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Author Topic: Train Journeys
Willowdale Wizard
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posted 08 February 2006 06:12 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
i love taking the train. someone else is doing the driving. less carbon burden than the plane. you can get up and walk around. plus, there are dining cars, bar cars and dome cars.

my favourite travel book is even "riding the iron rooster" by paul theroux, when he travelled by train in china for nearly a year.

top five train journeys:

- the trans-mongolian (from beijing to irkutsk to moscow, in winter 1998)
- deutsch bahn along the rhine
- the canadian between kenora and toronto
- the southwest chief (chicago to LA, via albuquerque)
- the metro toronto zoo monorail


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lagatta
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posted 08 February 2006 07:38 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm a train buff too, and have read the Patagonian Express by Théroux, but not his book on China. Will do.

A pity that railways have become so expensive. A friend from Toronto, visiting the Québec solidaire congress, wound up flying as there were no more discounted tickets to Montréal, and the plane was actually cheaper.

It is really something that must be supported and lobbied for, though I don't suppose the present crew of ReformaTories could be won over by lyrical references to John A and the Last Spike...

I doubt I'll be taking any of your more exotic trains soon, but I could certainly be taking the DB train along the Rhine, as my friend in Germany lives in a town on the Rhine and I also have friends in Basel, Switzerland, way upstream. German trains are good but expensive - are there any possible deals, or traincards I can buy over here?

Have any babblers crossed Canada by rail?


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Agent 204
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posted 08 February 2006 07:42 AM      Profile for Agent 204   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Sadly, I have relatively little rail experience. The only long train trip I have taken was one from Cairns, QLD to Ballina, NSW in 1991; in this country the only intercity train trips I've taken have been short hops to Toronto and London- in both cases to catch flights.
From: home of the Guess Who | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Ross J. Peterson
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posted 08 February 2006 07:49 AM      Profile for Ross J. Peterson     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
lagatta queried:
quote:
Have any babblers crossed Canada by rail?

My first ride on or in anything in Canada was the train ride from Sault-Ste-Marie to T.O.

Met an P.E.Islander on the train and didn't stop drinking like ole buddies until they closed the hotel bar, not the Royal York I presume, was it the Old Bruswick.

I couldn't remember a thing, even, I'm sure, the next day.


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skdadl
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posted 08 February 2006 07:51 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I love trains too, WW. What a good idea for a topic.

I know you've taken some wonderful rides. Me, I mainly know Canadian and British and French trains. I've always enjoyed trips on the latter two systems, although the semi-privatized British system just became so weird by the mid-nineties that we've really had to learn to relax to enjoy the experience now sometimes. Especially on British trains I find I can imagine myself back in a b+w film from the forties - so romantic still to moi.

What's great about the French trains is that they actually work. They are fast and new and they work!

Canadian trains, a more complicated and sometimes sad situation. I used to love the old CPR line, and I've ridden it from Toronto to Calgary a half-dozen times. Even after the Mulroney government betrayed us by killing that line, I had a chance to ride the last bit of it in reverse - Vancouver to Calgary, by way of Banff, the bit that is still open.

The full southern route was a great trip, although in its last days, the trains were getting a little grotty.

I once did Edmonton to Ottawa to Montreal on the old CN line, now the main VIA line, or whatever they're calling it these days. I don't feel the same affection for that route, but that may be Calgary-Medicine Hat prejudice.

For some reason, GO trains depress me. I don't know why, but they do. It may be just that Lake Ontario depresses me.


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Willowdale Wizard
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posted 08 February 2006 08:10 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
lagatta, goodness knows if you still can, but you used to be able to buy a variety of eurailpasses at student travel shops in canada.
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lagatta
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posted 08 February 2006 08:18 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The classic Eurailpass is definitely not worth it for adults as it exists only in First Class (only under-26es have the option of 2nd Class) and as you know well, 2nd class is fine on European trains.

Before going to Italy, I was always about to buy biglietti chilometrici, which deeply discounted a (large) number of km of travel.

Your one or two country passes do look worth it to me, though. I'll check them out. Perhaps there are some other deals.

