It was a handpainted sign on a wooden barn that piqued my interest in Gruyères. I was travelling from Emmental to Montreux last year, following the wonderful Golden Pass rail route. Our train paused at Montbovon, the start of a steep climb up to the line’s final dramatic mountain pass. …
Read More »Rail route of the month: Slavic magic on a gentle trip to Zakopane, Poland
Nine trains leave Kraków each weekday to climb up to Poland’s premier mountain retreat, Zakopane. In 1936, the fastest trains to Zakopane took under 2½ hours. Almost a century later, after infrastructure renewal work lasting several years, just one of those nine trainsmatches the 1936 time. Such is the state …
Read More »Lagos state government reacts to trending video of traders selling wares on rail lines
The Lagos state government has cleared traders at a rail line in the state. A video of a trader selling his wares on a rail track and sitting comfortably as the train moved left many on social media in shock on Monday, February 12. Reacting to the video, the state Commissioner for …
Read More »The Great British Rail Sale: how discounted train tickets can help you break out of hibernation
The end of January can be when our new year resolve starts to wane, and rather than overhauling our lives we end up staying indoors bingeing box sets, nibbling crisps and waiting for spring. But how can this year be different? For many, the idea of living better (hashtag new …
Read More »Rail route of the month: a dramatic ‘back door’ into Switzerland through the Italian Alps
Frequent Eurocity trains dash north from Milan via the Simplon Tunnel to Switzerland. On the way to the tunnel, those express trains speed by Lake Maggiore, affording fine views of the Borromean Islands. For Switzerland-bound trains, the last station stop in Italy is at the small Piedmont town of Domodossola. …
Read More »Rail route of the month: rewilding, polders and Hanseatic beauty by train in the Netherlands
There are train journeys where one just gazes at hills rolling by beyond the carriage window. I love such routes, be they in the Alps, Iberia or the Balkans. Things are different in the Netherlands, where pancake-flat landscapes dominate. Yet even in the flatlands there is often visual drama. The …
Read More »Night trains and border crossings: Europe’s best new rail routes
Warsaw has just moved closer to Munich, Berlin nudged towards Paris, and Aachen slipped nearer to Salzburg. These are just three examples of city pairs that are newly linked, as of this week, by direct night trains. None of these city pairs currently has direct daytime trains, so the overnight …
Read More »Rail route of the month: across eastern Germany to the Polish city of Szczecin
The elegant main railway station in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck is well suited to grand departures, but these are few and far between these days. The only international destination served from Lübeck is Szczecin, in Poland. Half a dozen daily trains ply a meandering route through sparsely populated terrain …
Read More »10 of the UK’s most scenic rail journeys
Belfast to Derry This two-hour train trip gets seriously scenic after Coleraine, when it partly follows the coast and Lough Foyle. As it runs along Downhill Beach, the sands and turbulent ocean are just outside the window, with the domed Mussenden temple perched on the cliffs above. On through farmland …
Read More »Rail route of the month: along the Franz Josef railway from Prague to Vienna
The classic rail route from Prague to Vienna through southern Bohemia was relegated to secondary status in the 1970s, but today it still offers one of the most engaging railway journeys in central Europe. Never ones to rush, my partner and I decided earlier this month to travel the length …
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