Living life in the slow lane...
Just thought I would post a feature I have written for the latest edition of Nouse which, for those of you who don't know, is the University of York Student Newspaper! The feature is about the greatness of long-distance train travel...! (except for the first one, the photo's were all taken at York train station!)
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Living life in the slow lane
by Adam Sloan
What if I were to tell you that tomorrow you can step onto a train at York station, and without setting one foot off the ground, in two weeks you could be in Singapore, standing at the edge of continental Asia. Getting there would have been no easy feet of course; you will have passed through around ten different countries (this assuming you decided to take the easiest route) and eight time zones. You will have probably suffered delays, setbacks, breakdowns and, of course, the odd stomach upset or two. But you will have taken one of the greatest journeys on earth.
For there is practically no destination in Europe, Africa or Asia that cannot be reached by simply walking off the platform at Waterloo International station onto the carriage of one of the worlds great trains. The possibilities are endless and the destinations fantastic, but above all it is the journey that really puts this mode of travel above all others. Long distance train travel allows you to indulge yourself and relax, basquing in the romance of “this is how it is meant to be”, rather than cocooned 36,000 feet up in an environment that is about as sterile as the journey it presents you.
My first experience of long distance rail travel was the journey through Canada’s rocky mountains, on the “Rocky Mountaineer” from Edmonton, Alberta, to Vancouver. In Canada, these trains that go through the Rockies can be kilometres long, with more than 50 carriages, somewhere in the middle there will be a passenger car. The size and scale of the train reflects the grandeur of the setting it passes through, and you know at the end of the line you have the city of Vancouver to look forward to.
Of course, in this 21st century world of instant messaging, broadband Internet and trans-continental flights, who can blame people for expecting to be transported to their destination of choice anywhere in the world in the space of a day. But what needs to be thought of is what treasures are being missed when you get the brief glimpse of a glowing lake through the gap in the clouds, rather than slowly moving around it, taking it in from a proper perspective. Why get somewhere in the space of a stressful day when you can do it in a relaxed week?
Last year a train took me over a thousand miles across Australia, through some of the most barren and deserted landscape in the world for three days and two nights on the Indian-Pacific railway. The flight would have taken five hours, but why rush? There is a kind of hypnotic effect, looking out the window on that train, which passes over the longest stretch of straight railroad anywhere in the world. To look out the window sometimes it doesn't even look like you are moving, the desertness stretches on for that far, the image broken by the odd kangaroo or gum tree!
The train allows you to experience a time and place in a way that no other mode of travel can. One does not have to worry about falling out of the sky, or plunging over a ravine (depending on how exotic the trains you choose to take are of course), leaving you free to relax and enjoy the world passing you by while making casual conversation with fellow travellers and local commuters. The train is often slow, cyclists can sometimes be seen whizzing by, but so this reflects the pace of life that should be taken when on a relaxing trip away, allowing you to ponder, and finish that book that has been gathering dust for the last few months.
Above all, long-distance train travel encompasses the romance of all those great journeys that have been written and read about, you can still step onto the Orient Express as Herculie Poirot did in the classic Agatha Christie novel Murder on the Orient Express, or at least the same-named successor to the original ‘express d’Orient’ that first opened in 1883, between Paris and Vienna. Time can be turned back by stepping on one of India’s grand former imperial carriageways, generally regarded as the best place in the world for railway enthusiasts, such as myself, to travel.
For many of course, the granddaddy of all railway journeys has to be the Trans-Siberian railway between Moscow and Vladivostok, in far-eastern Russia. The classic Trans-Siberian route takes around seven days, passing through some of the most remote places in the world. If just Siberia were a country in itself, it would still be the biggest country in the world. Of course, you could always take the Trans-Mongolian route, stopping off in Ulan-Baatar (claim to fame: it is the coldest national capital in the world!), or the Trans-Manchurian route, which takes you around Mongolia and down to Beijing.
This summer I will be jumping for a night on the historic ‘Red Arrow’, which travels between St. Petersburg and Moscow. It was this railway that transported the first Soviet government from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The track opened in 1851 and is one of the straightest stretches of railroad in the world. It is said that it was meant to be dead straight, however when Tsar Nicholas I was drawing the route on the map, he ran out of ruler and accidentally drew a small curve around his hand, before moving the ruler down and carrying on the line down to Moscow. The result is an apparently random curve in the otherwise dead straight track between the two cities.
For a solitary traveller, such as myself, a train allows you the choice to either relax in conversation with those around you (provided you speak the same language of course), or slip away into silent anonymity and a good book. With careful eyes it can actually be said that a country’s trains can reflect a national psyche. Look at the Bullet Trains in Japan, or the Swiss railways, they are fast, efficient and practical. In contrast, the slow-moving, open air carriageways going across Zambia reflect a more relaxed and enjoyable, reflecting a more laid back way of life. The train may reach its destination in a day, it may not, but what does a few extra hours really matter?
What does time matter when there is not just a destination to be reached but travel to be experienced and a journey to enjoy.
