6 reasons to travel by train
It’s better for the environment
It’s no secret that air travel is one of the biggest contributors to global warming and choosing to travel flight-free is one of the best ways to cut your carbon footprint. According to Eurostar, travelling by train from London to Paris emits 90 per cent less greenhouse gases than flying, so imagine how much C02 is saved by interrailing across Europe rather than taking multiple short-haul flights.
Start in Paris, with croissants, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower before being whisked on to Lyon – France’s foodie capital. Next, cross the border into Italy, where you take in fashion-forward Milan, and historic Florence and Rome. As you zoom from one world-famous city to another, you can feel safe in the knowledge that you’re doing your bit to save the planet.
It’s budget-friendly
The seven-hour journey from Kandy to Badulla on Sri Lanka’s Hill Country Railway may cost less than $1, but the journey is priceless. As you rattle across the countrybetween toytown stations, you’ll see mist-shrouded mountains, thundering waterfalls and vast swathes of tea.
Of course, you could pay extra to travel in the air-conditioned first-class carriage with the other tourists, but why would you want to miss out on feeling the hill-country air on your face and soaking up local life in third class? As you stop at a series of toytown stations, hawkers rush aboard, armed with baskets of fresh samosas, bundles of bananas and, of course, steaming pots of tea.
It’s relaxing
There’s a time and a place for travelling under your own steam. Walking and cycling can be exhausting, and driving requires constant concentration, especially on unfamiliar roads. With a train ticket, you can sit back, relax and take in the ever-changing views outside your window; and what views they are.
On-board the Glacier Express, you’ll discover the Switzerland of storybooks, with grazing cows on emerald pastures and snow-frosted snaggletooth peaks. While sultry bayous, rolling plains and epic deserts await those riding the rails between New Orleans and Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited. This is slow travel at its finest.It’s sociable
It can be luxurious
Stewards in royal blue uniforms, white linen tablecloths, tinkling piano keys: all these extravagances await those lucky enough to have a ticket for the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. This romantic journey seems straight out of an Agatha Christie novel – and it is – but there are many lesser-known journeys that are just as luxurious.
The Blue Train gleams across the South African plains, topping off wildlife watching and wine-tasting with decadent breakfasts and jazz-filled evenings. Looking for an opulent Australian journey? The Ghan may take three days to reach its destination, but it’s much more stylish way to travel than taking the four-hour flight between Adelaide and Darwin. On this slow journey, you’ll take in the pale yellows of the outback, the blood-red Red Centre and the greens and blues of the Tropics, while dining on some of the continent’s best dishes.It’s an engineering marvel
When train travel was invented in the early 19th century, people worried that the speed of these steam-powered locomotives would knock passengers unconscious. Less than 200 years later, the shinkansen, or bullet train, zips across Japan at 320 km/h (200 mph).
On the way between Tokyo and Nagoya, you pass wooden farmhouses, mysterious torii (shrine gates) and cartoon-daubed billboards. But, of course, the journey’s most iconic sight is Mount Fuji, rising from the rice paddies. Yes, it’s good to travel slow, but speeding across a country also has its own appeal, and what better way to experience Japan – a country at once rooted in its past and living in the future – than on a glimmering bullet train.
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