Intercity : some of the best practices in Europe
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30/05/2015
A recent debate in
France has shown the difficulty in countries that do not practice, to define
the market segment in which to classify the so-called Intercity trains. A brief
overview of the European's practices allows therefore to clarify the issue.
A brief history
Launched in the early
1960s, the brand was created by BR to highlight its long-distance and express
passenger services, and it came to dominate long-distance railway travel.
InterCity-branded services were to be seen throughout the whole BR network.
Germany followed suit in September 1971, with four lines where the trains were
clocked every two hours under the name "F" (Fernverkehr, F-Zug). In
both cases, we must recognize that the spatiality of cities and the national
geography have greatly assisted the establishment of these networks. By
contrast, other countries continued their policy of express trains with a
variety of rolling stock, especially in France where the Parisian centralism
drew the rail traffic.
The concept of
Intercity, whose the English name was adopted unchanged in Germany, had two
advantages. The first is on marketing side, since customers can easily memorize
each "hour" of departure of their station, without having to consult
the timetable book. The second advantage allowed the operation of these trains
with fixed and identical rolling stock, throughout the day and all day of the
year, in despite some exceptions. It was possible to offer a perfectly linear
service without having to undertake countless exceptions that characterized the
railways of 'yesterday'. The concept has an 'industrial side', which perfectly
suits its time, the 70's. Some stations also adopt a modernist design ...
An international
version was adopted on 1 May 1980 with Euro-City, when he was sure that the
luxurious Trans-Europ-Express trains
would be having to disappear, which was the case in 1987. The idea was
to set standards quality of rolling stock, such as air conditioning and
catering. The concept still persists today in the German-Alpine countries and
in eastern countries. The arrival of
high-speed saw the instauration of two concepts. While Germany, with his ICE,
and Italy, with his ERT500, retained the same marketing concept provided for
the "classic" trains, SNCF chose to opt for specialization with a
completely new marketing that was superimposed on the classical national
marketing. This choice is one of the causes of the current debate at the SNCF,
which could never to give a real place for his "corail" train in his
marketing. United-Kingdom, which don't have the high speed train except
Eurostar, has always pursued its policy of hourly Intercity, even after
privatization and the franchising of long-distance services.
Some little countries
with a dense network have also built a hourly or a half-hourly intercity concept,
but on a regional scale, since many decades, such the Netherlands, Denmark,
Belgium and of course, Switzerland. In this last country, all Eurocity trains
are integrated into the national hourly service and they have not a specific
ticketing, except maybe some surcharges. What is the current
situation ?
Great-Britain
The example is easy.
The main lines are now all franchised. Marketing is therefore specific from
each operator, although with similarities. The rolling stock is the same
throughout the day and the services operated by specific routes, based on a
hour or half-hourly timetable, as shown below. The best-known operators are for
example First Great Western, Midland Mainline and of course, the iconic Virgin.
The first two companies use still the indestructible and famous HST 125, while
others have completely renewed their fleet with Pendolino (Class 390, Alstom),
Super Voyagers (class 221 Bombardier) or Adelante (class 180 Alstom). All
compositions are fixed and the Intercity segment is since many decades in
competition with the long-distance bus.
 |
| The WCML - Wset Coast Main Line - is under franchise of Virgin, which operates a fleet of Pendolino 390 from London to Glasgow (photo by Matt Thorpe via flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) |
Germany
As the network possess
high speed lines, it has however not ousted its classic Intercity, far from it.
Better, the livery of the classical rolling stock has mutated to the same
livery of the ICE to provide a single whole: the long-distance service without
distinction of marketing or technology. The classic rolling stock uses the
excellent german's cars class A or Bpmz, with European gauge Z, and all trains
have in most cases a dining car. The compositions are fixed throughout the year
and regularly cross borders, to Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. This segment
has been recently attacked by bus long distances, which are liberalized since
2013.
 |
From Netherlands to Germany : locomotive class 1739 from NS with the IC 143 (Amsterdam Centraal - Berlin Ostbahnhof) on 27 september 2014. German's cars A et Bpmz, en livrée "ICE" et qui passent les frontières sans problèmes ( photo de PatrickvH. via flickr CC BY-ND 2.0)
|
Italy
The country also has
high-speed rail services with its concept Frecciarossa but outside of high
speed, Trenitalia has also created 58 Frecciargento routes that connect every
hour Rome to Verona and Venice, and to a lesser extent toward the South of
Italy, using a fleet of ETR 485 and 610. Beyond this there exist a third
category of intercity, the 86 Frecciabianca routes, which form the classic
network, such as on the route Turin to Venice or from Venice to Ancona . They
are operated using conventional cars class BZ or Z, hauled by E402B locomotives
or by ETR 460/463. These three services "Freccia" have their own web
page but form a whole and offer a consistency in the Italian long-distance
policy, whatever their status, high speed train or not.
 |
Trenitalia and his "Frecciabianca", intercity trains hauled by E402B, displaying the label (photo from Marco 56 via flickr CC BY 2.0)
|
Autria
Austria has also a
clocked long distance service and a small section at 230km / h. The service is
now mainly composed of conventional Intercity and especially Railjet. This
latter may be currently considered as being the european number one of hauled
trains. Railjet and Intercity connect the main cities of Austria with Vienna at
a rate of one train per hour, as shown in the map below. Some Railjet services
are extended outside the country, toward Budapest and Munich or with the 7
round trips to the Czech Republic between Graz, Vienna, Brno and Prague, one
train every two hours. The rolling stock of Railjet is completely new and the
compositions present a fixed set : a stylish Taurus locomotive class 1116 and
seven cars (all made by Siemens). Two trains can be coupled to form a train of
fourteen vehicles and two locomotives. The route Vienna-Salzburg is competed
since December 2011 by the new entrant Westbahn, operating 13 round trips per
day (17 at the end of the weekend), strictly clocked as shown below:
Czech Republic
Generally, it would
not be expected that intercity train services exist in the countries of the
East. However, the national railway company ČD operates a clocked service but
not always at the same minutes, on the route between Prague and Ostrava, one
hour by conventional Intercity train, and the other hour by Pendolino 680
(Alstom). By contrast, the route Prague-Vienna-Graz managed under the Railjet
label, as mentioned above, is strictly clocked every two hours, for his
insertion on the hourly Austrian intercity. The Czech service is completed by
two competitors on the route Prague-Ostrava. Leo Express operates some Stadler
First trainsets but has not a strictly clocked timetable,
 |
CD railways operates both Pendolino (on left photo CD) and Railjet trainsets for international services, identical to the austrian Railjet (photo on right from Tim Adams via flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)
|
Conclusions
The Intercity in
Europe presents some different cases but with similar ways. Its strengths are
the systematisation of timetables and the rolling stock. Their niche are the
long-distance routes, whether at high speed or not, or partially. The marketing
of these trains is included into a coherent whole, as in Austria or in Italy,
where the product "Intercity" is included in a ticketing whole
without being relegated in a special commercialisation. Intercity is not a secondary
product but it is inserted into the marketing of all transport long distances.
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