[2c][tup]How many of you have experienced traveling by rail in Europe? I had the chance to ride from London to Paris and back on the EuroStar. It was the best experience of my train riding life. Cars were cleaning and the ride was smooth. My wife and I took several train rides out of London to various parts of England.
I am wanting to know about experiences other train lovers have had. I would love to ride the Royal Scotsman but that is a little pricey. I have seen pictures of trains through Switzerland. Looks great. Saw alot of rail traffic last year while on a Rhine River cruise with Viking River Cruises. Fast and sweet.
Well, Craig, what should I say? I live within earshot of the mainline between Hanburg und Bremen with 250+ train movements each day. Most, if not nearly all, of my train travels I have done in Europe, so I may have quiten an experience in that. The only non-European train travels I did are the following:
Riding the Amtrak Coastal Daylight between Seattle and LA Union Station in 1974
Riding the D&RGW narrow gauge train between Durango and Silverton in 1974
Taking the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka in 1984
Rode the NY subway in 1992
Riding the fast HST between Shanghai and Wuxi in 2008
Riding the HST between Beijing and Baoding in 2008.
I have taken the TGV in France, rode the narrow gauge lines in Wales, accompanied a loco test drive in Norway. There is not a single mile of track in Switzerland open to public transport I have no taken a train on. I could continue endlessly [swg]
I am not aware that traveling by train in the US has changed much from my experience riding Amtrak back in 1974. It was a great experience, so totally different from what I was used in Europe. It still had much of the splendor of train travel in the 1930´s, albeit a little bit shabby and slow.
Some folks may not like this, but there is a 50 year gap between Europe, Asia and the US/Canada.
Way back in the 1970s, I did a “hippie trip” to Europe with a backpack and a Eurailpass. We rode the trains everywhere. That was back when they had compartments, like in the old movies.
Look into planning and purchasing your tickets now. If you can do that, you can get good discounts by buying your tickets in the US. We looked into that too late. You need to allow time for them to mail you the passes.
We may not like it, but I don’t think very many would argue that it’s not completely true. I see European train travel as an adventure, and American train travel as an ordeal.
I consider Switzerland (the whole country) to be the world’s biggest (and best) model railroad.
You got that right Ulrich. The population of Canada is that of California, so I think we will see transporter technology develope before high speed rail. I am surprised the eastern corridore of the U.S. hasn’t a bullit train between Boston and Washington D.C. though.
I met a real little cutie pie in New Zealand once. She was from Zurich. So I spent a lot of time in Switzerland and Europe on the rails traveling with her. The best trip was one from Zurich to Venice. The one where you pass the same church three times as you go higher and higher.
There is a lot more common sense in Europe than over here in a lot of things. The transpotation systems in Europe are something we in the new world can strive for.
I think world travel should be mandatory in high school. Too many people form opinions on too many things without having a clue about what they are talking about. Having a common point of reference by experiencing how far ahead or how far behind some countries are is the best place to start. This only can be done by seeing and experiencing things first hand
That´s the little church of Wassen in Switzerland, situated on the Gotthard line. With next years opening of the new base tunnel, it´ll be a rare sight in the future.
That is exactly the route of the Acela, the closest thing we have to a bullet train. It’s no TGV, though. And, it remains pretty much the only high-speed rail in the country.
Either that or college. We were fortunate that our daughter had both opportunities, and that we could afford to let her take both trips. In high school, she had the choice of Paris with the French Club or Belize with her Environmental Studies class. No contest. Belize it was. In college, she spent a term in Florence. I recall thinking that a century or two back, it was common practice for the well-to-do to send their children to another country for a season, or a year or more. The experience made her a much more well-rounded person.
The Acela is based on the French TGV and, IIRC, also built by Alsthom in France. Too bad the Siemens ICE train didn´t make it, it´s ride is much more comfortable than the one of the TGV.
The 50 year gap between U.S and Canadaland, does this mean in the next 50 years Canada needs to import 270 million people to catch up to the U.S. ? I guarantee in 50 years there will still not be high speed trains across the continent.
We rode the Intercity 125 from London to Glasgow in the mid-1990s. My first experience on a high speed train. Very nice
IN Sweden, we rode a number of trains, some locals. IN one, my wife told me I had to see the rest room. It was so clean and nice - bet you do not see that everywhere.
