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 …
Read More »Rail route of the month: Slovenia’s ‘garden of Eden’ from Sežana to Jesenice
James Bond slept until Sežana. In From Russia with Love, Ian Fleming writes that in Sežana “the hard-faced Yugoslav plain-clothes men came on board”. The Simplon-Orient-Express used by James Bond hasn’t run since 1962, and the border antics on the frontier between erstwhile Yugoslavia and Italy disappeared with the accession …
Read More »FG disappointed by slow progress on Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail project
The minister, however, assured the public of quick completion of the project. The Minister of Transportation, Sen. Sa’idu Alkali, on Friday, said he was disappointed by the slow progress of work …
Read More »A family rail adventure in Sicily
It took the second thud to rouse me. Worried I’d slept through it, I slid up the blind to find our train pulling into the port city of Villa San Giovanni in Calabria, Italy. Not quite 6am, the last of the night’s sky was taking leave: navy clouds pulled apart …
Read More »Sanwo-Olu boasts that Tinubu will inaugurate Lagos Light Rail Red Line soon
Sanwo-Olu made the disclosure during his ride as the first passenger on the Blue Line of the Light Rail in Marina, on Monday. “The red line is about 95%, 96% completion, and if it doesn’t get to 100%, we will not commission it. “We are certain that …
Read More »Train versus plane: with many domestic flights banned in France, we test its rail network
France could well be the perfect place to track the progress of the main battle over the future of travel: trains versus planes. In May 2021, France positioned itself as the frontrunner in a carbon-cutting train renaissance when its government enacted a ban on domestic flights where the journey could …
Read More »In Sudan, I rode the roof of the train for three days: why rail is the best way to travel
Until the late 1960s a railway station had the kind of allure now only found on film sets: clouds of mysterious steam curling around dark scurrying figures in hats, blackened faces, uniforms, loud blasts on whistles, doors slamming, and then a dramatic pause followed by the deep, urgent grunt of …
Read More »Four long-distance, good-value rail trips from the UK to Europe
Twenty years ago, as my partner and I prepared to launch Hidden Europe magazine, we both thought we knew Europe pretty well. It was only after we swapped planes for trains that we discovered how much we still had to learn. Two decades on, I am still routinely making long …
Read More »‘I took my Brompton on the train to Armenia’: readers’ favourite European rail journeys
Oslo to Bergen, Norway Take a trip from Oslo to Bergen on Vy, the Norwegian state railway (I was delighted to get a senior’s ticket – a usual Norwegian courtesy), a journey of scenic delight at any time of the year, and stop over at Myrdal. There, buy a return …
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