Tag: Train Travel
World Travel Watch: Demonstrations in Venezuela, Clashes in Namibia and More
by Larry Habegger | 11.19.09 | 2:10 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
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Yahoo! BuzzIs This a New Golden Age for Train Travel?
by Eva Holland | 10.22.09 | 3:43 PM ET
Tony Naylor doesn’t think so. In this piece in the Guardian, he argues that rail travel isn’t the comfortable, scenic, low-carbon alternative to to air travel that it’s cracked up to be. Here’s a taste:
Four years ago, I decided to limit the number of times I would fly each year to one transatlantic flight, or two within Europe… The idea of the train as a far more authentic and civilised—not to mention non-lethal—mode of travel was seductive.
The reality, however, is more complex. You see more of the world, for sure, but that is a mixed blessing.
The Man in Seat 61 responds here.
Video You Must See: ‘Artificial’ in the London Underground
by Kevin Fay | 10.21.09 | 10:04 AM ET
Paul Bryan captures the artificial atmospheric conditions of the London Underground.
High-Speed Rail Watch: From Russia to America?
by Eva Holland | 09.28.09 | 2:43 PM ET
A new breed of locomotive-less high-speed train will launch in Russia in December, running between St. Petersburg and Moscow—and Siemens, the German company behind the new model, is hoping to bring it to America next. The New York Times has the details.
Interview With Richard Hammond and Jeremy Smith: ‘Clean Breaks’
by Joanna Kakissis | 09.23.09 | 12:15 PM ET
Joanna Kakissis talks green travel, greenwashing and experiential journeys with the authors of a new book
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ by Gladys Knight and the Pips
by Eva Holland | 09.18.09 | 12:32 PM ET
Aboard the ‘Ladies Special’ in India
by Eva Holland | 09.18.09 | 9:36 AM ET
The New York Times reports from a new women-only commuter train in Delhi, part of a pilot program spanning four major Indian cities that’s aimed at cutting down on the harassment of female passengers. I’m thrilled to hear about the program, but here’s hoping it will only need to be a short-term solution—as one interviewee noted in the story, “You really need to make every train as safe as the Ladies Specials.”
London to Edinburgh in 2:16
by Eva Holland | 08.26.09 | 4:15 PM ET
That would be the journey time—down from 4.5 hours—if a new high-speed rail plan goes ahead in Britain. The possible line is just one of several high-speed rail proposals we’ve been keeping tabs on.
R.I.P. Orient Express
by Eva Holland | 08.25.09 | 10:09 AM ET
Don’t worry: The modern, private luxury line to Venice is still going strong. But, as we’ve noted before, the last true descendant of the original Orient Express was a line from Strasbourg to Vienna—and that service has just been cut. The Independent’s Simon Calder offers an obituary:
As an announcement of a momentous death foretold, it is remarkably economical. “Train 468/469,” reports the September edition of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable “Strasbourg to Wien [Vienna] will finally be withdrawn.” Between those two phrases is the most momentous pair of words in European rail travel: Orient Express. Seventy-five years after the publication of Agatha Christie’s bestselling crime novel, Murder on the Orient Express, the train that epitomised trans-European travel for more than a century is finally being killed off.
Aboard Cuba’s Hershey Train
by Michael Yessis | 08.21.09 | 11:18 AM ET
It was built by chocolate baron Milton Hershey in 1916, and, according to Michael Scott Moore, the Hershey Train is a reminder of how much the U.S. and Cuba have in common.
There’s a slideshow, too. See below:
View the Hershey Train slideshow »
David Sedaris on Australia: ‘It’s Canada in a Thong’
by Michael Yessis | 08.19.09 | 4:19 PM ET
That line is one of the comedic high points in a rather moving story about Australia, kookaburras and family by David Sedaris in the latest New Yorker.
Dr. Phil Hops Aboard the Acela
by Eva Holland | 08.19.09 | 3:29 PM ET
The talk show host and self-help kingpin will film a special episode on Amtrak’s Acela Express on September 9, Gawker reports. According to the press release, Dr. Phil will be “speaking with Amtrak customers about everyday problems.” Somebody see if he can do something about those rubbery, microwaved turkey sandwiches, OK?
