Railway companies in Europe assign their trains to different categories or train types depending on their role. Passenger trains may be broadly split into long-distance and local trains; the latter having average journey times of under an hour and a range of less than 50 kilometres. Goods trains have their own train types. The names of these train types have changed continually over the course of time.
A train type is not essentially a trademark name. However, there are trademark names that are also used as train types (e.g. CityNightLine, Cisalpino, VogtlandExpress).
European long-distance/high-speed rail brands
Austria
Germany
Switzerland
Private operators (Austria, Germany and Switzerland)
Belgium (NMBS/SNCB) InterCity (IC) A train connecting Belgium's major cities. These trains stop at the most important stations only, sometimes crossing national borders as well. Rush-hour train (P) Additional scheduled train service that is limited to times at which the demand for a certain route is at its highest. The number of stops varies between trains. Local train (L) Local trains usually connect larger cities, but will stop at (nearly) every station along the way. Similar to German Regionalbahn S-trains (S) Suburban train connecting towns and cities around Belgium's major cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi, Ghent and Liege. Stops at (nearly) every station. Each line will have a number (S1 - S20 + S81 for Brussels, S1 + S32 - S34 for Antwerp, S41 - S44 for Liege, S51 - S53 for Ghent and S61 - S64 for Charleroi) Tourist train (ICT) Additional scheduled train service that is limited to times at which the demand for a certain touristic destination is at its highest. The number of stops varies between trains. Extra train Additional train service, used in case of exceptionally good weather to accommodate more passengers on routes to the coast or in case of special events such as concerts. Eurocity (EC) International train meeting certain quality criteria. International train (INT) Regular international train. Thalys (THA) High-speed trains to Germany, France and The Netherlands. (operated by SNCF, DB, NS and SNCB/NMBS) TGV High-speed trains to France. (Operated by SNCF) ICE High-speed trains to Germany. (Operated by DB) Eurostar (EST) High-speed trains to France and the UK. (operated by SNCF, SNCB/NMBS and Eurostar UK Ltd.)
Croatia
There are several different ranks of passenger trains operating inside Croatia by „HŽ Putnički Prijevoz“ (Croatian Railways' sub-division responsible for passenger transport), as follows.
Inter-City trains – Croatian: Inter-City vlakovi – Inter-City trains represent the fairly limited amount of trains in Croatia. They operate on long routes and usually serve only the largest stations along the way.
Inter-City Tilting trains – Croatian: Inter City Nagibni vlakovi (ICN) – ICN services are connecting Zagreb with Split using tilting trains. Thanks to their tilting mechanism they can run faster than conventional trains and represent only daytime connections between Zagreb and Split, also serving decent amount of larger stations along their route. Contrary to regular overnight fast trains between Zagreb and Split with scheduled travelling time of circa 8 hours in total, tilting trains on the Zagreb–Split route (lines M202 and M604) offer passengers a faster journey with a riding time of about 6 hours.
Fast trains – Croatian: Brzi vlakovi – Fast trains operate on medium to long distances, serving only stations in larger settlements along the track. Their purpose is very similar to Inter City trains.
Semi-fast trains – Croatian: Ubrzani vlakovi – Semi-fast trains operate on medium to long distances and their purpose is to serve destinations which have justified number of passengers, therefore skipping certain smaller stations which have not.
Regional and local trains – Croatian: Putnički vlakovi (lit. "passenger trains") – Regional and local trains cover short, medium and long distances and generally serve all stations along their route, representing the largest part of passenger trains on the nationwide level. They are mainly used by local residents traveling between smaller settlements and larger centres/railway hubs or by those who want to continue their journey further using mostly well-adjusted transfers – in both cases for daily migrations (school, work, hospital, shopping, etc.) or other reasons. These trains usually have daily frequencies that meet the needs of the local population.