Trivia: fastest regional and slowest intercity services

[A S Leib]

What are the fastest regional and slowest intercity services? I'm mostly focusing on cases which have clear distinctions in speed (I don't think most Amtrak services, especially outside the northeast corridor, or Via Rail are particularly fast) and ideally, if not essentially, those with clear distinctions between regional and intercity ones. I'm measuring the full distance and duration of the journey rather than the maximum speed it goes at.

For the fastest regional services, I've got

• TER Hauts-de-France services which I think use LGV Nord: Lille-Flandres – Dunkerque (165 km/h / 102 mph); Lille-Europe – Boulogne-Ville (140 km/h / 87 mph) (distantly behind, Lille-Flandres – Amiens (99 km/h / 62 mph))
• Ulm Hbf – Wendlingen(Neckar) (120 km/h / 75 mph)
• London Euston – Crewe Trent Valley stoppers (120 km/h / 75 mph)
• London St. Pancras – Corby (111 km/h / 69 mph)
• Basel SBB – Strasbourg (111 km/h / 69 mph) and Strasbourg / Mulhouse – Paris-Est (both ~107 km/h / 67 mph)
• If counting it as a regional service, Norwich – London Liverpool Street (105 km/h / 65 mph for most services)
• Berlin Airport express (101 km/h / 62 mph)
• München Hbf – Nürnberg Hbf (95 km/h / 59 mph)

For the slowest intercity services, common themes I've found so far are holiday destinations, ports, and Luxembourg.

• Luxembourg – Liège-Guillemins (60 km/h / 38 mph) / Bruxelles-Midi (70 km/h / 44 mph) / Düsseldorf Hbf (numbered as a regional service between Koblenz and Luxembourg; 73 km/h / 45 mph)
• London St. Pancras – Faversham (not one I expected to be so slow; 68 km/h / 42 mph)
• I wouldn't count these as intercity at all from the end of HST usage, but Cardiff Central to Penzance / Exeter is ~45 mph / 70 km/h
• Liverpool Lime Street – Hull (79 km/h / 49 mph)
• Norddeich Mole – Köln Hbf (81 km/h / 51 mph)
• Hamburg-Altona – Ostseebad Binz (89 km/h / 56 mph)
• Penzance – Birmingham New Street / via Bristol and Bath to London Paddington evening services (84 km/h / 52 mph)

 

[StephenHunter]

Southeastern High Speed is 140mph (225km/h) on HS1.

 

[A S Leib]

Southeastern High Speed is 140mph (225km/h) on HS1.

I'm looking at the speed for the total service, not the maximum. There are some at the end of the day which don't continue to Faversham (mentioned above) or the coast, including the 23:20 St. Pancras to Ebbsfleet. That goes the 36 km in 18 minutes, so an average of 120 km/h / 75 mph.

 

[signed]

TGVs on Rennes-Brest does 249.2km in 2h14 at the quickest, which is 111km/h / 69.33mph. Regionals are all stoppers and do 2h20 (106.8kph, 66.36mph)

 

[NCT]

Budapest - Zagreb must be up there as one of the very slowest.

 

[A S Leib]

Budapest - Zagreb must be up there as one of the very slowest.

I make it 54 km/h / 34 mph.

 

[Trainguy34]

I'm looking at the speed for the total service, not the maximum. There are some at the end of the day which don't continue to Faversham (mentioned above) or the coast, including the 23:20 St. Pancras to Ebbsfleet. That goes the 36 km in 18 minutes, so an average of 120 km/h / 75 mph.

I can't remember if there are any at the moment, but if they run St Pancras to Ashford non-stop and terminate there, if it follows the ECS timings it would run at about 97mph avg (58m, 44ch in 36 Mins).

 

[Warrior2852]

Swiss InterCity trains can sometimes potter along a bit depending on the route. Certainly slower than a lot of equivalent classes of services in neighbouring countries.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Apr 2026 ==

I can't remember if there are any at the moment, but if they run St Pancras to Ashford non-stop and terminate there, if it follows the ECS timings it would run at about 97mph avg (58m, 44ch in 36 Mins).

I believe that every SE service calls at Stratford and Ebbsfleet.

 

[NCT]

St Pancras - Dover terminators via Ashford must be pretty fast? Classic section still 75-100mph with not too many stops.

 

[A S Leib]

The problem is that I've been counting Southeastern High Speed services as intercity rather than regional (higher fares – I know you could point to Heathrow / Gatwick Express – and rolling stock – again, there's cases like Cardiff to Exeter HSTs which is more of an interregional route), and I don't think it has particularly high overall speeds for an intercity service.

