European Railroad Discussion > French Passenger Train classifications

I used to love the way the French described their trains at the major stations.
They had  this ascending order for the importance of trains: Semi-direct, Direct, Express and finally Rapid. There were also a number of named
trains which fell  under the "Rapid" catagory.
The locals also had strange sounding names, although I'm a bit fuzzy on recall. There was "Auto" which I think meant a bus. Then Autorail, motor
and automotor all were various types of self propelled railcars of one or two units. Oh yes and Metrolor which I think a few might still be running.
All are gone now. 
Italy had similar classifications.




 

Omnibus was also a designation back in the 70's.  They made every single station.