[dcrazy]

I’m speaking specifically about my lived experience using through-running services in Tokyo. Since your questions in this thread reveal that you lack familiarity with this service plan, I encourage you to visit Japan sometime and experience it yourself.

[anileated]

Turns out, I am intimately familiar with this service plan. There are metro trains with more frequent stops and service and there are distance trains with rarer stops (and yes, rarer service, the degree of which varies by country). What is new that I am missing?

Do you defend the subway vs. train terminology? Sometimes distance trains run underground, sometimes metro trains run overground, so it seems pretty pointless to me.