Secondary Stops in Cities on Intercity Rail

Intercity trains usually only call at the main cities, and only at their main stations. However, in some cases, they make more than one stop in the same city. Examples include the Northeast Corridor with its two Boston stops, the Shinkansen stopping at Shinagawa and Ueno each a few kilometers out of Tokyo Station, Israel Railways with every train stopping multiple times in Tel Aviv, and ICEs stopping not just at Berlin Hauptbahnhof but also a station in each of the cardinal directions out of the city. This practice is a useful tool in the kit of an intercity rail planner, but is not always appropriate – indeed, anti-examples exist throughout France where this never happens and in most German cities that are not Berlin. The goal of this post is to discuss when it is or isn’t appropriate. Opposite-side stops If a city is at the end of a line, then the train may continue shortly past it and serve a secondary center. The main examples are in Berlin: it is at the northeastern end of the…