 

[RailWonderer]

The F4 from Oslo to Bergen averages 45mph, over 7 hours end-to-end when the flights are about 55m. Like some Swiss routes and Vienna/Budapest-Zagreb, mountainous terrain and long tight curved sections makes it very slow.

 

[Jamesrob637]

The München Nürnberg express certainly shifts between München and Ingolstadt, less so between Ingolstadt and München.

 

[Trainguy34]

I believe that every SE service calls at Stratford and Ebbsfleet.

Some peak ones don't call at all of them, it's just remembering which ones!

 

[rmHawk765]

TER services in the Normandy region get up to 200km/h somewhere, and not on an LGV either.
Edit: I think you referred to this in your post - though I distinctly remember that there are 200km/h sections under conventional signalling.

 

[43096]

The München Nürnberg express certainly shifts between München and Ingolstadt, less so between Ingolstadt and München.

When it runs!

 

[NCT]

The problem is that I've been counting Southeastern High Speed services as intercity rather than regional (higher fares – I know you could point to Heathrow / Gatwick Express – and rolling stock – again, there's cases like Cardiff to Exeter HSTs which is more of an interregional route), and I don't think it has particularly high overall speeds for an intercity service.

Nah, whether in terms of BR sectors or in terms of city status, SE HS is definitely regional.

 

[Jamesrob637]

When it runs!

Ok let's say the Wendlingen to Ulm express

 

[andersj]

Regional service Copenhagen C - Nykøbing F = 116 km/h

 

[gingerheid]

There are a couple of Peterborough to Kings X services that do 67mph across the journey.

 

[SHD]

TER services in the Normandy region get up to 200km/h somewhere, and not on an LGV either.
Edit: I think you referred to this in your post - though I distinctly remember that there are 200km/h sections under conventional signalling.

Those are Intercity services classified as TERs to be honest.

Twenty-odd years ago, the fastest Paris-Caen services (without intermediate stops) were clocked at 1h44. 137 kph average. Not bad for a 239 km journey on a line where there are only 2 sections at 200 km/h (~25 km after Bernay and the last ~30 km before Caen).

When turbine-powered RTG Turbotrains were introduced on thios line in 1975, the fastest nonstops were already clocked at 1h49 - a nice performance considering that the max speed of RTGs was 160 km/h.

Currently, the fastest Paris-Caen nonstops have a journey time of 1h57 although to be fair there are lots of works between Mantes la Jolie and Paris Saint Lazare.

 

[Gordon]

As usual with these 'trivia' threads, there are far too many variables. What is 'inter-city'? What is 'regional'? aka one person's inter city is another person's regional.

There is no worldwide 'rule' as to what constitutes an intercity train. For example in Switzerland some 'inter-city' routes were downgraded to 'inter-regio' status a few years ago so that the catering service could be abolished.

In France there are several (numerous even?) 'city pairs' that are not linked by any official inter city trains, so the trains are de facto 'regional'

 

[Austriantrain]

As usual with these 'trivia' threads, there are far too many variables. What is 'inter-city'? What is 'regional'? aka one person's inter city is another person's regional.

There is no worldwide 'rule' as to what constitutes an intercity train. For example in Switzerland some 'inter-city' routes were downgraded to 'inter-regio' status a few years ago so that the catering service could be abolished.

In France there are several (numerous even?) 'city pairs' that are not linked by any official inter city trains, so the trains are de facto 'regional'

The former Graz - Linz and Graz - Salzburg intercity routes must surely have ranked among the slowest, but like in Switzerland, they have now been downgraded to Interregio.

 

[duesselmartin]

Iarnrod Eireann brands it leasurely Waterford to Limerick Junction service as InterCity, although from a price point of view, that does not matter.

 

[Iskra]

I'd be surprised if the Trenitalia Bari-Reggio Centrale wasn't on the slow list

 

[Amalie]

As usual with these 'trivia' threads, there are far too many variables. What is 'inter-city'? What is 'regional'? aka one person's inter city is another person's regional.

There is no worldwide 'rule' as to what constitutes an intercity train. For example in Switzerland some 'inter-city' routes were downgraded to 'inter-regio' status a few years ago so that the catering service could be abolished.

In France there are several (numerous even?) 'city pairs' that are not linked by any official inter city trains, so the trains are de facto 'regional'

In a way, I’d agree. For instance, in The Netherlands, a lot, if not most, of the intercity lines are more interregional than intercity.

However, I still find these trivia discussions fun nevertheless. If anything, it’s interesting to compare how different countries and regions define intercity/interregional and stopping services and how you sometimes can get a bizarrely fast or slow service labeled intercity or interregional based on technicalities, branding, or otherwise.

I suspect that the regions with the slowest intercity services must be the ones with the poorest railway infrastructure, such as (parts of) the Balkans and the Americas for instance.