I wanted to link this article, but I don’t think it belongs strictly in the Public Transport thread, or indeed the lone traveller thread. Anyway, I love travelling on trains, even alone, and reckon I might try a couple of these. The article is from the Right Hook Travel Club weekly email
Travel
with Fionn Davenport
THE MOST ICONIC TRAIN JOURNEYS
I’ve been reading Paul Theroux’s Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, and it reminds me that short of embarking on a luxury cruise ship, the most romantic and elegant way to travel is by train. And landlubbers will argue that train travel beats the pants off liner travel anyway.
And in these eco-conscious times, train travel takes on a whole new dimension, adding yet another reason why we’re better off boarding at a train station than at an airport.
Travel agents fall over themselves, eager to sell you tickets for the world’s most luxurious and expensive tourist-oriented train rides.
Did you know that the same journeys can often be made on regular trains, for a fraction of the price? One of the world’s best train travel websites is www.seat61.com, which was begun by a train enthusiast and includes every conceivable rail option - at all prices.
But whether you splash out on luxury or ride with the locals, a train journey reveals far more of a country than any internal flight.
- Cape Town to Pretoria on South Africa’s Blue Train
Fifty years ago, when your Union Castle liner docked at Cape Town, you might have taken the Blue Train to Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic powerhouse figuratively and literally built on gold. Today’s Blue Train is aimed fairly and squarely at tourists, but it still links Cape Town with Johannesburg, or rather Pretoria, the safer administrative capital, once or twice a week. A gentleman’s club on rails, its double-glazed windows are tinted with real gold, and meals - and even Montecristo cigars - are included in the fare on the 27-hour journey. Utter luxury comes with scenery to match: views of Table Mountain as the train heads out of Cape Town through the wine regions at Stellenbosch and Paarl, then into the veldt and up the scenic Hex River Pass.
Fares start from 7,900 Rand (708) one-way, bluetrain.co.za.
The affordable alternatives: You can enjoy exactly the same scenery for just 30 including a sleeper, aboard the regular four-times-weekly Shosholoza Meyl train from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Shosholoza Meyl passenger trains link major South African cities and have to be one of South Africa’s best-kept travel secrets. Comfortable, cheap and safe, they have basic sleepers (shared two- and four-bed compartments, with a hot shower at the end of the corridor) and a restaurant car selling meals, snacks, beer and South African wine. The train isn’t air-conditioned, so the windows open for great views of Africa. Bring your own cigar!
And if luxury is important, you cvan get a touch of it that’s still five times cheaper than the Blue Train, a twice-weekly Premier Classe train also links Cape Town with Jo’burg, with private sleepers, lounge car and restaurant, for 120 per person including meals. premierclasse.co.za
- Singapore to Bangkok on the Eastern & Oriental Express
Once a week, the ultra-luxurious Eastern & Oriental Express leaves Singapore’s 1932-built art deco railway station, bound for Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Bangkok. On board you’ll find private en suite sleepers, lounges, a haute cuisine restaurant car and an open air viewing car. The ‘E&O’ rumbles across the famous causeway from Singapore into Malaysia, through the palm plantations of the Malay peninsula, making a brief diversion to Kanchanaburi and the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai on its way to the Thai capital.
Prices for the two-day trip start at 1,100 including meals, orient-express.com/web/eoe/journeys/3_65110.jsp
The affordable alternative: Singapore to Bangkok is a wonderful 1,249 mile overland journey, it takes about 48 hours including an afternoon free in KL and a morning spent in Penang, departures are daily, and it costs a bargain 40 one-way including comfortable sleeping-berths with fresh clean sheets. You change trains at Kuala Lumpur and Butterworth (Penang), and of course you can stop off to see Kuala Lumpur or Penang as long as you like, or catch the ferry to Ko Samui or the bus to Phuket or Krabi.
A sleeping-berth on the International Express from Penang to Bangkok costs just 25, with fresh clean sheets and curtains for privacy, like those used by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot. Bring your own Marilyn!