Europeans have access to a wide variety of train discounts, not only for young people and seniors, but also for people on holidays, people travelling to demonstrations (yes!) and several others.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
ephemeral
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posted 08 February 2006 08:54 AM      Profile for ephemeral     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Aw man, Willowdale Wizard, you almost make me want to cry. When I think of trains, I think of India. I do so miss the train tracks in the rural parts of India. I used to talk walks near them when I was older, and the trains always sounded so romantic and powerful as they chugged by. I was too young to remember when I was actually riding the train. But I remember... something. I remember some feelings. I have a picture in my head of looking out the window at animals grazing in the fields. I'm not sure how real this picture in my head is, cause, like I said I was too young. I know I've been up to this hill station (Ooty) in Nilgiris (in the Southern part of India) with my parents. I was there again when I was older by myself, but I had taken a bus.

quote:
The construction of this line was a big challenge as the terrain is rather tricky. It was in 1854 that the first plans were drawn to build a mountain railway from Mettupalayam to the Nilgiri Hills. But it was a good 45 years later in 1899 that the first train chuggrd up this track. This itself is a charming blue and cream with wooden coaches and large windows. It is hauled uphill by steam engines, desgined and built by the Swiss Locomotive Works. Twelve of such locomotive engines survive even today.

I've heard my dad talk about taking the train all the way up to Shimla near Kashmir, but I have no recollection of going that far north. Now, I ride the GO train between Hamilton and Toronto. Sometimes, when I can see water, the scenery is good. But mostly, I see billboard signs.


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lagatta
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posted 08 February 2006 08:58 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
WW, damn you! Now you've got me furiously looking at various railpasses, when I have work to get done!

The Germany pass is definitely worth it if I'm visiting there, as it also specifies that it goes through to Basel Switzerland so I wouldn't get slapped with a hefty supplement if I visit my friends there.

Don't know if it goes across to Strasbourg, but if not I could simply go to Kiel on the German side and take a local bus over, as so many commuters do now.

There is a lot wrong with the EU, between silly bureaucracy and it being an imperialist power itself, but I think a lot of people on the fortified Rhine never dreamt of people peacefully working in France and living on the German side or vice versa.

----
Edited to add: Thank you, ephemeral! I was hoping one of the babblers of South Asian origins would mention the famous trains of India! Ooty looks lovely!

[ 08 February 2006: Message edited by: lagatta ]


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
ephemeral
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posted 08 February 2006 09:04 AM      Profile for ephemeral     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by lagatta:
WW, damn you! Now you've got me furiously looking at various railpasses, when I have work to get done!

Oh, I know what you mean, lagatta. I'm looking at pictures of different hillstations and other areas covered by train in India, and I feel totally homesick now. I can even smell the smells of India. But, there are other things I should be working on.... but I would much rather do this.


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lagatta
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posted 08 February 2006 09:06 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
ephemeral, I've already said thanks for your Indian train post, but obviously I'd be open to seeing more of them!

Train porn!


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Willowdale Wizard
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posted 08 February 2006 09:36 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
for you fans of indian trains, 92 tunnels and 2000 bridges ...
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HeywoodFloyd
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posted 08 February 2006 09:42 AM      Profile for HeywoodFloyd     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I've taken the Skeena from Prince Rupert to Jasper and connected there to the Canadian to Halifax and back.

Just a phenomal trip.


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Transplant
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posted 08 February 2006 11:23 AM      Profile for Transplant     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by lagatta:
Have any babblers crossed Canada by rail?

Not all the way, but my wife and I took the train from Banff to Vancouver on our honeymoon trip. Sadly, this is no longer a VIA route. I've ridden Amtrak from NYC to Toronto, and made several rail trips through France, Germany and Switzerland. But none of them compares to the long ago summer trip I made through the western US hopping freight trains. The view from the back of an imported pickup on the top level of a trilevel autorack was spectacular, although the car swaying back and forth cured me of ever doing that again.


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Boom Boom
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posted 08 February 2006 11:30 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I used to travel Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto by train when I was akid, because I loved trains (still do). I've been on the Polar Bear Express between Cochrane and Moosonee in northern Ontario (and by helicopter to Moose Factory island). I wish we had rail service out here, but we don't even have roads, yet. Rails and roads between here and the Labrador Straits right up to Goose Bay would be incredible. There's rail service going north from Sept-Iles either to Labrador City or Schefferville, I think.

