In several public transport systems, there are also metropolitan railways (Stadtbahn, US: rapid transit) where trains on some routes run as Eilzüge, stopping at fewer stations.
The term Eilzug was introduced first in Bavaria in 1902, and later in Prussia in 1907 and Saxony in 1908, for express trains with no supplementary fare, and which as a rule were formed of older compartment coaches.
D 895 and D 564 from Saarbrücken to Munich, which ran via the South Palatinate railway (Südpfalzbahn) and were classified from Karlsruhe as an Eilzug service.
The international express Donaukurier (the Danube Courier), D 222, from Vienna ran from Cologne to Dortmund as an Eilzug in the early 1980s.
In addition, the AVG also operates several trains (comparable to the Regionalbahnen) on the route from Karlsruhe Central - Bundenthal-Rumbach (May to October) as Eilzug services.
That meant it could be used for fast passenger trains, as well as express services with numerous stops and which partly ran on branch lines.