People don’t take trains, trains take people, as the author John Steinbeck almost said (he’d been referring to ‘trips’).
When you board a train, you can’t, of course, go anywhere other than down the tracks ahead: an appealing simplicity in a complicated world.
And I’ve boarded quite a few, too many to count in fact: across Siberia, around China, from coast to coast in the US, all over Europe, into the Himalayas and the Andes, through Turkey into Iran, around India and all over the dusty Outback in Australia, visiting dozens of countries along the way.
Here are my absolute favourite rides out of the hundreds I’ve been on – and one or two that should be avoided…
THE BERNINA EXPRESS, SWITZERLAND
Crossing from Chur in Switzerland into Tirano in northern Italy on a 90-mile winding journey over 155 bridges and passing through 55 tunnels, the Bernina Express is my favourite train journey anywhere. The sheer ingenuity required for the line, opened in 1904, combined with the dramatic mountain scenery (you cross a pass at 2,253m, the highest in Europe), is mindboggling and almost overwhelming: is this journey actually possible? Yes, it is. Just sit back and watch towering cliffs and snowy peaks pass by (tickets.rhb.ch).
THE TOY TRAIN, INDIA
India is home to 42,000-plus miles of train routes – four times as many as in Britain, which introduced railways to the vast country, with the first passenger steam service between Mumbai and Thane in 1853. My favourite ride of them all is on the ‘toy train’ between Kalka and Shimla, in the Himalayan foothills. It’s along twisty narrow-gauge (2ft 6in wide) tracks covering 60 miles through 107 tunnels leading to the former hill station of British colonial rule at Shimla, where monkeys prance about on the station roof (shimlatourism.co.in).
INDIAN PACIFIC, AUSTRALIA
You travel 297 miles across the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia down the world’s longest stretch of straight track – part of a ride covering 2,704 miles – on the Indian Pacific service between Perth by the Indian Ocean to Sydney by the Pacific Ocean. It’s an epic, 70-hour journey along tracks that met up in 1970. These days, you travel in plush tourist carriages with all food/drink included. Watch miles of Outback click by, get to understand the sheer size of Australia – and perhaps spot a kangaroo or two (journeybeyondrail.com.au).
ROCKY MOUNTAINEER, USA
Afternoon in the Devil’s Garden on the north end of Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. This is Double O Arch with a big window of rock
Many wonderful train rides are to be had in the States, which was first linked from coast to coast by ‘iron horses’ as early as 1869, a mere 39 years after George Stephenson’s pioneering Liverpool and Manchester Railway began. The most dramatic in terms of scenery is on the Rocky Mountaineer between Denver in Colorado and Moab in Utah. This awe-inspiring journey covers 370 miles via vast red-rock canyons, following the Colorado River, with bald eagles soaring above and deer darting by the tracks (rockymountaineer.com).
ALMERIA TO GRANADA, SPAIN
For my book, Slow Trains Around Spain I travelled 3,000 miles. The journey encompassed many splendid lines, especially between the remote hills and viaducts from Cuenca to Valencia, and vast, empty plains between Merida to Almaden. But the stand-out ride was 100 miles in Andalucia from Almeria by the Med to the old Moorish stronghold of Granada. Going north, rising 700 metres, you cross the eerie Desierto de Tabernas (Europe’s only proper desert, with cacti by the tracks), passing the magnificent peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains and arriving in Granada to visit its fascinating Alhambra palace (renfe.com).
HIRAM BINGHAM, PERU
South America has some amazing rides via Ecuadorian volcanoes and across remote Argentinian desert plains, but for sheer drama and anticipation the Hiram Bingham is my choice. Covering 57 miles (taking 3.5 hours) it rattles from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, closest town to the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu. The train, named after the American who rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911, follows a jade river passing tiny settlements where locals sell snacks at stations, slowly rising towards its spectacular destination (belmond.com).
QUEEN OF JAFFNA, SRI LANKA
From 1990 to 2014, trains between Colombo, Sri Lanka’s southwestern capital, and Jaffna in the north did not run due to a bloody civil war. Its 2014 reopening (after the war’s 2009 end) with President Mahinda Rajapaksa in attendance, was a symbolic moment of national unity between northern Tamils and southern Sinhalese. So a ride on the Queen of Jaffna is more than about getting from A to B. And it’s a lovely journey, winding 250 miles to the charming Jaffna with its temples and forts via jungle and banana plantations (railway.gov.lk).
SOFIA-ISTANBUL EXPRESS
The sleeper from Bulgaria’s capital to Istanbul – run by Turkish State Railways – takes 12 hours. You catch it from Sofia Central station, with its Soviet-brutalist exterior, departing at 6.45pm, arriving 6.34am. This one is not about the views: you spin past Sofia’s tower block suburbs at dusk, pulling into similar scenery in Istanbul at dawn, via a late-night border check. But you are travelling from West to East and there’s a magic to clattering down the line through the darkness just like characters in an Agatha Christie book (bdz.bg).
INNSBRUCK TO VENICE
From the Austrian Alps via the Brenner Pass into Italy – and perhaps the world’s most beautiful city – takes some beating. At the start, you proceed past suburbs and an old Winter Olympics ski jump, passing granite cliffs, entering tunnels cut for the original 1867 railway and coming to the Brenner Pass at 1,370 metres. Then, you plunge into Italy following a river, turning east at Verona station and crossing plains before joining a long lagoon bridge and pulling into Santa Lucia station by the glorious Grand Canal (raileurope.com).
