Inter-city rail

In many European countries, the word InterCity or Inter-City is an official brand name for a network of regular-interval and relatively long-distance train services that meet certain criteria of speed and comfort.

Ideally, the average speed of inter-city rail service would be faster than 100 km/h (62 mph) in order to be competitive with car, bus and other methods of transport.

Most major intercity railway routes in Europe, such as London to Birmingham, Paris to Lyon, and Lisbon to Porto cover this range of distances.

In some countries with a dense rail network, large territory, or less air and car transport, such as China, India, and Russia, overnight long-distance train services are provided and used practically.

Railways in Africa are still developing or not practically used for passenger purposes in many countries, but the following countries have inter-city services between major cities: Trains run by China Railway link almost every town and city in the People's Republic of China, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Xi'an, and onwards from Shenzhen across the border to Kowloon, in Hong Kong.

Japan has six main regional passenger railway companies, known collectively as Japan Railways Group or simply as JR. Five JR companies operate the "bullet trains" on very fast and frequent Shinkansen lines that link all the larger cities, including Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and many more.

[4] In Indonesia, PT Kereta Api operates inter-city services between some of the country's major cities, like Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Padang, and Palembang.

A fully electrified higher-speed railway line, it is part of a long-term goal of connecting China with the rest of Southeast Asia.

Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Malayan Railways) operates loco-hauled express trains called KTM Intercity along Peninsular Malaysia and into Singapore.

On the completed Central to Northern section (border), KTM runs the higher-speed Electric Train Service (ETS).

Prior to the 1970s, the main island of Luzon had a relatively expansive narrow-gauge railway network, but government prioritization towards highway construction and the effects of multiple natural disasters gradually led to the decline and abandonment of most intercity rail services.

[6] The Philippine government is planning the revival of inter-city rail with projects such as the PNR South Long Haul which aims to reconstruct the railway in Southern Luzon.

Thailand has a sizable meter-gauge intercity rail network radiating outwards from Bangkok, transporting around 60 million passengers every year.

It later became the name of one of British Rail's new business sectors in the 1980s and was used to describe the whole network of main-line passenger routes in Great Britain, but it went out of official use following privatisation.

In Great Britain, the inter-city rail links are now operated by a number of private companies as well as Continental State owned railways such as Avanti West Coast, LNER, EMR, CrossCountry, TransPennine Express, Greater Anglia and GWR.

The daytime services (InterCity IC), while not frequent and limited to one or two trains per route, are essential in providing access to cities and towns off the railway's mainline network.

The PKP group holds an almost unrivaled monopoly over rail services in Poland since it is both supported and partly funded by the national government.

Ferromex operates trains on three routes: Chihuahua City to Los Mochis, Torreón to Felipe Pescador, and Guadalajara to Amatitán.

In recent years, passenger trains have seen a revival, with the construction of the tourist-oriented Tren Maya route traversing the Yucatan Peninsula.

After the decline of passenger railroads in North America in the 1960s, the inter-city lines decreased greatly and today the national system is far less dense.

Passenger rail outside the Northeast, Northwest, California, and the Chicago metropolitan area is infrequent and rarely used relative to networks in Europe and Japan.

In Australia, the national interstate network operated by Journey Beyond connects all mainland Australian capital cities except Canberra.

Current interurban and intercity journeys outside the suburban area are often locomotive-hauled, particularly for longer distance services, due to Victoria's lack of electrification outside of Melbourne.

In New Zealand, there are currently three long-distance passenger services classed as inter-city: the Coastal Pacific, the Northern Explorer, and the TranzAlpine.

Given these speeds, as well as the prioritization of the rail transport in New Zealand towards freight, these passenger services primarily cater the tourist market, similar to long-distance routes in Australia.

A few countries of South America were once interconnected by international train services, but today they are almost non-existent, with the noticeable exceptions of Argentina and Chile.

The eastern rail hub is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, with connections to Puerto Suárez and Villamontes, and international lines to Brazil and Argentina.

Brazil's inter-city services operate on two routes, one from Vitória to Belo Horizonte (Vitória-Minas Railway) and another from Parauapebas to São Luís.

[7] Chile has inter-city services connecting Santiago to Chillán and occasionally to Temuco, run by Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado.