While I haven’t spent a ton of time in cities with subways or other public transportation – and the public transportation here in Charlotte is limited – it seems that the term express is typically used to indicate a route that doesn’t stop as often.
On the New York subway for instance, the express route will go directly from uptown to downtown – perhaps with only a stop or two around Time Square. Meanwhile, the local route stops at every platform along the way.
What I don’t get is that this just doesn’t seem to work for the airline industry. While sitting on the tarmac in Newark yesterday, it occurred to me that the airlines toss the express name about for their local shuttle services – USAirways Express, Continental Express – yet they do so on the little planes, those that stop at each of the small airports that don’t seem to rate full-fledged service.
This doesn’t seem to make sense. Of course, calling the primary airline by the express term probably doesn’t make much sense either. But can’t they come up with something different, to fit more with the general naming convention?