International dividing trains

[Kreissignal]

ICEs from Berlin to Cologne and Düsseldorf used to divide in Hamm, but the procedure was so unreliable (especially in the reverse direction) that they‘ve pretty much put a stop to it. Some Munich-Hamburg ICEs acquire a second section in Berlin Hbf. Doubtless there are others. There was an announcement which suggested that the new timetable (from mid-December onwards) will have much less of this sort of thing.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Westbound I had 5.6mW of 252 hauling a single coach Ourense-Vigo, 2 coaches went to Coruna. Can’t remember which of the four ODs did not have a through coach.

The consists of the 'Camino' varied over the years - on my trip the main Coruna coaches came off at Montforte and ran via Lugo (diesel hauled). A single coach also came off at Ourense for Coruna to serve Santiago.

Towards the end, the 'Sud Express' (Irun - Lisbon) and the 'Lusitania' (Madrid - Lisbon) combined / split at Medina del Campo.

 

[Taunton]

In Canada it had long been the tradition that the major transcontinental trains all had separate sections from Montreal/Ottawa, and from Toronto, combining or splitting in Northern Ontario at Sudbury, or nearby Capreol, depending on route. The typical formation all the way from Vancouver three days beforehand had a range of vehicle types, half for each branch.

However, the trains were typically marshalled by vehicle type, so by the 1980s it was two baggage cars (one for each), two Dayniters with reclining seats (one each), four regular coaches (two each), the diner, and about six sleepers (three for each branch).

The shunting required to get this all unpicked into two separate eastbound trains for the two destinations put the onetime Atlantic Coast Express manoeuvres at Exeter to shame. Two switch locomotives were assigned to Capreol, and it took them upwards of 30 minutes to sort it all out, during which time it was good to get out of the train completely to the adjacent cafe for breakfast, where the windows gave a good view of it all. Even the multi-unit train locos were split up.

 

[43096]

The most confusing splitting of trains that I've personally experienced was while travelling from Kraków to Austria, where the IC114 from Przemysl is advertised on all screens and announcements as going to both Prague and Budapest. I heard discussions onboard, from other tourists, wondering which city it goes to first, and some being surprised that it goes to both.

However, when it reaches Bohumin, it draws up alongside the IC131 from Warsaw, which is also advertised as going to both Prague and Budapest. The rear carriage of each train is detached, and swapped to the rear of the other train. Then one train goes to Prague, one goes to Budapest, and each train contains a mixture of carriages from different origins.

It's a clever system, but it's very badly communicated, particularly if you aren't paying 100% attention! So long as you sit in your reserved seat throughout the process, you end up in the right place. However, I wonder how many people return from the restaurant car after lunch to find their train has exactly the same number of carriages, but their baggage is apparently missing and they are heading to the wrong city!

The portion swap is a regular "cranks move" as there's usually two shunting locomotives used for the portion swap. The same happens in the reverse direction with EC115 and EC130, although that is usually done by the train locomotives. It's actually a rather interesting operation, because as well as the shunts at the back of the train, EC114 also has a locomotive change at the front, with the PKP loco replaced by a CD Vectron.

Photo below shows CD shunter 794008 at Bohumín performing the EC131 to EC114 shunt on 4 May this year. EC131 can be seen in the adjacent platform.

 

[43096]

ICEs from Berlin to Cologne and Düsseldorf used to divide in Hamm, but the procedure was so unreliable (especially in the reverse direction) that they‘ve pretty much put a stop to it. Some Munich-Hamburg ICEs acquire a second section in Berlin Hbf. Doubtless there are others. There was an announcement which suggested that the new timetable (from mid-December onwards) will have much less of this sort of thing.

There's some ICE2 pairs that work paired between München and Hannover where they split with a portion for Bremen and a portion for Hamburg.

 

[kaspertron]

Here in Malmö the regional trains to Karlskrona split in Kristianstad, only half the train continues to Karlskrona.

This is communicated well on board, but is not communicated at all pre-boarding. So the journey out of Malmö always starts with an announcement telling you which part of the train you need to be on to get to Karlskrona, and inevitably there are always a few people who sigh and start moving through the train with their stuff. Not much fun if you have a stroller or a bike with you, or have limited mobility.