A Short History of Fast Food and Travel
by Eva Holland | 08.18.09 | 12:04 PM ET
In the Smart Set, Tony Perrottet looks back to the post-Civil War era for the origins of American roadside fast food. Here’s a sample:
The long-distance trains from Omaha to San Francisco had dining cars only for the first-class passengers. Everyone else had to wait until the trains stopped at specific stations for scheduled meal breaks, when hundreds of passengers would madly dash into cavernous dining halls on the platforms. Inside, cadres of white-aproned waiters were poised to splash meat and potatoes onto their plates and granular coffee into their cups. The whistle would blow and patrons would have to abandon their half-eaten meals and dash back to the moving train. The whole indigestion-inducing process, travelers complained, might last only ten minutes.
For anyone else who’s made the agonizing bathroom-or-Big Mac decision on a flying Greyhound stopover lately—sound familiar?
Marcel Theroux Rides the Rails
by Eva Holland | 07.31.09 | 12:02 PM ET
Looks like a love of trains runs in the family? The Guardian has a fun video—part one in a series—from second-generation travel writer Marcel Theroux’s recent train ride into northern Russia. (Via @elihansen)
Brunel-Spotting in Southern England
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 12:16 PM ET
If you’ve taken a train in London or southwestern England, chances are you’ve passed through or across one of Isembard Kingdom Brunel’s bridges, tunnels or railway stations. The Victorian engineer arguably did more than anyone to shape public transit in Britain, and his creations are hard to avoid.
I’ve been a Brunel fan ever since I accidentally wound up at his 200th birthday party at the foot of Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge in 2006, so I was pleased to come across this excellent slideshow from the Telegraph, mixing paintings and photographs to depict Brunel’s greatest surviving structures. I’ve made it to four of them—how about you?
High-Speed Rail Watch, Midwest Edition
by Eva Holland | 07.28.09 | 11:42 AM ET
The governors of eight Midwest states are on board with a proposal for a monster high-speed rail project that would eventually link cities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, with Chicago as the hub. The group would be aiming to land stimulus money for the project, but, like the Californian proposal we’ve been following, it’ll be in a tough fight for funding—a whopping 278 high-speed rail plans have been submitted for consideration, according to the AP.
Love and Marriage on the Shatabdi Express
by Eva Holland | 07.27.09 | 11:19 AM ET
iStockPhoto Eva Holland hoped for a romantic boy-meets-girl story from the woman on the Indian train. She didn't get one.
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Passage to Bangkok’ by Rush
by Jim Benning | 07.16.09 | 1:53 PM ET
Japanese Railway to Workers: Do You Pass the Smile Test?
by Jim Benning | 07.08.09 | 11:16 AM ET
I can’t count the number of times European friends and visitors to the U.S. have remarked on American workers’ penchant for wishing them a “nice day” after they make a purchase or eat a meal—wishes almost always delivered with a big smile. To Europeans I’ve met, that American custom was always regarded as either quaint or kooky or both.
I wonder what they would make of this bit of news about a Japanese railway company trying to improve customers’ experiences: Keihin Electric Express Railway Co. has begun using a scanner to assess the smiles of its employees.
From the story:
The device analyzes the facial characteristics of a person, including eye movements, lip curves and wrinkles, and rates a smile on a scale between 0 and 100 percent using a camera and computer.
Employees will be required to scan their smiles before work each day and carry around a photo of their brightest smile so they can try to repeat it. (Via FP Blog)
Javelin High-Speed Train Makes its Debut in London
by Alicia Imbody | 07.01.09 | 3:09 PM ET
Commuters and Olympics fans all over London are enjoying the U.K.’s first high-speed train, the Javelin, which began service Monday morning. It got off to an early start, arriving one minute early on its first run.
The train provides service between London and Kent, stopping at, among other places, the site of new Olympic stadium (still under construction for the 2012 Olympic Games) in Stratford.
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