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> Which makes you wonder why some railway stations would have a IATA code. Such locations, which can also be bus stations and ferry ports, are known as "interm

> Which makes you wonder why some railway stations would have a IATA code. Such locations, which can also be bus stations and ferry ports, are known as "intermodal locations". TL;DR its for ticketing purposes to enable flight and rail/bus/ferry legs to be issued on the same ticket. Or at least that's the theory. To be honest its probably going be extinct in due course, given the complexities of integrating the airline world with the modern private railways etc. In most cases its just easier and more sensible to ticket seperateley. Plus some of the quaint old-fashioned things such as being able to check-through bags are becoming few and far between due to security and other aspects (e.g. disappearance of station porters and baggage cars).

gunfighthacksaw 4y ago
The disappearance of staff makes sense. I’d have thought integrated security would be far more secure since the baggage goes and stays behind the secure boundary until the conclusion of the trip vs being retrieved, checked in, retrieved, checked in, etc
- traceroute66 4y ago
  My favourite modern intermodal baggage transport is in Japan. They have a small number of specialist baggage couriers called Takuhaibin (宅配便). These couriers will take your bags between any two destinations of your choice (Hotel-Hotel,Hotel-Airport etc.) for a reasonable fee. The pick-up and destination can (basically) be anything in Japan with a postal address. Its not true check-through as you still have to pick up your bags from the counter landside at the airport and take them to the check-in counter but the distance is minimal since you'll already be in the right terminal and on the right floor. (Technically for the pedants out there, Takuhaibin are also a general parcel company too. But unlike, say UPS or FedEx, a Takuhaibin will take your baggage, your furniture, your clothes or pretty much anything else as long as its safe and legal)
  - reaperducer 4y ago
    These couriers will take your bags between any two destinations of your choice (Hotel-Hotel,Hotel-Airport etc.) for a reasonable fee We have these in America, too. They're call couriers. They'll even pick up your luggage that went to the wrong airport in a different city and bring it to you at your hotel in the right city. (Happened to me with a bicycle.) unlike, say UPS or FedEx, a Takuhaibin will take your baggage, your furniture, your clothes or pretty much anything else as long as its safe and legal This sounds exactly like UPS and FedEx. I shipped baggage, furniture, and clothing via UPS as recently as last year. I even had a service come over and pack it up for me. UPS and FedEx will ship anything. How do you think elephants and whales get from zoo to zoo?
    - bombcar 4y ago
      I think the key is that you can skip the "pack it up" step - UPS won't ship many things that would survive shipment just fine unless they're wrapped in a box. UPS and FedEx freight or LTL (less than truckload) is another story entirely.
      - traceroute66 4y ago
        > I think the key is that you can skip the "pack it up" step - UPS won't ship many things that would survive shipment just fine unless they're wrapped in a box. Indeed. With a Takuhabin I can go pick up a freshly pressed wedding dress from a dry cleaners and hand it over just like that. It will arrive in exactly the same state it left the dry cleaners. With UPS it would barely make it into the back of the collection driver's van before it looked like a second hand rag.
  - lmm 4y ago
    You can do true check-through with the Japanese carriers (JAL and ANA) AIUI.
FearNotDaniel 4y ago
Or sometimes it's just a bus stop, in a car park, with perhaps a small portaloo and a hot dog stand. Several times I've booked a through ticket from Salzburg to London Heathrow via Munich and the Salzburg-Munich leg was a bus ride that included a 'layover' at ZPR. According to [0] "Airport of Rosenheim is the most important airport of Rosenheim, Germany. It is modern and one of the largest airport of the Europe. Airport of Rosenheim is important for people and goverment of Germany." But actually it's just a lonely bus stop in a car park just off the motorway. [0] https://airportsbase.org/Germany/all/Rosenheim/Airport_of_Rosenheim https://airportsbase.org/Germany/all/Rosenheim/Airport_of_Ro...
- netsharc 4y ago
  Sigh, bot-generated content litters the whole internet. I was doing some address completion stuff and learned about virtual ZIP codes in my country, i.e. ZIP codes that are just for routing and don't have a geographical area, but if you look them up on the Internet of course there are sites that say "$ZIP is a city in the state of $STATE". Hey Elon, can you pay $15 billion to get rid of bots on the Internet?
  - mellavora 4y ago
    to be pendantic, all (US) ZIP codes are just for routing. Any correspondence to a geographical area is an artifact of this, and subject to change. Also, it is possible for two ZIP codes to overlap geographically.
    - cestith 4y ago
      In particular some numbered zones are entirely contained geographically within others. In some places in the US, there's a ZIP for delivery to private homes and businesses but another for delivery within the Postal Service network, including delivery to post office boxes. The one I remember most readily is Quincy, Illinois. The city is 62301 and the surrounding county 62305, but PO boxes are 62306, located within the post offices that sit within the 62301 zone.
SSLy 4y ago
If memory serves me right, it's still used in Germany for trips outbound from FRA. You buy a ticket with a train somewhere → FRA leg, and an airplane FRA → somewhere-else.
- raynigon 4y ago
  It gets even better. One of the big Software Systems at Fraport has a „Flight“ class, which exposes the method „isTrain“… On another german airport the same class was extended by a „isTruck“ method for parcel trucks…