 

[cadder toad]

The "Highlander" Caledonian Sleeper is still three portions - Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William. The train splits at Edinburgh and the latter part gets some day coaches added.

Surely 4 portions then. London to Aberdeen, Inverness, fort william and Edinburgh to fort william

 

[Thames99]

In about 1965 I travelled from Ostend to Copenhagen on a multi-coloured train made up of sleeping cars and couchettes from different countries going to many European cities. From memory, apart from the Copenhagen coach, there were others going to Madrid, Rome, Warsaw, Moscow and other destinations. In Cologne in the early hours there was an extensive shunting operation as the train was reformed for each destination. I was young and half asleep, but I assume other trains met up there to make up the new formations.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

ICEs from Berlin to Cologne and Düsseldorf used to divide in Hamm, but the procedure was so unreliable (especially in the reverse direction) that they‘ve pretty much put a stop to it.

No, line 10's dividing move still happens every two hours. Before, it was hourly. In the other hour, there's now a longer ICE on line 10 just going via Essen, and another ICE on line 19 going via Hagen

 

[Davester50]

Surely 4 portions then. London to Aberdeen, Inverness, fort william and Edinburgh to fort william

It only runs as one train, so it's only 3.

Carstairs was probably one of the infamous UK ones.

Internationally, it's declined since fixed formation or MU stock took over from individual cars.

Drop back in to the wonderful time-machine that is VagonWeb and have a look at the older formations.

 

[TheWierdOne]

There's some ICE2 pairs that work paired between München and Hannover where they split with a portion for Bremen and a portion for Hamburg.

I believe this train once had each portion sent to the wrong destination, so the Hamburg portion went to Bremen and vice versa. There’s a video somewhere on YouTube if someone can dig it out.

Edit: Found it

 

[HS2isgood]

In Spain, some Catalan trains running double Class 447 lose the rear unit or add a front unit depending on direction at Reus, Vic or Ripoll, even though the practice is falling out of favour in order to help reliability.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

In Spain, some Catalan trains running double Class 447 lose the rear unit or add a front unit depending on direction at Reus, Vic or Ripoll, even though the practice is falling out of favour in order to help reliability.

Some of those will also be "international" in the cross-border sense, as one portion may run through to Latour-de-Carol. Should have remembered it myself, as I've been on it. My return journey even had an unplanned split at Urtx-Alp (three stops downhill from L-d-C) due to a fault on the rear unit of a pair. Not quite sure why 6-cars ran so far on that occasion (October 2018) as it was fairly lightly loaded by that point. Perhaps there was an event in Puigçerda or Llivia?

 

[Springs Branch]

In Australia, it's not a common thing these days, but it does happen.

In New South Wales, HST-derived XPTs cannot divide (obviously) but, on NSW TrainLink (ex-CountryLink) routes which use XPlorer DMUs, there are two locations where trains routinely divide and combine.

• Werris Creek for the daily trains from Sydney to Armidale and Moree.
• Goulburn, where the twice-weekly XPlorer between Sydney and Griffith attaches or detaches to/from a Sydney/Canberra train.
  These trains require compulsory seat reservations for all passengers, so there's minimal chance of ending up sitting in the wrong portion.
  Apparently if the train from Griffith is running late (it's much the longer route of the two), the ex-Canberra portion does not wait at Goulburn and they run into Sydney as two separate trains.

In Victoria, several daily regional V/Line trains extending beyond Ballarat to both Ararat and Maryborough combine or detach at Ballarat.
Reserved seats are available on the longer-distant sections but are not compulsory, so I suppose there's some risk you could find yourself in the wrong unit (if you're one of those who ignores all on-board announcements).

Some other V/Line trains detach or attach carriages along the way - e.g. an evening train to Warrnambool departs Melbourne as a 2x 3-car V/Locity set, but drops off one of the units at Geelong, after the busy section of route. Only one 3-car unit continues through to Warrnambool. But I suspect this sort of thing is not what the OP was looking for.

