Through running in Tokyo is next level. You can catch a train from the airport, which then turns into a subway, then later on it becomes a train again.
This is confusing.
Subway is already a kind of train.
You mean to say that the train partly runs underground? That is pretty common. I actually can't remember any city where airport connecting train does not do the same at some point or another.
What's kinda interesting is does that train classify as metro transit that goes slightly beyond city to airport and such (making many stops all the way) or distance intercity train that happens to stop both at airport and city? Or does it change this classification? That would be actually unusual.
I suppose a subway train with rail only supply that goes overground sometimes is more dangerous because it is easier to accidentally step on a rail and rail is powered?
> > What's kinda interesting is does that train classify as metro transit that goes slightly beyond city to airport and such (making many stops all the way) or distance intercity train that happens to stop both at airport and city? Or does it change this classification? That would be actually unusual
Also, about this part:
> You typically schedule your trip based on the train’s schedule.
Many counterexamples to that around East Asia (and probably Europe?). Trains are frequent enough that you just come most of the day. Apart from late hours when it is the same for both metro and distance trains, you have to know when they depart because both become rare and you can be late for the last one.
Do you defend the subway vs. train terminology? Sometimes distance trains run underground, sometimes metro trains run overground, so it seems pretty pointless to me.
For example, let’s say you are going from Motomachi Chukagai to Kawagoe, try plugging this into Google Maps - you board the Minatomirai line, then once you reach Yokohama, without getting off your seat you are now on the Tokyu Toyoko line, then again at Shibuya it becomes the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin line, then again at Wakoshi it becomes the Tobu Tojo line.
4 different train operators maintained and run by 4 different companies with their own rolling stock and drivers, but they share access to the track and trains, they interoperate, and it just feels like one train with no dip in service quality. Many lines here do this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroliner
It sounds crazy to say now but America used to have the best passenger rail infrastructure in the world.
The best part is when you get on a through-running trains in Tokyo and the route map in the train has no Tokyo stops listed on it. Signage has gotten better in recent years, at the cost of complexity:
https://www.kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp/subway/stops/asakusa_sogo.h...