Trivia: (almost) nonstop services outside the UK

[A S Leib]

Which examples are there of rail services outside the UK which run nonstop, or at least without stops outside the origin and destination cities? I'm excluding very short journeys; looking for cases like King's Cross to Cambridge, not the Stourbridge shuttle.

I can think of

• Paris – Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux (e.g. 07:45 to Montparnasse calling at Massy only) and Orléans (nonstop to Les Aubrais)
• London – Paris (I'm not sure if any non-Amsterdam Brussels services currently skip Lille)
• Looking at timetables for the start of May (post-engineering work), there's at least one nonstop Hamburg Hbf to Berlin-Spandau service which doesn't go beyond Hamburg or Berlin (19:18 from Altona)
• Barcelona – Madrid
• Warsaw – Kraków and Białystok

 

[THC]

The 0615 Cork - Dublin Heuston weekday service runs nonstop, taking 2h15. That's the only such service on the line - all other trains call at least once en route.

THC

 

[stadler]

Which examples are there of rail services outside the UK which run nonstop, or at least without stops outside the origin and destination cities? I'm excluding very short journeys; looking for cases like King's Cross to Cambridge, not the Stourbridge shuttle.

I can think of

• Paris – Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux (e.g. 07:45 to Montparnasse calling at Massy only) and Orléans (nonstop to Les Aubrais)
• London – Paris (I'm not sure if any non-Amsterdam Brussels services currently skip Lille)
• Looking at timetables for the start of May (post-engineering work), there's at least one nonstop Hamburg Hbf to Berlin-Spandau service which doesn't go beyond Hamburg or Berlin (19:18 from Altona)
• Barcelona – Madrid
• Warsaw – Kraków and Białystok

RZD run non stop Moscow to Saint Petersburg trains in both directions. There are two Sapsan trains a day in each direction (out of fourteen Sapsan trains a day in each direction) that do the journey non stop with zero intermediate calls. The non stop ones take four hours and ten minutes so it is quite a long non stop run.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Egyptian National Railways runs expresses between Cairo and Alexandria with one intermediate stop at Sidi Gaber in Alexandria. The fastest time is 2 hours 30 minutes.

Train travel in Egypt | 2026 schedules, fares & tickets

A practical guide to train travel between Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor & Aswam.

www.seat61.com

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

There are ICE Sprinter that go Berlin Ostbahnhof - Berlin Hbf - Berlin-Spandau then Frankfurt Hbf without any stop in between, for example ICE 1039 today. That's 3 hours 45, although the train does have a planned technical stop in Kassel for a couple minutes I believe (without opening doors)

 

[nwales58]

Paris - Lille fasts
Madrid - Toledo
Madrid - Valencia, the sub-2h Chamartin services of all 3 operators
Warsaw - Krakow

Then some early and late as the main services run further:
Milan - Rome
Cordoba - Seville Avants

Although only a few of the Paris - Bordeaux fasts qualify as most carry on further, where one unit terminates/starts at Bordeaux it has a separate train number so sort-of qualifies.

 

[NCT]

Most TGVs are non-stop between Paris and the first significant city. The Paris - Marseille runs on the Nice services are particularly peaceful.

ICE Sprinters are becoming more common in Germany.

 

[A S Leib]

the first significant city

The examples I'm looking for only involve one other significant city, so Paris – Marseille – Nice doesn't count.

 

[NCT]

The examples I'm looking for only involve one other significant city, so Paris – Marseille – Nice doesn't count.

From a passenger's point of view (the passenger railway owes its existence to the passengers it serves) whether a train carries on beyond Marseille is of no consequence to a Paris - Marseille passenger, and that passenger does not discriminate between a Marseille terminator and a Nice continuer.

 

[Tester]

From a passenger's point of view (the passenger railway owes its existence to the passengers it serves) whether a train carries on beyond Marseille is of no consequence to a Paris - Marseille passenger, and that passenger does not discriminate between a Marseille terminator and a Nice continuer.

Indisputably true, but the OP is entitled to set the rules!

 

[A S Leib]

and that passenger does not discriminate between a Marseille terminator and a Nice continuer.

The passenger may not; trivia expressed in this thread does.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Nov 2025 ==

I'd add that passengers might prefer to get services originating at Marseille than those coming from Nice for a better choice of seats (well, maybe not in that exact case due to mandatory reservations, but you get the point).