- Rajasthan aboard the Palace on Wheels
If you’ve 1800 to spare, you can live like a Maharajah aboard the Palace on Wheels on a seven-day tour of Rajasthan. The itinerary includes Agra and the Taj Mahal, princely Jaipur, the lake city of Udaipur and the breathtaking fairytale citadel of Jaisalmer. With air conditioning, private en suite sleepers, restaurant, lounges and bar, it’s the luxury way to see the Princely States.
www.palaceonwheels.net
The affordable alternative: An IndRail pass costs $135 for seven days, $185 for 15 days, giving unlimited air-conditioned travel across the whole Indian Railways network. If you’re sure of your itinerary, the excellent family-run SD Enterprises in Wembley (windiarail.co.uk, +44 (0)20 8903 3411) can pre-book some or all your trains for you free of charge. Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Simla makes a great two-week itinerary, contrasting desert cities with cool hill stations, a holy city on the Ganges with princely Rajasthan. Overnight sleepers between many cities save both time and hotel bills, even compared to flying. Forget images of overcrowded trains with passengers hanging out the doors - in air-conditioned class you’ll have your own reserved berth, fresh, clean bedding provided, and plenty of room. With every journey you’ll experience the real India, with cries of “chai, chai, garam chai” (wonderful hot sweet tea) from attendants walking the train, and hot cheap curries (veg or non-veg) served at your seat.
Note: You need to make a seat or berth reservation for all long-distance journeys on Indian trains, you cannot simply turn up and hop on. Bookings open 90 days before departure - this was originally 60 days, but it was experimentally extended to 90 days and now made permanent in 2008. Some short-distance inter-city trains may open for bookings less than this. Reservations are now completely computerised. You can book Indian train tickets online, at www.irctc.co.in.
- New Zealand: Auckland to Wellington on the Overlander
According to filmmaker Peter Jackson, it was on this train journey aged 18 and reading Lord of the Rings for the first time that he realised how closely the New Zealand landscape resembled Middle Earth. While package tours gravitate to the South Island’s scenic Tranz-Alpine train, New Zealand’s truly epic rail experience is to be found on the North Island aboard the Auckland to Wellington Overlander.
This amazing 423-mile day-long trip costs as little as NZ$119 (54) if booked online in advance. An eye-opening feast of geography lies between NZ’s economic and administrative capitals, from farmlands to volcanoes, river gorges to rainforests and rugged coastline. You’ll travel the length of the historic North Island Main Trunk Railway, completed in 1908 with such feats of engineering as the Makatote Viaduct and Raurimu Spiral. Settle back in your seat with a “Devonshire cream tea” from the buffet, or wander on to the open-air viewing platform for reflection-free photography. So if you’re visiting New Zealand and flying into Auckland, swap your domestic flight to Wellington for an overland adventure.
The Overlander runs daily in summer, Friday, Saturday & Sunday at other times, see tranzscenic.co.nz
- Canada: Coast to coast on the Canadian
Three times a week year-round, the legendary “Canadian” links Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver, via the lakelands of Ontario and the snow-capped mountains of Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. Not only is the scenery spectacular, the train itself is a piece of history: In the early 1990s, without the funds to buy new cars, state-owned operator VIA Rail refurbished the original streamlined stainless steel coaches built in 1955 for the Canadian Pacific Railroad’s “Canadian”.
In Silver & Blue class passengers travel in private sleepers, take breakfast, lunch and dinner in the elegant Silver & Blue restaurant, and relax in lounges sporting traditional roof-top “vista domes” for a 360-degree view of Canada. The three-night journey from Toronto to Vancouver in Silver & Blue class costs from C$859 (529), including sleeper and meals. But there’s also an economy option - Comfort class reclining seats with their own coffee shop, lounge and vista-dome for sightseeing, from C$433 (266), meals extra. Visitors to Canada will also appreciate VIA Rail’s other routes, the fast inter-city trains linking Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec, and the overnight Montreal-Halifax “Ocean”.
- USA: Coast to coast with Amtrak
Amtrak is the United States’ national train network, a godsend for visitors as it links the most popular cities without the need either to hire a car or miss all the scenery and fly. It may be a skeleton network by European standards, but Amtrak can take you the length and breadth of the country, with five different coast-to-coast routes. The California Zephyr (CZ) from Chicago to San Francisco is perhaps the most scenic route of all, through the “bread basket” flatlands of Nebraska, the dramatic Rocky Mountains west of Denver and the wild but beautiful Sierra Nevada between Reno and Sacramento. Indeed, the CZ is a contender for the most scenic train ride anywhere.