THE EMPIRE BUILDER, USA
The Empire Builder train rolls into Whitefish in Montana
Between Chicago in Illinois and either Seattle in Washington or Portland, Oregon, the Empire Builder service was created by James J. Hill (1838-1916), one of American railways’ pioneers along with Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877). Travelling by the Mississippi River to St Paul and then onwards across mighty plains, passing through the Rockies, you get a sense of the immensity of America on this 45-hour ride – and of the huge task required to conquer the ‘West’ – while listening to the clang of Amtrak train bells (amtrak.com).
TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS
Not one for now due to geo-politics, but for distance and adventure the Trans-Siberian Express is like no other. There are three routes, each taking about seven days: the longest, 5,772 miles, is from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan; or Moscow to Beijing in China is 5,623 miles; or Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia is 4,735 miles. Each offers a sense of the sheer size of the planet, via many a landscape filled with pine trees, passing the Urals and remote cities such as Kovrov and Ulan-Ude. One day, maybe, again (seat61.com).
TO MONSERRAT IN CATALONIA
The epic train leaves from Montserrat, Spain
Another Spanish one that may not be quite as epic as Almeria to Granada – it’s only three miles long. But the Cremallera i Funiculars de Montserrat cog railway takes you to a special place: the mountaintop Benedictine monastery of Montserrat, home to the ‘Black Virgin’ icon found in a cave in 880AD. The train squeaks up across shrubland towards unusual totem pole-style rock formations and the gorgeous basilica. Stay at the monastery hotel for the full spiritual experience and ride down in the morning (cremallerademontserrat.com).
KURANDA SCENIC RAILWAY, QUEENSLAND
This train departs from Cairns’ main station on a 23-mile journey soon rising into rugged mountains after leaving the bustling seaside city behind; the railway was built in 1886 to carry supplies to tin miners. It is perhaps Australia’s best short ride. Colourful locomotives – decorated with indigenous Australian images – snake along narrow-gauge tracks through thick rainforest teeming with tree kangaroos and flying foxes, via a fine waterfall. You arrive at the hanging plants (and occasional platform python) of Kuranda station (sjyrail.com.au).
RAVENGLASS AND ESKDALE RAILWAY, THE LAKE DISTRICT
Covering seven miles, this narrow-gauge heritage railway is pulled by little steam trains and covers delightful terrain with steeply rising fells and trickling streams. It was completed in 1875 to transport iron ore from Dalegarth to the coast. After closing when the mines ran out, rail enthusiasts stepped in during the 1960s and opened a tourist line. Thank goodness they did. On a clear day there are great views of Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain, from Dalegarth station (ravenglass-railway.co.uk).
THE KYLE LINE, SCOTLAND
Running between Inverness and the Kyle of Lochalsh on the west coast of Scotland, this 70-mile ride is one of Britain’s most scenic, passing glistening lochs and bracken-clad, boulder-strewn mountains, traversing meandering rivers and remote pasturelands. There’s a feeling of having slipped off the map as you cross 29 little bridges on the ScotRail service (about 2h 40m). The line opened in 1897 at great cost – an estimated £20,000 a mile – but it was key to transporting cattle to southern markets (scotrail.co.uk).
ONE TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS…
BEIJING IN CHINA TO PYONGYANG IN NORTH KOREA
Pyongyang Metro station
This is not because of the train itself: the sleeper compartments are standard, if basic. And, if you are a true train lover, adventure/interest is to be had on every ride. However, this 600-mile journey takes you into one of the world’s most dismal places. Expect to be interrogated by unsmiling, smoking, North Korean border officials, and made to feel uneasy. You then cross treeless, barren, over-farmed-looking landscape, arriving at a capital city full of monuments to ‘supreme leaders’, while more than half the population lives in abject poverty.
… AND THESE TWO WEREN’T SO GREAT EITHER
VAN IN TURKEY TO KHOY IN IRAN
Nothing to do with the actual ride, once again – which was an intriguing one, entering Iran across its northwest border on a specially chartered train heading for Tehran. It was all to do with Van station, where the train’s carriages were stoned as passengers enjoyed a slap-up meal, and a last drink or two, before entering booze-free Iran. The sight of westerners letting their hair down seemed to have upset some Turkish locals. Windows were smashed and we soon moved on, blinds pulled down: a nerve-racking experience.
X’IAN TO WUHAN IN CHINA
The train departs from X’ian, home to the 2,300-year-old Terracotta Army figurines
High speed trains have revolutionised movement in China – and they’re eye-opening too. This one, after enjoying X’ian’s wonderful 2,300-year-old Terracotta Army figurines, takes you from one specially-built high-speed station to another, with identikit tower blocks having shot up recently around them and plenty of cranes, as though Orwellian, nightmare high-speed train cities are arising. Smog enveloped the landscape during the journey, thickening on entry in Wuhan: scene of a real nightmare to come, being where Covid began.
• Tom Chesshyre is author of Tales From the Fast Trains: Europe at 186mph; Ticket to Ride: Around the World on 49 Unusual Train Journeys; Slow Trains to Venice: A 4,000-Mile Adventure Across Europe; Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000-Mile Adventure on 52 Rides; and Slow Trains to Istanbul… And Back: A 4,570-Mile Adventure on 55 Rides. His latest book, Slow Trains Around Britain: Notes From a 4,088-Mile Adventure on 143 Rides, will be published in May.