IN Norway, we rode the Flam Railway, which is one of the Great Railway Journeys of the world. It is the steepest, standard gauge traction RR at 5.5% grade. It climbs fron sea level to about 3000 ft in about 12 miles. Many tunnels, waterfalls, and snow sheds. Completed around 1940 with boxcab electrics. You can stand on the car platform and smell the ozone! http://www.visitflam.com/flam-railway/
It connects with the Bergen Railway that runs between Bergen and Oslo. Another high speed up in glacier country on a high plateu, mostly above the tree line. More snow sheds and heavy duty snow removal equipment on the sidings - skiing available almost year round
Had the good fortune to live in West Germany while in high school while dad was stationed there in the early 1970s. I really looked forward to being able to take a passenger train almost anywhere, any time versus, well, the early days of Amtrak. In fact, I took my first ride within a few days of arriving. We initially lived on the economy in a small village west of Frankfurt and the station was just a short walk away. I subsequently rode many other times, but not nearly enough.
Some notable trips included riding the Zugspitzebahn, a rack railway that goes up inside of Germany’s tallest peak for the last two miles or so. You can ride it from Garmisch, where the US Forces maintained a large recreational complex. We also rode the fantastic line to Innsbruck across the border in Austria and back.
I enjoyed a fine day of train-riding in the Taunus mountains one winter Saturday, mostly in the quaint old red DB railcars that look like a bus. Sorta a very low budget RDC.
We took the “duty train” from Frankfurt to Berlin and back. It was my only sleeper journey so far. Weren’t supposed to peek at certain points, but did anyway to get a look at the AK-bearing East German guards at various points. I bought a day-ride ticket for the S-Bahn and rode all over West Berlin (mom was kinda worried I’d be a doofus and space out on the subway and end up in East Berlin and create an international incident or something, but I was good[A]).
Then there was the ride that got me home after my VW blew its engine on the way back from visiting friends in Munich to experience the Oktoberfest. It was a hike across a muddy field after relinquishing the heap to the motor club. Dad was somewhat POed, as he had to come get me at the station in the middle of the night and fill out a bunch of customs paperwork required when a US-plated car changes hands to German possession[:(] I figured we were even for him dragging me over to register for the draft – fortunately the first year Uncle Sam d
I have had the privalege of riding several European and British trains, both high speed and local as well as a few preserved steam lines in UK. The only American train I’ve ridden was the Rocky Mountaineer in Canada appart from subway trains in New York. I’ve also ridden the Shinkansen in Japan. The smoothest were the Shinkansen in Japan. They were ontime, clean and spotted at platforms with pinpoint accuracy. The only down side was one trip that was heavily booked so I had to ride in a smoking car, not so pleasant for a non-smoker, although the Japanese businessmen tried to smoke at the far end of the car I was in.
Scenery on The Rock Mountaineer and the Swiss narrow gauge was spectacular!
Here in Australia, I’m yet to ride the 3’6" Tilt train in my native state of Queensland. Only recently have I ridden the Long distance Westlander train from Brisbane to outback Charleville. It was a bit of a blast from the past, reasonably comfortable but not luxury and the speed was not fast.
They have all been fun, but England, Europe and Japan have the most comfortable high speed trains with good service including wifi internet access included as part of the deal.
The only trouble with modern trains is that they are airconditioned so there are no windows to open for photographing. Shooting through two panes of glass does not make for great photos. (I was lucky on the Rocky Mountaineeer to be in the last car from Bamff to Kamloops. (Spent most of my time on the observation deck! That was probably the best ride ever.)
Andermatt can only be reached by a MGB train, that´s the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, formerly Furka Oberalp Bahn, a 1,000 mm narrow gauge line connecting Disentis with Zermatt. To reach the Gotthard line, you take a train to Göschenen of the former Schöllenenbahn, now MGB. Göschenen is situated right at the northern entrance of the Gotthard tunnel.
I dug out the few pics I have of my European train experiences. I was young, of limited means and equipped with 110 or 220 film type Kodaks, so the tech side of things just wasn’t too sophisticated. Most of the time we lived there was in Wiesbaden, across the river from Mainz where the Main converged with the Rhein rivers. Here’s a shot from the north bank of one of the recently introduced (in ~1973) high speed electric passenger locos.
There was plenty of rail traffic around. I caught this freight one day, which included a big cut of factory fressh Opels on autoracks. There was an Opel factory somewhere around the area.
I mentioned our ‘72 trip to see the pope and our return back through the Gotthard tunnel. Here we are in the 64’ Belair on the roll on-roll off auto ferry train through the tunnel as we exit the north portal.
Ulrich,
I think this is Göschenen, but if not pictures of the south portal and a couple of pieces of fascinating motive power.
I think this pic of a NG construction RR is also somewhere north of the Gotthard.
Ha! I was wondering how long it would take someone to spot that[:-^]
Those were mostly decorative. I was never much of a drinker when we lived in Germany, although I was old enough (16, but actually more like “who cares” – except on base, of course.) I will say I enjoyed myself a time or two and decided I really didn’t like hangovers.[+o(]
