Travel Europe by Train

I LOVE trains!! When I was very young in London, we all wanted to be train drivers of locomotives like this . . .

We stood by the lines and watched trains go by. We even donned anoraks and stood on railway station platforms.

(This video shows one of my favourites – the Kyle of Lochalsh line which starts at 47.47.)

The most popular short film on television was a very fast journey by (boring electric) train from London to Brighton. The BBC even used it for “intervals” between programmes instead of a kitten playing with a ball of wool.

Trains give you freedom of movement to a degree that no other form of transport allows. You can enjoy the countryside as it flashes by and normally arrive in the centre of the city or town to which you are travelling.

There’s a fascination about train travel. When we travelled from Chicago to Los Angeles some time ago, each day we were served the best Prime Rib I have ever tasted!

Travelling with us for part of the route was a couple who told us that they lived “over there!” pointing out of the window in a northerly direction. They explained, “We have a farm which borders the railway. We promised ourselves that one day WE would travel on one of those trains! So here we are!!!”

On the way to Denver, there was a terrible BUMP and it felt as though the train was about to leave the rails. The train stopped and we all got out, looking for what could possibly have caused the bump. We found nothing.

The main city railways stations in the USA have always looked magnificent to me – temples of travel – so it is sad to see the decline of some of the long distance routes they serve. The good news is that Warren Buffet has been buying into US railways in recent years. Perhaps he sees a future for these enormous lengths of real estate?

Australia has few large cities but they are far apart. There are railways between cities but they can never rival flying as a means of travel. Now and then, plans emerge to build high speed rail links, but it may be some time before they eventuate due to the enormous costs involved.

It is in Europe that trains really rival air transport, thanks to TSA waiting times, the weather and volcanoes in Iceland. It eliminates the travel between city centres and airports, although Frankfurt has a main line station actually in the airport. Europe offers all sorts of “specials” and advance purchase deals, too numerous to describe, allowing unlimited travel in a variety of countries.

I began my European travels using “autostop” but, as soon as I started earning money in my vacations, I would leave a few weeks in September free to travel by train in Europe using a student rail pass through France to Italy where the sea was warm, unlike England. I stayed in youth hostels like the castle in Scilla, Calabria and the huge palace in Florence. It was wonderful to meet the people on the journeys by train and confront Italian history through the wonderful sites all over the country.

Later on, we used the Eurail pass to travel, a first class advance purchase deal. The seats could extend from one side of the carriage to the other, allowing us to sleep only three to a compartment at night. I remember one journey from Holland where a great flute player played us into sleep when he discovered that I knew the people with whom he had been performing in the Hague Festival. We slept well!! On that particular trip, we travelled down to Verona for the opera but later we travelled north to Norway and south as far as Sicily.

It is in Switzerland that railways REALLY come into their own. We spent much of our time in Switzerland simply enjoying the scenery from the many amazing rail lines throughout the country. My favourite train journey is from Tirano in Italy to St Moritz in Switzerland and I have used this route many times. It takes much longer than any other route but I LOVE that journey and, of course, the route onwards from St Moritz initially to Chur. and then there are the mountain railways with spectacular views

Travel around Europe can be very cheap. To make travel even cheaper, I have the Itralian Carta d’Argento, the Deutsche Bahn BahnCard and the ÖBB Vorteilscard. These give discounts of up to 50% in their home country and a “rail plus” discount in all other EU countries.

I like to take the ICE trains in Germany, the Railjet trains in Austria and the equivalent high speed trains in other parts of Europe. German Railways has a wonderful website with which to plan journeys. Other countries have equivalent sites but I have often found it easier to plan journeys in these other countries using the DB site deutschebahn.com.

Some aspects of travel cannot be totally planned. I remember waiting on the Munich train station with some other people for the train to Venice. The train carriages were pushed into the station and the condition of the carriages was terrible. The last carriage actually had the doors tied on with string!!! Believe it or not, we actually got in the train and had a good laugh together on the way over the alps!!! Train travel can be fun if not always perfect!!!

British rail travellers to Europe are lucky as there is an excellent website called “The man in seat 61”. For example, here’s his video on the ‘special’ from 45 GBP starting in London or anywhere in East Anglia to anywhere in Holland.

And here is his video showing you how to take my favourite train route between Italy and Switzerland.

There are plenty of videos on the internet produced by people who love trains or love travelling by train. But Michael Portillo, besides his very serious ‘Moral Maze’ programmes, has made it his business to make a large number of television programmes on train travel often quoting from the Bradshaw guides of 1913 and earlier. Many of us may not have been impressed by his activities whilst in the British Government but he is certainly in the right groove when exploring the railways of Britain and Europe. I’m putting a selection of his videos on this page in the sidebar but here’s an example first of his programmes on Britain.

And here is one of his programmes on Europe.

If I ever visit India, it will be by train that I will travel. But meanwhile I can do this part of my ‘bucket list’ completely by means of internet videos!! Thank you to all those people who have taken the trouble to film all those wonderful journeys!!