ETA: I used to be a model train buff, and am thinking of building a model train layout in the new place I hope to be moving to this summer.

[ 08 February 2006: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]


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'lance
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posted 08 February 2006 11:34 AM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by HeywoodFloyd:
I've taken the Skeena from Prince Rupert to Jasper and connected there to the Canadian to Halifax and back.

ObPendantry: the Canadian, strictly speaking, goes only to Toronto. From there you go to Montreal on one of the "LRC" trains, then get on the Atlantic, which is the one that goes to Halifax.

However that may be, a phenomenal trip as you say.

I took the Atlantic one summer when you could still change at Truro for a dayliner which went through Cape Breton to North Sydney, where I got on the Marine Atlantic ferry to Port-aux-Basques. The Brador Lakes are spectacular.

Later in the same summer, having got to Lake Louise by hitchhiking and bus, I got on the Via train there (when the southern route was still a Via route) and rode that down to Vancouver.

Finally, four years after that, I took the Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto and back. So I've been across the country by train, just not all at once.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
brebis noire
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posted 08 February 2006 11:38 AM      Profile for brebis noire     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Lagatta - for a few years back in the late 80s, I used to travel Winnipeg to Montreal by train a few times a year (this was before they eliminated the north line; it didn't go through the centre of the universe.) It was a wonderful trip; I used to meet all kinds of interesting people, and the neverending forest of Ontario was impressive. The highlights were the moonscape around Sudbury, observing various degrees of fire-damaged forest, finally arriving at the edge of Superior and following it for a long ways, then coming out of the forest into the pre-Prairie landscape just before Winnipeg.

I've also taken the train from Montreal to Dallas (via Schenectady, NY and then across to Chicago - we had long stops in both places and those stops were lots of fun.) It was a totally different experience from travelling across Canada (no forest, for one thing), but I was quite ill for part of the trip, so I don't remember as much as I'd like to.


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HeywoodFloyd
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posted 08 February 2006 12:13 PM      Profile for HeywoodFloyd     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Of course you are correct lance. I was just being lazy.
From: Edmonton: This place sucks | Registered: Jun 2003  |  IP: Logged
Contrarian
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posted 08 February 2006 12:41 PM      Profile for Contrarian     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I don't remember my longest train trip, when my mother took her kids aged 2, 4 and 6 from Calgary to the Maritimes; I rode from Calgary to Vancouver once and loved it, it was so much more comfortable than a bus. Now that route is gone. I think there may be a passenger train from Edmonton to Vancouver.

I once went on a folk train; we had a couple of old restored cars, incluing a sleeper, hitched onto the back of a freight train that went from Edmonton to Fort MacMurray and back in three days, stopping halfway at Lac La Biche. There were several folk singers, all a little zonked out because they had just been through the Calgary Folk Fest. We talked and sang songs all the way up and back. It was great.


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ephemeral
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posted 08 February 2006 01:32 PM      Profile for ephemeral     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
lagatta, travel India by train
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lagatta
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posted 08 February 2006 01:49 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Ha! Somehow I doubt that is the railway travel experience of most Indians, not even my friends in Calcutta who are both history professors..
From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
gabong
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posted 08 February 2006 02:01 PM      Profile for gabong     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

Have any babblers crossed Canada by rail?[/QB]


I once hitch hiked from St.John's to Halifax (damn the NF government for ripping up the rails). Then, I took the train to Toronto. Stayed in the Rex hotel for a while before continuing by train to Vancouver.

I have taken the train in Europe, Egypt, and Korea. Now I work for CP Rail and haul freight trains.

I think it is a shame that we do not have more practical access to passenger rail in Canada.


From: Newfoundland | Registered: Mar 2005  |  IP: Logged
ephemeral
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posted 08 February 2006 02:06 PM      Profile for ephemeral     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by lagatta:
Ha! Somehow I doubt that is the railway travel experience of most Indians, not even my friends in Calcutta who are both history professors..

You are right. It is for the tourists. If you look up the costs, you'll see they're listed in US dollars (and they're quite pricey too). I remember trains going by with people hanging out of the sides.