 

[To the trains]

France certainly does, would have gone to Rennes instead of Nantes if I hadn't noticed last time, and it was not clearly announced at all, unlike on trains in the UK, where it has, in my experience been clearly announced many times at the stations leading up to where the service splits. They didn't even give an announcement at Redon, (or any point during the journey) where we actually split, the only way I worked it out was that the screen at Quimper showed two trains leaving the same platform at exactly the same time and there were different repères you needed to be between for each train. Had I not been so astute I would probably have ended up in the wrong half.

 

[signed]

Had I not been so astute I would probably have ended up in the wrong half.

Yup that is an issue that we have in terms of it's very hidden and information needs to be better accross the board.

And it isn't helped that the same happens with TGVs, but with TGVs since it's mandatory seat reservation there is no place to confusion.

They made a lot of efforts at Rennes however.

Rennes now, along with Annemasse in Savoie, is the only station in the 2TMV (2 trains même voie) experimentation. 2 fully independant trains, same platform, just different sections. There are massive posters everywhere and audio announcement to take care about which train you take.

Ideally, and I wish they did that at Rennes, both sectors should have a different platform number on customer displays.
Bit like Praha hl.n with every track having a J sector (North) and S sector (South) or a lot of UK stations.

No clue why they didn't do that, could have helped with TGV splitting here as well. Maybe that will happen when 2TMV leaves the experimentation stage.

 

[43096]

Bit like Praha hl.n with every track having a J sector (North) and S sector (South) or a lot of UK stations.

Other way round at Praha hl.n. - S (Sever) is North and J (Jih) is South.

 

[SephenWorceste]

I think I read that some Paris Barcelona trains split at Perpignan. I have done the journey many times and must say I have never noticed. Perhaps a longer dwell than I am use to in the UK. In some cases only one half is the right variant to operate in Spain.

 

[30907]

I think I read that some Paris Barcelona trains split at Perpignan. I have done the journey many times and must say I have never noticed. Perhaps a longer dwell than I am use to in the UK. In some cases only one half is the right variant to operate in Spain.

They do (with different train numbers as mentioned upthread).

 

[D365]

or merely the fake shock needed to get the algorithms to push the content at more people. Much needs to be either outrageous or fabulous nowadays, normal gets you no views.

I concur.

So these tiktok types heading for Munich airport would be shocked to end up at Freising having ignored the information system displays and announcement?

Munich S-Bahn also currently sees trains divide at other intermediate stations. But rather than portion working, as seen on S1, this is in order to match train consists with the lower demand on the outer fringes of the other S-Bahn lines.

Whether this portion working of ET 423 units will reduce once they are partially superseded by the ET 1420 Siemens units (full length) I do not know.

 

[WideRanger]

I used to live in Kamakura in Japan. The JR Yokosuka line trains (which north of there, toward Tokyo, would be 15 carriages), would split just south of there at Zushi, with 4 carriages at the south end of the train sent going into a siding south of the station, with the main 11 carriages (which included the double deck green cars), carrying on toward Yokosuka. I believe it was due to the infrastructure south of there only supporting 11 carriages.

In the opposite direction, 4 carriages would join the trains, from the sidings.

And when trains are running every 8 minutes in both directions, that's quite a feat.

 

[MarcVD]

Something I forgot to mention : Eurostar splits/combines trains daily in Brussels, one set to/from Amsterdam and the other one to/from Cologne, the pair coming or going to Paris Nord. They are advertised as two separate trains on the French departure boards. But you need a reservation to board those trains, and there is no communication between the two, so it's almost impossible to end up in the wrong train. That's how you can see an MU formation of a PBA set in the front, bound to Amsterdam, and a PBKA in the rear, bound to Cologne.

 

[DanielB]

Similarly there are combined Eurostar trains which run Amsterdam - Paris Nord / Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy. But these are also quite clearly distinguishable by the carriage number on the required reservation.

 

[FormerBritInMe]

In the USA we have 3 trains that divide/join:

The Lake Shore Limited has 2 sections: Chicago to/from New York and to/from Boston that split/join at Albany NY.
The Empire Builder from/to Chicago splits/joins at Spokane WA with sections for Seattle WA and Portland OR
The Sunset from Los Angeles has a section that splits off at San Antonio, the remainder goes to New Orleans, the split off section is attached to the Texas Eagle for Chicago. VV for the westbound trip.

This is handled by separate train numbers e.g. 49 for New York - Chicago and 449 for Boston - Chicago. Since reservations are compulsory and you are assigned a train and car number, there is usually no confusion.

 

[railfan99]

In Victoria, several daily regional V/Line trains extending beyond Ballarat to both Ararat and Maryborough combine or detach at Ballarat.
Reserved seats are available on the longer-distant sections but are not compulsory, so I suppose there's some risk you could find yourself in the wrong unit (if you're one of those who ignores all on-board announcements).

Yesterday on the 0916 hours ex Southern Cross (Melbourne), approaching Ballarat in the rear (Maryborough) three-car VLocity set, the conductor came through and individually asked all passengers if they were going to Maryborough (or one of the three intermediate stations of Creswick, Clunes or Talbot).

Tickets had also been previously checked en route.

There were only about 25 passengers for stations beyond Ballarat on the Maryborough line, though many more used it en route to Ballarat. Both on the down and the up, it attached to the rear of a three-car VLocity going to or coming from Wendouree, a Ballarat suburb that is the official terminus of 'Ballarat' trains. While extremely risk averse, politically correct V/Line originally made passengers alight at Ballarat while sets coupled, in recent years we've been allowed to stay on board with a repeated PA warning there's a 'bump' when the trains couple.

The station PIDS (passenger information display screens - TV-like monitors) show (on the down) the destination being 'Wendouree' for the combined train, with a note about 'rear three cars go to Maryborough' or similar in a small font to the right. Not satisfactory as someone unfamiliar with V/Line such as an interstate or overseas visitor could easily miss the latter information.

 

[jpl]

In Finland Pendolinos, some commuter trains and a few sleepers do divide along the journey but now this practice is less usual than it was before. Joining and dividing is still used to offer more seating where needed, or to spare track capacity by driving two units as one train. But as Finnish EMUs don't have gangways between units, any passengers in the wrong unit would have to change via the platform.

Pendolinos had some reliability issues with their automatic couplers. They had both electrical and mechanical issues: the units wouldn't communicate with each other or the coupler wouldn't extend or retract, causing delays. All movable couplers were then replaced with fixed ones and are now better protected from the elements.

Currently only one Pendolino, the 16:14 S 9 from Helsinki to Joensuu, divides at Kouvola and forms S 69 to Kajaani.

 

[nw1]

Here is an example

if you look on tiktoks and the comments it seems people in many countries are surprised about dividing trains

Amazed people find it such a strange concept. I clearly understood the concept of dividing trains aged 11, within weeks of starting to use the railway.

Doesn't require much maths, except perhaps 8 - 4 = 4.

And it's not just the UK, as others have stated. Dividing TGVs in France, dividing ICEs in Germany.

I suspect it's mostly TikTokers finding excuses to make fun of the way other countries do things. Not a good trait.

 

[The exile]

Not specifically international, but there’s plenty of potential for portion-based confusion at a station en route where the train reverses (particularly if it isn’t obvious that it has to!). “Join the front two coaches only for….” Is that “front two” as it arrives or as it leaves. Heard it announced both ways round at Bristol TM.

 

[Tester]

Not specifically international, but there’s plenty of potential for portion-based confusion at a station en route where the train reverses (particularly if it isn’t obvious that it has to!). “Join the front two coaches only for….” Is that “front two” as it arrives or as it leaves. Heard it announced both ways round at Bristol TM.

Yes indeed.

I can't think of an international example, but between Birmingham New Street and Shrewsbury going to Aberystwyth/Pwllheli can be messy.

I don't know if it's still done, but in Belgium/Netherlands I have heard on train announcements quoting the unit numbers for each destination (the unit numbers are clearly shown in passenger compartments) - very reassuring!

 

[SAPhil]

Last May I had the misfortune to encounter this in Germany. Having left the Airport Station and taken 2 trains to get to Freising, a group of us got on the wrong half of a dividing train and instead of going to Landshut ended up back at Munich Airport!