 

[Tester]

When I was publishing my Chinese Railway Timetable (up to 2019), a large number of Chinese high speed trains followed this pattern.

That may have changed, but I doubt it.

 

[AdamWW]

From a passenger's point of view (the passenger railway owes its existence to the passengers it serves) whether a train carries on beyond Marseille is of no consequence to a Paris - Marseille passenger, and that passenger does not discriminate between a Marseille terminator and a Nice continuer.

This passenger does!

I find there's something quite satisfying about using a train for its full journey.

And from a non-enthusiast point of view, getting off at the terminus means no worry about making sure you're ready to get off in time.

(And as for the railway existing for the benefit of passengers...it seems a sensible principle but I'm not sure management always see it that way).

 

[NCT]

I find it depends the dwell time of the station you get on/off at. Those Marseille reversers have about 15 minutes, so I perceive that service as a Paris - Marseille non-stop with an extension that doesn't adversely impact me.

Poland will run a few Krakow - Warsaw directs. Most services are combined with Warsaw - Gdansk directs, due to the way the Warsaw node is set up. They sit at Warsaw Central for about 10 minutes, so if I'm a Krakow - Warsaw passengers I don't perceive the Gdansk continuers as any lesser than the odd Warsaw terminator, and I'd choose my train purely based on my preferred time of travel.

 

[dutchflyer]

This morning I looked at my latest (Th Cook/European) printed timetable-which is some years old. MOst of what is required are on newer HiSpeed lines and most have been added above. In ITaly there are non-stop Roma-Milano expresses, but alas: these either at both or at least 1 end serve 2 stops.
RENFE in Espana also had (then, could be finished now) non-stops Madrid-Sevilla, but it seems only on specific days/times.
Could not check these, but there MIGHT be:
Turkey: Istanbul-Ankara
And I-just as Tester above for mainland China mentions- assume that on the very big extra KMs bult as hi-speed there there MAY now be such nonstops like Shanghai-Nanjing or Hangzhou or Guangzhou-Shenzhen or Beijng-Tienjin. I leave that to others to check.
In sheer nr of KMs I guess the already mentioned sapsans Mockba-Peterburg win hands down.

 

[ricohallo]

There are also Berlin - Cologne ICE Sprinters running non-stop Berlin-Spandau - Köln Hbf.

 

[nwales58]

Groan. This kind of thread encourages me to waste time checking what my memory thinks is true in case it isn't ...

... Then some early and late as the main services run further:
Milan - Rome

In ITaly there are non-stop Roma-Milano expresses, but alas: these either at both or at least 1 end serve 2 stops.

Random date, more than I thought, no other stops:
FR9617 0935 Milano Centrale - Roma Termini only
FR9651 1735 Milano Centrale - Roma Termini only
FR9663 1935 Milano Centrale - Roma Termini only
FR9681 2035 Milano Centrale - Roma Termini only - super-fast 2h50
though none northbound that have not come from further south

RENFE in Espana also had (then, could be finished now) non-stops Madrid-Sevilla, but it seems only on specific days/times.

AVE2190 1900 Madrid Atocha - Sevilla Santa Justa, daily this week at least
AVE2151 1534 Sevilla Santa Justa - Madrid Atocha (not Saturdays)
AVE2191 1933 Sevilla Santa Justa - Madrid Atocha (not Saturdays)

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Madrid to Barcelona (385 miles) - still a significant number of non-stop services from all three operators - RENFE, Ouigo and iryo. Oddly, perhaps, services going on to Girona / Figueres are the 'semi-fasts'.

 

[John_Franklin]

China Railway Z15
Beijing 21:18
Non-Stop
Harbin 07:40
iirc it is all soft-sleeper with some cars “luxury (in 2000s standards) soft sleeper”

K53
Beijing 22:35
Non-Stop
Shenyang North 07:00

There used to be more (really) non-stop trains on conventional railway in 2000s, but declined since the spread of high speed railway. I can only think of these two, both in the northeastern area

 

[tram21]

Does anyone know what the longest example of this is?

I only ask because I notice that Krakow to Warsaw is mentioned a few times, and someone I know accidentally boarded that instead of the Krakow Airport train, ending up many miles away and missing a flight (not me!!)

 

[Barnsley]

Last week I was in Warsaw and went to Poznan from Wsodchnia station, it stopped at Centralna, then Zachodnia, then non-stop to Poznan, 2h 45, nice PKP loco-hauled compartment stock!