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lagatta
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posted 08 February 2006 02:19 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yeah, my friends, who are certainly not poor by Indian standards (though there are professional categories that are far better off than professors) could never even dream of affording that, nor would they want to.

They are very proud of having travelled so much in their vast country, from the Himalayans to the tropics.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 08 February 2006 02:25 PM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Willowdale Wizard:
my favourite travel book is even "riding the iron rooster" by paul theroux

The Great Railway Bazaar.
quote:
Originally posted by Willowdale Wizard:
- deutsch bahn along the rhine


My kids have done that. I haven't yet. What is wrong with this picture?

quote:
Originally posted by lagatta:
Have any babblers crossed Canada by rail?

We took our kids through the rockies years ago. More recently we took them, and their bigger cousin from Northern Ireland, all the way from Toronto to Regina. Both wonderful trips. There's no other way to show someone from Europe how big Canada is than bumping all the way.
quote:
Originally posted by Transplant:
my wife and I took the train from Banff to Vancouver on our honeymoon trip.

We reached our honeymoon in the Bahamas by rail from Toronto to New York, then on to Miami. Great trip, but we stayed in our compartment, pretending we were Lenin travelling through Germany. (Then it was supposed to be by ship to Nassau, but the ship schedule didn't work out. But we went by sea back to New York at the end.)
quote:
Originally posted by Boom Boom:
I've been on the Polar Bear Express between Cochrane and Moosonee in northern Ontario.

Another great trip. Our kids actually have pleasant memories of it.

From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Bacchus
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posted 08 February 2006 05:17 PM      Profile for Bacchus     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
*sigh* Im planning to take mrs Bacchus to montreal and she would love by train but its soo expensive that driving or flying is preferable
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brebis noire
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posted 08 February 2006 05:22 PM      Profile for brebis noire     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Bacchus:
*sigh* Im planning to take mrs Bacchus to montreal and she would love by train but its soo expensive that driving or flying is preferable

Are you talking about from TO? I can see how driving would be cheaper - though certainly not more convenient or faster, and I've always found parking and driving in Montreal to be a pain. But is it really cheaper to fly? And how much are you going to pay to get from the airport to downtown?
Train tickets are less than $200 return, taxes included, and it only takes four hours from downtown TO to centre-ville MTL.


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Bacchus
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posted 08 February 2006 05:29 PM      Profile for Bacchus     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Flying I can do for $50-75 and driving of course cheaper than that
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gabong
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posted 08 February 2006 06:03 PM      Profile for gabong     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I lived in Korea for several years in the 90s. When I left in 2001, it was still possible to take a train from one end of the nation to the other (seoul to pusan) for around $20. I realize that korea has amost twice canada's population in a space something similar to vancouver island, but as a Canadian I cannot help but be envious of nations that have much more econimical and efficient public transportation.
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Boom Boom
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posted 08 February 2006 07:57 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I personally find train travel much more relaxing than travel by air or car, and especially by bus. I wish we had trains here.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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posted 08 February 2006 08:04 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I do too. Moreover one can work or read on a train; it isn't wasted time. I can't read seriously on the bus; the motion makes me a bit carsick - at best I can leaf through silly magazines.

In Europe, even a lot of the modern trains (that don't have the cute little compartments anymore) still have four seats; two seats facing each other, with a little tray table in between, so you can read comfortably, work on a computer or eat and drink.

On the Paris-Amsterdam swift train, I had the great pleasure of meeting a Doctor Without Borders who had worked in Grozny and was delighted that I not only knew where it was and the rudiments of the conflict, but knew other warzone medical people. But on the train back, I recall being opposite a young couple who were kissing in the way that they were discovering each other's tonsils. I didn't know where to look...


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
dugger
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posted 08 February 2006 08:06 PM      Profile for dugger     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
There's the North America Rail Pass, good for 30 days of travel throughout Canada and/or the United States.
My Wife and I are setting up such a trip, planning on mid-March to mid-April. Should be fun....I hope.

