Request stop

In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop describes a stop or station at which trains or buses stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, ill-frequented stops can be incorporated into a route without introducing unnecessary delay.

Vehicles may also save fuel by continuing through a station when there is no need to stop.

There may not always be a significant savings on time if there is no one to pick up because vehicles going past a request stop may need to slow down enough to be able to stop if there are passengers waiting. Request stops may also introduce extra travel time variability and increase the need for schedule padding.

Implementations

The methods by which transit vehicles are notified that there are passengers waiting to be picked up at a request stop vary by transit system and by route.

Local transport

Most local, inner-city bus operations operate almost all of their stops as request stops, even if there is almost always a passenger boarding or alighting. To distinguish stops that are served on every trip, these are usually called stations and they are most often at the terminals of a route. Such stops are often also used as timepoints.

Whistle Stop

A whistle stop is a stopping point at which trains stop only on request.

Whistle Stop may also refer to:

Whistle Stop (album)

Whistle Stop is a jazz studio album by Kenny Dorham, featuring performances by acclaimed musicians Hank Mobley, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. It was recorded in January 1961 at Van Gelder Studio, in Englewood Cliffs, and was originally released on Blue Note Records as BST 84063 and BLP 4063. "In 1975", Blumenthal states in the CD liner notes, "five British critics picked Whistle Stop as one of 200 albums that belonged in a basic library of jazz recorded after World War II".

Notes about the album tracks

"Philly Twist" is dedicated to Philly Joe Jones. Kenny added "There is also the play on words with filly, a young horse." "Buffalo" tries to portrait a buffalo in action, whilst "Sunset" tries to represent the feeling of an imaginary sunset. "Whistle Stop" is an attempt to depict a train in motion. About "Sunrise in Mexico", Dorham says: "The skies down there", in Mexico, "are low and everything looks different". "Windmill" talks about an old girlfriend of all of us, who can live by the windmill. Dorham explains that "a windmill, a weathered, gray-wood affair, is represented in the last four bars of the track". "Dorham's Epitaph" was intended by Dorham to be a sort of musical epitaph, an "identifying song".