Interesting bit in a Guardian story about train travel in Iran: “Scheduled for completion later this year is a line that will run from Kerman in the south-east to Quetta across the Pakistani border. When finished, it will present a mouth-watering prospect: uninterrupted rail travel from Europe to the subcontinent.”

Monday’s Shandong province crash was the worst rail accident in China in a decade, the BBC reports. Authorities blame human error.

The plans for a high-speed link between Los Angeles to San Francisco make more sense to me. Alas, they’re stalled. So are the plans for a Disneyland to Las Vegas MagLev train. That has given an opening to the DesertXpress, a privately funded high-speed project that seeks to connect Las Vegas with Victorville, California, perhaps best known as the place where, when you’re driving from Los Angeles to Sin City, you can stop off for a Double-Double at In-N-Out.

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Service between two of Spain’s biggest and most-traveled cities opened yesterday, with the first train completing the 342-mile journey to Madrid in 2 hours, 35 minutes. The BBC and others have the story, and the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal blog breaks the train down by the numbers. 

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Among other steps, the rail service is adding random baggage screening and officers with automatic weapons to some stations and trains, rolling out changes first in the Northeast corridor. Reports the AP: “The initiative is a significant shift for Amtrak. Unlike the airlines, it has had relatively little visible increase in security since the 2001 terrorist attacks, a distinction that has enabled it to attract passengers eager to avoid airport hassles.” Now if Amtrak could just get its trains to run on time, particularly out west.

Related on World Hum:
* Amtrak to Overnight Passengers: Drink Up!

Full title: “Transit Maps of the World: The World’s First Collection of Every Urban Train Map on Earth”

Author: Mark Ovenden, former MTV and BBC broadcaster

Released: Oct. 30, 2007

Travel genre: Subterranean guide

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France’s high-speed rail network, which has been coping with a labor strike, was hit by fires and other acts of sabotage overnight, according to reports. But in unrelated news, there’s at least one glimmer of good news coming from some rail service in the region. Historical enemies France and England are getting soft-eyed over the new high-speed rail link between Paris and London, according to the New York Times. A recent full-page ad in the French newspaper Le Figaro declared “Oubliez Waterloo”—forget Waterloo. And the English were talking not about Napoleon’s last stand but the former Waterloo rail terminus station.

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The thought of finding romance on a train from Washington D.C. to New York City—a trip I’ve made many times—strikes me as unlikely. Let’s face it: There’s nothing particularly romantic about Amtrak. But a chance meeting on a European train? On atmosphere alone, I’d give it much better odds. Two train-related events in Europe this fall are reviving the romantic image of rail travel, albeit with a 21st century spin. Reuters reports that German rail operator Deutsche Bahn has introduced speed-dating on an intercity line from Nuremberg to Munich, providing an upscale alternative to the usual pub meet-and-greet, complete with champagne and roses. 

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In his latest column in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Thomas Swick describes his arrival at the station in Agra, the former capital of the Mughal Empire and home of the Taj Mahal. Foreign train stations, Swick writes, “have always held a certain terror for me.” But Agra’s was even more intimidating than most: “I stepped over sleeping bodies on the sidewalk and rolled my suitcase into a human maze. Crowds engulfed the platform, grudgingly making way for porters, machinery, luggage, new arrivals. There was no visible information, though every once in a while a woman’s voice—soothing in this predominantly male world—descended from the PA system. I couldn’t understand a word.”

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We’ve got the Chunnel between England and France. Plans are being drawn for a tunnel between Spain and Morocco. Why not a tunnel beneath the Bosporus Strait, connecting the Asian and European sides of Istanbul? Well, there are good reasons not too, such as the strait’s proximity to the violent North Anatolian Fault. But Turkey has been cautiously moving forward with the Marmaray Project, which according to a terrific story by Julian Smith in Wired, will relieve some of the stress on the two bridges already spanning the Bosporus and also offer new opportunities for world travelers.

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The last Amtrak train I took in California was delayed so long it fouled up my weekend plans and nearly drove me to drink. Now Amtrak is going out of its way to get some passengers liquored up. It’s offering $100 in alcohol credit to members of its guest rewards program traveling between November and January in sleeper cars on select legs of the California Zephyr, Southwest Chief and Silver Meteor. According to the AP, it’s “part of an effort to revive some of the luxury of old-fashioned, cross-country train trips.” And it’ll help some passengers drown their Amtrak travel sorrows.

Related on World Hum:
* ’Hey America, Make With the !@~$ High-Speed Rail Already‘

Photo by tompagenet via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

I want my country to develop a high-speed rail system. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives transportation committee want it. According to the AP, Amtrak president Alex Kummant testified to the rail subcommittee yesterday that he’s “enthusiastic about a major high-speed corridor.” Chances are you want high-speed rail, too, whether you’re a resident of the U.S. or a traveler who visits the country and ends up spending 12 hours on a train from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Yet, nothing happens. Actually, there’s something happening. In China. 

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