also used to describe building designs that exploit this design and avoid corridors on alternating floors.

Rail operation

When skip stops are used in rail transit, the transit operator designates stations as either major or minor, typically by ridership. Usually, all vehicles stop at the major stations, but only some vehicles stop at the minor ones.

Since one rail vehicle can only pass another by using an additional track, skip-stop may require additional investment in infrastructure if express services, where trains skip many stops along a route, are employed simultaneously with vehicles making stops on every station.

In systems that have no extra track for a faster train to pass a slower train, skip-stop may be employed either during busier travel hours to reduce travel time of a particular train, or during off-peak hours to raise efficiency by not stopping on "unpopular" stations.