From: ontario | Registered: Nov 2005  |  IP: Logged
HeywoodFloyd
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posted 08 February 2006 08:21 PM      Profile for HeywoodFloyd     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Thirty days travel? Awesome. The best I had ever gotten was Via's CanRail pass, which was good for twelve days travel in thirty days.
From: Edmonton: This place sucks | Registered: Jun 2003  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 08 February 2006 09:16 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I have a friend in Ontario who absolutely raves about Amtrak's RailPass. There's details online someplace.
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Boarsbreath
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posted 08 February 2006 09:27 PM      Profile for Boarsbreath   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hoo-WEE is this evocative. Of delight, the barcar from Montreal west or west to Montreal, or even the shorter ones to Halifax. That lovely window, people's homes and miles of forest, reading a book (once Margaret Laurence, stopping every few pages to cry, for crying out loud), then a crowd gathering as the day wears on, always interesting people. I remember one guy slagging off on the Jews, me teasing him in response in a way that went over his head but a young couple appreciated: little encounters like that. Deep stories too, as one gets travelling.

The ideal bar experience on one of the ideal travel experiences...I loved the train.

Then came the later 80s, and Prime Minister Valdemort, who didn't just neglect the trains like the Liberals but actually gutted them; and then came no-smoking; and then they cut the bar-cars...every trip a little worse, although still good enough to repeat. Just barely, last time, Montreal-Halifax in '99 or so.

OH -- once I was actually duffled, Paul Theroux's word from The Great Railway Bazaar: hopped off in northern Austria to find a beer or something, turned around and the train was leaving with all my stuff...worked out OK.


From: South Seas, ex Montreal | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
dugger
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posted 08 February 2006 09:32 PM      Profile for dugger     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
For info about the NA Rail Pass check out AMTRAK site or VIA rail site. Pretty good deal.
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hawthorn
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posted 08 February 2006 11:43 PM      Profile for hawthorn     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Trains are my favourite mode of travel. I feel ill on long bus or car trips, can't read anything. The motion on the train is very soothing, I find (although there can be occasional jolts). I can read, and also write a little if there's not too much motion. You can look at a landscape, not a highway with a bunch of other vehicles. You can get up and walk around, socialize with others if you want to. Apparently, it's more ecologically sound than some other ways. It can be also more expensive than those other ways, but there are more things to consider than cost. (I wonder if air travel will get more expensive as fuel costs rise?)

I have travelled on the VIA "Canadian" line several times. In 2003, I went from Edmonton to Toronto (arrived in Toronto the day after the big blackout), and returned from Toronto to Vancouver. The next year, I did it again, this time starting in Vancouver and going to Toronto. Then I went to Ottawa, Montreal, and took "the Ocean," from Montreal to Halifax. They are running a newer train on this route, faster than the older stainless steel cars they run on the Canadian, but smaller -- and less comfortable, in my opinion. Then I went back all the way from Halifax to Vancouver. The Toronto to Vancouver run takes three days; the Montreal to Halifax is an overnighter, taking about 21 hours.

I travelled economy class the whole time, using a ViaRail pass, which is really worth it if you're planning to stop in more than one place. Any kind of berth is now in the "upper class" and is prohibitively expensive, unfortunately. It includes a meal plan and access to certain areas of the train the plebes aren't allowed in - and showers.
I managed to get by with sponge bathing and washing my hair in the tiny sink -- all while the train clips merrily along.
For sleeping arrangements, luckily, I have no back problems, and travelling alone, had no seatmate (unless the train is very full, they won't seat overnight passengers who don't know each other next to each other) -- so I could curl up across two seats and sleep okay, if not well. Brought my own little pillow and blankie to supplement the VIA-provided ones. The trains are air-conditioned and rather cool at night.

The "Canadian" journey is marketed as a "once-in-a-lifetime" trip, but the train should be more than an expensive tourist experience (like the private company now running tourist trains on the Vancouver-Banff-Calgary line). From what I could see, many people on the Prairies and in northern Ontario were using the train as a mode of transportation, not for tourism.

There are a couple more train routes in Canada I'd like to go on: the Skeena across B.C., and the Chaleur (to the Gaspesie) I haven't travelled by train in the States, but would like to. I've been thinking of taking the one down the west coast -- just not sure if I want to travel alone outside Canada.

