Opinion – The romance of long distance train journeys

I think you either love or hate train travel.  The downside it is that it takes time – and if time is something you don’t have much of it is hard to beat air travel in most circumstances.  The glaring exception is Europe where the travel distances are small and traffic congestion and other factors make getting to the airport a major hassle.    The upside of trains – and to me it is a big upside – is that it is by far the most relaxed way to travel, and for overnight journeys there is something special about going to sleep on a bed on a moving train – being gently rocked to sleep.  You also eat and drink at leisure while on the move and see sights that you would never otherwise see (unless the main road and train line are in close proximity).
My wife and I first caught the train bug travelling around Europe and I still remember our first memorable train experience – it was the train between Salzburg in Austria and Venice in Italy.  The weather was fine and the mountain views fabulous and we arrived fresh and raring to go.  We have done a lot of shorter rail journeys in Europe but the only overnighter was the train from Milan in Italy to Perpignan in France.

Because of our love of trains we decided to rely entirely on trains when we visited Italy in about 2010.  By and large it worked out extremely well except that we learnt that “reliability” is a foreign concept when it comes to trains in Italy.  On at least one occasion the train we were booked on simply never arrived but did not appear to have been cancelled, and on another occasion when we were due to make a connection in Milan, the train simply stopped for about 15 minutes in the middle of the countryside with no explanation of why.  That certainly taught us to allow lots of time (30 mins minimum) when relying on a connection.  But the Italians were very good about it –no-one seemed to get particularly uptight and that particular connection was held for us because some other tourists were in the same position.

In New Zealand our major train trips have been the Overlander to Auckland and the two trains from Picton to Christchurch and then Christchurch to Greymouth – the tranz-alpine experience.  Unfortunately the recent earthquakes have put paid to the Picton to Christchurch service and it would be a brave person who would predict when and if it might run again – particularly along the coast.

We only did the Overlander because we had been told the service was being terminated, but I think so many people decided to do it while they could, they obviously decided to keep it running. Anyway it was a great experience with spectacular scenery and typical NZ touches like sausages off the gas BBQ for lunch at Taumaranui!  The Picton to Christchurch run was also a great trip with some outstanding sea vistas, but the alpine leg was a bit of a disappointment because the weather closed in.  To best appreciate alpine journeys you do need clear weather.

In the USA the only train we have ridden is the famous Californian Zephyr which runs all the way from San Francisco to Chicago, through the Sierras and the Rockies. We only went as far as Denver as the terrain gets pretty flat after that.  Great trip but spoiled a bit by the fact that the train was held up at one point so that some of the best viewing was covered up by night time and also the main traverse through the Rockies is by tunnel.  However, we enjoyed our day in a very cold Denver at the end of the trip.

In Australia our outstanding experience was the famous Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin.  This is really a must do train trip for train buffs and we thoroughly enjoyed all 3 days including the excursions at Alice Springs and Katherine.  I was I think the first time that we realised that the red heart of Australia really was red!!

Our most recent excursion  was the Sydney to Adelaide portion of the Indian Pacific train which runs through to Perth  We stopped at Adelaide partly for timing reasons and also because we were not sure we could handle 2 days of nothing but the Nullaboor plains on the way to Perth.  Maybe another time
There are lots of journeys that could still be done. Two that particularly spring to mind are:

–       The Rocky Mountain train from Vancouver which apparently has fabulous mountain views
–       And the famous Orient Express across Europe.   .

And of course if you are a committed train buff and happy to spend several days on a train there is always the famous Trans-Siberian across Russia.

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This is another of Bas Walker’s posts on GrownUps.  Please look out for his articles, containing his Beachside Ponderings.