Which makes you wonder why some railway stations would have a IATA code.
Has anybody here had this happen? 9-11 is the last occasion I could imagine where this could possibly be a win.
I recently read in a railfan magazine that this is becoming worse because of the supply chain mess.
Fright train companies are running longer trains because of higher demand. Longer trains run slower, because there's only so many engines to go around.
Making things worse — slow freight trains would often pull onto sidings to let fast passenger trains pass. Now the freight trains are too long to fit into the sidings, so more and more the passenger trains have to wait.
Such locations, which can also be bus stations and ferry ports, are known as "intermodal locations".
TL;DR its for ticketing purposes to enable flight and rail/bus/ferry legs to be issued on the same ticket.
Or at least that's the theory. To be honest its probably going be extinct in due course, given the complexities of integrating the airline world with the modern private railways etc. In most cases its just easier and more sensible to ticket seperateley. Plus some of the quaint old-fashioned things such as being able to check-through bags are becoming few and far between due to security and other aspects (e.g. disappearance of station porters and baggage cars).
I’d have thought integrated security would be far more secure since the baggage goes and stays behind the secure boundary until the conclusion of the trip vs being retrieved, checked in, retrieved, checked in, etc
They have a small number of specialist baggage couriers called Takuhaibin (宅配便). These couriers will take your bags between any two destinations of your choice (Hotel-Hotel,Hotel-Airport etc.) for a reasonable fee. The pick-up and destination can (basically) be anything in Japan with a postal address.
Its not true check-through as you still have to pick up your bags from the counter landside at the airport and take them to the check-in counter but the distance is minimal since you'll already be in the right terminal and on the right floor.
(Technically for the pedants out there, Takuhaibin are also a general parcel company too. But unlike, say UPS or FedEx, a Takuhaibin will take your baggage, your furniture, your clothes or pretty much anything else as long as its safe and legal)
We have these in America, too. They're call couriers. They'll even pick up your luggage that went to the wrong airport in a different city and bring it to you at your hotel in the right city. (Happened to me with a bicycle.)
unlike, say UPS or FedEx, a Takuhaibin will take your baggage, your furniture, your clothes or pretty much anything else as long as its safe and legal
This sounds exactly like UPS and FedEx. I shipped baggage, furniture, and clothing via UPS as recently as last year. I even had a service come over and pack it up for me.
UPS and FedEx will ship anything. How do you think elephants and whales get from zoo to zoo?
UPS and FedEx freight or LTL (less than truckload) is another story entirely.
Indeed.
With a Takuhabin I can go pick up a freshly pressed wedding dress from a dry cleaners and hand it over just like that. It will arrive in exactly the same state it left the dry cleaners.
With UPS it would barely make it into the back of the collection driver's van before it looked like a second hand rag.
[0] https://airportsbase.org/Germany/all/Rosenheim/Airport_of_Ro...
Hey Elon, can you pay $15 billion to get rid of bots on the Internet?
Some individual buildings have their own zip code, or 12345 for GE, or 20252 for Smokey Bear.
Because you could (still can?) book a trip that way.
Just like if you try to fly from Boise to Tokyo, you'll get a ticket set from BOI → SFO → NRT.
You could book a trip from ORD → PHL → whatever the code is for Penn Station in New York.
I don't think it's done that much anymore, but it used to be pretty common.