[edited to correct a couple of words]

[ 08 February 2006: Message edited by: hawthorn ]


From: Victoria, B.C. | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 08 February 2006 11:54 PM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by ephemeral:
I've been up to this hill station (Ooty) in Nilgiris (in the Southern part of India).

I have to get there. Family history demands it.

In 1898 my great-uncle Sydney Edge, 29, was in Ooty. My grandmother, Celia, 27, went to India to visit her brother. (Was this a bold thing for a woman to do in 1898?)

Her first cousin Lt. Col. Henry Montfort Gardner was with the 1st Lincolns who fought in the battle of Khartoum 2nd September, 1898, and went on to India in November, but Henry did not go with them. He got typhoid fever, and during this illness Celia cabled him from India and proposed. He returned to England to recuperate, and they were married Oct. 12, 1899.

Henry rejoined the regiment in India, taking his new (and newly pregnant) wife with him. My aunt Dorothy was born at Secunderabad July 27, 1900, at the army quarters where the 1st Lincolns were stationed. (This was the British cantonment, the north half of Hyderabad. It had a vast Army presence, and was also the headquarters of the South-Central Railway.) Celia was very ill after Dorothy was born, and they both went to the hills of Ooty, 450 miles to the southwest, to stay with Sydney again, to convalesce.

By rail, no doubt.


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 09 February 2006 01:29 AM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
P.S. on Ooty: "The construction of this line was a big challenge as the terrain is rather tricky. It was in 1854 that the first plans were drawn to build a mountain railway from Mettupalayam to the Nilgiri Hills. But it was a good 45 years later in 1899 that the first train chugged up this track." This means my grandmother and her new baby girl were among the earlier passengers on it.

[ 09 February 2006: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
peppermint
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posted 09 February 2006 02:42 AM      Profile for peppermint     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by gabong:
I lived in Korea for several years in the 90s. When I left in 2001, it was still possible to take a train from one end of the nation to the other (seoul to pusan) for around $20.

Yikes, prices have gone on a steep inclrease then. Just checked, and its around 40 for the KTX now though it gets you there in style and only takes a couple of hours.

Haven't read the book about Chinese train travel in the OP, but I just got back from a trip to China that did involve lots of train travel. 22 hours from Qingdao to Xian, and a lot of amazing scenery on the way.


From: Korea | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged
Willowdale Wizard
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posted 09 February 2006 05:12 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
i'd love to do a variation on this trip sometime in my life.
From: england (hometown of toronto) | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 09 February 2006 07:54 AM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Never crossed Canada by rail, but our good friends at VIA often simulate the experience on the London to Toronto "run".

Takin' the iron horse to Teranna Friday. I have already lined up the Sherpa's for the trip from the platform up, up, up into the car. And, since I have planned to have a coffee at about Brantford-- just before we start to creak crawl and cry through the escarpment-- I have updated my imunization record.

Awwwwwl A bored.


From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
NWOntarian
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posted 09 February 2006 08:58 AM      Profile for NWOntarian   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
Never crossed Canada by rail, but our good friends at VIA often simulate the experience on the London to Toronto "run".

I've made that trip a few times. I find going the reverse to be worse.

The couple times I've been coming back from Ottawa and Montreal, our train got delayed for about an hour just outside Toronto. We get into Toronto and have to rush over to the train heading to London, which is being held specifically for us.

Unforuntately, there are two trains that go from Toronto to London. One is pretty direct, while the other makes a wild detour through Waterloo and Guelph. It's a difference in time of about an hour. It would be faster to take a bus.


From: London, ON | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged
brebis noire
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posted 09 February 2006 09:01 AM      Profile for brebis noire     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Bacchus:
Flying I can do for $50-75 and driving of course cheaper than that


There's something deeply wrong with the fact you can fly for less than half what it costs to take the train.
The train has always been full on the runs I've taken.


From: Quebec | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged
Bobolink
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posted 09 February 2006 12:35 PM      Profile for Bobolink   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I regularly take VIA at least 4 times a year on return trips from Belleville to Toronto. When you factor in gasoline and Toronto parking rates, VIA Rail is cheaper.