gunfighthacksaw 4y ago

The disappearance of staff makes sense. I’d have thought integrated security would be far more secure since the baggage goes and stays behind the secure boundary until the conclusion of the trip vs being retrieved, checked in, retrieved, checked in, etc

traceroute66 4y ago
My favourite modern intermodal baggage transport is in Japan. They have a small number of specialist baggage couriers called Takuhaibin (宅配便). These couriers will take your bags between any two destinations of your choice (Hotel-Hotel,Hotel-Airport etc.) for a reasonable fee. The pick-up and destination can (basically) be anything in Japan with a postal address. Its not true check-through as you still have to pick up your bags from the counter landside at the airport and take them to the check-in counter but the distance is minimal since you'll already be in the right terminal and on the right floor. (Technically for the pedants out there, Takuhaibin are also a general parcel company too. But unlike, say UPS or FedEx, a Takuhaibin will take your baggage, your furniture, your clothes or pretty much anything else as long as its safe and legal)
- reaperducer 4y ago
  These couriers will take your bags between any two destinations of your choice (Hotel-Hotel,Hotel-Airport etc.) for a reasonable fee We have these in America, too. They're call couriers. They'll even pick up your luggage that went to the wrong airport in a different city and bring it to you at your hotel in the right city. (Happened to me with a bicycle.) unlike, say UPS or FedEx, a Takuhaibin will take your baggage, your furniture, your clothes or pretty much anything else as long as its safe and legal This sounds exactly like UPS and FedEx. I shipped baggage, furniture, and clothing via UPS as recently as last year. I even had a service come over and pack it up for me. UPS and FedEx will ship anything. How do you think elephants and whales get from zoo to zoo?
  - bombcar 4y ago
    I think the key is that you can skip the "pack it up" step - UPS won't ship many things that would survive shipment just fine unless they're wrapped in a box. UPS and FedEx freight or LTL (less than truckload) is another story entirely.
    - traceroute66 4y ago
      > I think the key is that you can skip the "pack it up" step - UPS won't ship many things that would survive shipment just fine unless they're wrapped in a box. Indeed. With a Takuhabin I can go pick up a freshly pressed wedding dress from a dry cleaners and hand it over just like that. It will arrive in exactly the same state it left the dry cleaners. With UPS it would barely make it into the back of the collection driver's van before it looked like a second hand rag.
- lmm 4y ago
  You can do true check-through with the Japanese carriers (JAL and ANA) AIUI.

FearNotDaniel 4y ago

Or sometimes it's just a bus stop, in a car park, with perhaps a small portaloo and a hot dog stand. Several times I've booked a through ticket from Salzburg to London Heathrow via Munich and the Salzburg-Munich leg was a bus ride that included a 'layover' at ZPR. According to [0] "Airport of Rosenheim is the most important airport of Rosenheim, Germany. It is modern and one of the largest airport of the Europe. Airport of Rosenheim is important for people and goverment of Germany." But actually it's just a lonely bus stop in a car park just off the motorway. [0] https://airportsbase.org/Germany/all/Rosenheim/Airport_of_Rosenheim https://airportsbase.org/Germany/all/Rosenheim/Airport_of_Ro...

netsharc 4y ago
Sigh, bot-generated content litters the whole internet. I was doing some address completion stuff and learned about virtual ZIP codes in my country, i.e. ZIP codes that are just for routing and don't have a geographical area, but if you look them up on the Internet of course there are sites that say "$ZIP is a city in the state of $STATE". Hey Elon, can you pay $15 billion to get rid of bots on the Internet?
- mellavora 4y ago
  to be pendantic, all (US) ZIP codes are just for routing. Any correspondence to a geographical area is an artifact of this, and subject to change. Also, it is possible for two ZIP codes to overlap geographically.
  - cestith 4y ago
    In particular some numbered zones are entirely contained geographically within others. In some places in the US, there's a ZIP for delivery to private homes and businesses but another for delivery within the Postal Service network, including delivery to post office boxes. The one I remember most readily is Quincy, Illinois. The city is 62301 and the surrounding county 62305, but PO boxes are 62306, located within the post offices that sit within the 62301 zone.

SSLy 4y ago

If memory serves me right, it's still used in Germany for trips outbound from FRA. You buy a ticket with a train somewhere → FRA leg, and an airplane FRA → somewhere-else.

raynigon 4y ago
It gets even better. One of the big Software Systems at Fraport has a „Flight“ class, which exposes the method „isTrain“… On another german airport the same class was extended by a „isTruck“ method for parcel trucks…