--------------------------------------
For more information on inter-continental rail travel, visit the man in seat 61 at http://www.seat61.com
--------------------------------
Living life in the slow lane
by Adam Sloan
What if I were to tell you that tomorrow you can step onto a train at York station, and without setting one foot off the ground, in two weeks you could be in Singapore, standing at the edge of continental Asia. Getting there would have been no easy feet of course; you will have passed through around ten different countries (this assuming you decided to take the easiest route) and eight time zones. You will have probably suffered delays, setbacks, breakdowns and, of course, the odd stomach upset or two. But you will have taken one of the greatest journeys on earth.
For there is practically no destination in Europe, Africa or Asia that cannot be reached by simply walking off the platform at Waterloo International station onto the carriage of one of the worlds great trains. The possibilities are endless and the destinations fantastic, but above all it is the journey that really puts this mode of travel above all others. Long distance train travel allows you to indulge yourself and relax, basquing in the romance of “this is how it is meant to be”, rather than cocooned 36,000 feet up in an environment that is about as sterile as the journey it presents you.
My first experience of long distance rail travel was the journey through Canada’s rocky mountains, on the “Rocky Mountaineer” from Edmonton, Alberta, to Vancouver. In Canada, these trains that go through the Rockies can be kilometres long, with more than 50 carriages, somewhere in the middle there will be a passenger car. The size and scale of the train reflects the grandeur of the setting it passes through, and you know at the end of the line you have the city of Vancouver to look forward to.
Of course, in this 21st century world of instant messaging, broadband Internet and trans-continental flights, who can blame people for expecting to be transported to their destination of choice anywhere in the world in the space of a day. But what needs to be thought of is what treasures are being missed when you get the brief glimpse of a glowing lake through the gap in the clouds, rather than slowly moving around it, taking it in from a proper perspective. Why get somewhere in the space of a stressful day when you can do it in a relaxed week?Last year a train took me over a thousand miles across Australia, through some of the most barren and deserted landscape in the world for three days and two nights on the Indian-Pacific railway. The flight would have taken five hours, but why rush? There is a kind of hypnotic effect, looking out the window on that train, which passes over the longest stretch of straight railroad anywhere in the world. To look out the window sometimes it doesn't even look like you are moving, the desertness stretches on for that far, the image broken by the odd kangaroo or gum tree!
The train allows you to experience a time and place in a way that no other mode of travel can. One does not have to worry about falling out of the sky, or plunging over a ravine (depending on how exotic the trains you choose to take are of course), leaving you free to relax and enjoy the world passing you by while making casual conversation with fellow travellers and local commuters. The train is often slow, cyclists can sometimes be seen whizzing by, but so this reflects the pace of life that should be taken when on a relaxing trip away, allowing you to ponder, and finish that book that has been gathering dust for the last few months.
Above all, long-distance train travel encompasses the romance of all those great journeys that have been written and read about, you can still step onto the Orient Express as Herculie Poirot did in the classic Agatha Christie novel Murder on the Orient Express, or at least the same-named successor to the original ‘express d’Orient’ that first opened in 1883, between Paris and Vienna. Time can be turned back by stepping on one of India’s grand former imperial carriageways, generally regarded as the best place in the world for railway enthusiasts, such as myself, to travel.
For many of course, the granddaddy of all railway journeys has to be the Trans-Siberian railway between Moscow and Vladivostok, in far-eastern Russia. The classic Trans-Siberian route takes around seven days, passing through some of the most remote places in the world. If just Siberia were a country in itself, it would still be the biggest country in the world. Of course, you could always take the Trans-Mongolian route, stopping off in Ulan-Baatar (claim to fame: it is the coldest national capital in the world!), or the Trans-Manchurian route, which takes you around Mongolia and down to Beijing.
This summer I will be jumping for a night on the historic ‘Red Arrow’, which travels between St. Petersburg and Moscow. It was this railway that transported the first Soviet government from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The track opened in 1851 and is one of the straightest stretches of railroad in the world. It is said that it was meant to be dead straight, however when Tsar Nicholas I was drawing the route on the map, he ran out of ruler and accidentally drew a small curve around his hand, before moving the ruler down and carrying on the line down to Moscow. The result is an apparently random curve in the otherwise dead straight track between the two cities.
For a solitary traveller, such as myself, a train allows you the choice to either relax in conversation with those around you (provided you speak the same language of course), or slip away into silent anonymity and a good book. With careful eyes it can actually be said that a country’s trains can reflect a national psyche. Look at the Bullet Trains in Japan, or the Swiss railways, they are fast, efficient and practical. In contrast, the slow-moving, open air carriageways going across Zambia reflect a more relaxed and enjoyable, reflecting a more laid back way of life. The train may reach its destination in a day, it may not, but what does a few extra hours really matter?
What does time matter when there is not just a destination to be reached but travel to be experienced and a journey to enjoy.
--------------------------------------
For more information on inter-continental rail travel, visit the man in seat 61 at http://www.seat61.com
posted by Adam Sloan at 5:21 PM
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