A dividing train is a passenger train that separates into two trains partway along its route, so as to serve two destinations. Inversely, two trains from different origins may be coupled together mid-route to reach a common endpoint. Trains on complex routes may divide or couple multiple times. The general term for coupling two or more trains along their shared route sections is portion working.
Thalys PBA train from Amsterdam Centraal couples with another unit at Brussels-South before continuing to Paris-Nord
The westbound Lake Shore Limited coupling process at Albany–Rensselaer.
The River Cities consisted of a single coach conveyed between the Mules at St. Louis and the City of New Orleans at Carbondale.
The Houston and Laredo sections of the Inter-American assembling at Temple.
The Empire Builder is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northern Railway and was retained by Amtrak when it took over intercity rail service in 1971.
Empire Builder on the Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis, c. 1929.
The train at Winona Junction, Wisconsin, in 1958
The Portland section of the Empire Builder at Union Station in Portland, Oregon.
A GE Genesis in 40th-anniversary Phase I paint leads a stub Empire Builder out of St. Paul, Minnesota after floods suspended service west. (2011)
