Stage station

A stage station, also known as a relay station, posting station or a staging post, is a facility along a main road or trade route where a traveller can rest or replace exhausted horses for fresh ones, since long journeys are much faster when using well fed and rested mounts. A stage is the space between the stops known as stations, posts, or relays.

Organised long-distance land travel became known as staging or posting. Stagecoaches, post chaises, private vehicles, individual riders and the like followed the already long-established system for messengers, couriers and letter-carriers.

Through metonymy the name stage also came to be used for a stagecoach alone.