Its double-deck trans-continental Superliner coaches will impress even the weariest Irish commuter: the reclining seats compare with airline business class, and the best private sleepers feature en suite shower and toilet. All passengers can use the dining-car and “sightseer lounge” with caf downstairs and an observation lounge on the top deck complete with panoramic wrap-around windows. Yet these are regular trains with regular prices, and booked online at amtrak.com, the epic three-day, 3,000- mile trip from New York via Chicago to San Francisco costs as little as $193 (138) in a reclining seat. The same trip with sole occupancy of a two-bed sleeper costs from $800 (574) for a passenger travelling alone or from $420 (301) per person for two people travelling together, including meals.
- The Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian has been a name to conjure with ever since rails linked Moscow with Vladivostok in 1901. Since the fall of communism, several companies have started deluxe charter trains, and 7,500 buys you a luxury two-week ride from Moscow to Vladivostok.
But most travellers take the regular trains, including the Moscow-Vladivostok “Rossiya” (departing Moscow every second day, 6,152 miles in seven days), and two weekly trains from Moscow direct to the Chinese capital Beijing, one via Mongolia and the Gobi desert (from Moscow every Tuesday, 4,735 miles, six days) and another via Manchuria (from Moscow every Friday, 5,623 miles, six days). This train has 2nd class 4-berth compartments called kup and 1st class 2-berth compartments called spalny wagon or ‘SV’, plus a restaurant car.
You can arrange a Moscow-Beijing ticket through local Russian agencies such as Real Russia (realrussia.co.uk) or Svezhy Veter (sv-agency.udm.ru); fares start at around $650 (466) one-way in 2nd class 4-berth or $910 (653) in 1st class 2-berth. See http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm.
- London to Venice on the Venice Simplon Orient Express
How can any 24-hour train ride could be worth 1,400? Beautifully-restored carriages, superb cuisine, surprisingly unpretentious service and great scenery will convince many that it is.
This is two train rides in one, a daytime journey from London to Folkestone in restored British Pullman cars with champagne and afternoon tea, then a sleeper trip from Calais to Venice in 1929 vintage Wagons-Lits, with dinner, breakfast and lunch taken in a choice of three elegant restaurant cars.
1794 one way London-Venice, orient-expresstrains.com
The affordable alternative: It may not be the Orient Express, but train travel to Italy is a doddle on regular trains. Hop on an afternoon Eurostar to Paris and a sleeper train will whisk you overnight to Florence, Rome, Verona or Venice, with a restaurant car for dinner and private sleepers with comfy beds. And do it all for around 200 - 400-500 if you want to travel first class.
seat61.com/Italy.htm or call Rail Europe on 0844 8485848.
- West Highlands of Scotland aboard the Royal Scotsman
The Royal Scotsman is a luxury train that’s closer to home, but with all the trimmings of its overseas counterparts. En suite staterooms, elegant dining, and what is arguably some of Britain’s best scenery passing the window in the wild and remote west highlands of Scotland.
A three-night tour along the West Highland Line from Edinburgh to Mallaig starts at 3,300 per person for two people sharing. Transport to Edinburgh is not included. royalscotsman.com/web/rs/journeys/3_55386.jsp
The affordable alternative: A berth on the excellent Caledonian Sleeper from London to Fort William costs 132 one-way. A miniature hotel with compact one and two-bed compartments, plus a lounge car complete with tables, chairs and even leather sofas (the only ones on any regular scheduled British train!), it’ll take you from the drizzly capital to the foot of Ben Nevis before domestic air travellers have recovered from their 4am drive to the airport. A wee dram of Glenfiddich in the lounge and you’ll be asleep before Crewe, waking up in the highlands wilderness where a glimpse of bounding fluffy white tail might explain the train’s unofficial name: “The Deerstalker”…
See firstscotrail.com or call 08457 550033