Back in 1968, I traveled Toronto to Vancouver by CP Rails "The Canadian" and back from Vancouver on CN's "Super Continental". In those days, CP service far outshone CN. Yhe meals were superb and served on china with real silverware. An often neglected part of the trip was the Lake Superior north shore from White River to Thunder Bay. I was surprised that I was not bored by the prairies from a dome car but just overwhelmed by the open spaces. And nothing beats the ride up the Bow Valley through Kicking Horse pass to the Spiral tunnels.

The trip back via CN was a disappointment. The food and service was not as good as CP and we had to sit on sidings to wait for passing freights. Our return to Toronto was over 6 hours late. CP was on-time into Vancouver and freight trains waited on sidings for us.

But rail cruising is really a tourist experience. The intercity service between Montreal/Ottawa and Toronto is fast and convenient with six trains a day in each direction on weekdays.


From: Stirling, ON | Registered: May 2004  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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posted 09 February 2006 12:57 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Back in 1968, I traveled Toronto to Vancouver by CP Rails "The Canadian" and back from Vancouver on CN's "Super Continental". In those days, CP service far outshone CN. Yhe meals were superb and served on china with real silverware. An often neglected part of the trip was the Lake Superior north shore from White River to Thunder Bay. I was surprised that I was not bored by the prairies from a dome car but just overwhelmed by the open spaces.

I loved the praire part of the trip too. As for the Lake Superior portion, of course that's gone now as the Canadian takes the CN route through northern Ontario -- hundreds of miles of virtually featureless boreal forest, and then (if you're travelling east) the visceral shock of the ugliest bits of the Sudbury slag heaps, red creeks and all.

I found it interesting, though, that it stops at little fishing camps (or was still doing so in 1993 anyway), with fishing guides apparently using it to commute between camps.

As for the golden age of rail travel, from what I've been told both railways wanted to get out of the passenger business as early as the 1950s. (I don't doubt for a minute that CP had better service than CN, of course). They couldn't run it profitably, but it was a condition of their operating licences (or whatever) that they took passengers. VIA Rail was created to relieve them of this responsibility.

But I'll see if I can't find some sources to back this up, as it's just hearsay at the moment.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Amy
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posted 09 February 2006 01:32 PM      Profile for Amy   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Ooh! What a timely thread.

I've only ever taken a few different train rides, the first (and most exciting) happened when I was eight. I was in Switzerland with my family, and we took 'the world's steepest cogwheel train' to Mt. Pilatus. The other times it's been the same route, between Victoria and the Comox Valley. It's beautiful, but not very long. Cheaper and nicer than the bus, and goes through the Goldstream Park.

I don't know how neat of a ride it'll be, cos never really been to the US at all (with the exception of Pt. Roberts and the Houston Aeroport) but I'm planning on going to a music festival at the end of April; It's in Indio, California, so I'll be taking the train I think.


From: the whole town erupts and/ bursts into flame | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
Willowdale Wizard
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posted 09 February 2006 05:19 PM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
part of the fun is arriving at stations.

antwerp:

leipzig:

gare du nord, paris:


From: england (hometown of toronto) | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
shaolin
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posted 09 February 2006 06:08 PM      Profile for shaolin     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Choo-choo!!

When I was seventeen I headed off to Europe armed with a tent, a one month Brit Rail pass and a three month unlimited Eurorail pass. I'd never been on anything but the Go Train before that. I was so afraid leaving the airport on the train! I didn't really know where I was headed or even how to get off. I came to really love it though, and all of the characters I met. The best trains were definitely in Germany. The scariest journey was a night train from the Czech Republic to Italy - some scary 'imposter' train employees tried to take our passports from us, while looking around to see how well our bags were secured. There were also some really great ferry links and wee boat trips included with the pass, including a beautiful tour on a lake in Interlaken, Switzerland.

I took a lot of crazy train rides in India, the summer before last. The most memorable was the 'toy train' to Shimla. Packed in like sardines on a steady uphill climb, not quite sure if we'd actually make it to the top. It seemed like an impossible feat for this rickety old train. Incredible scenery. Unfortunately, I had Delhi-belly and spent much of the ride in the squat position, with the train track flying by beneath my bum.

I spent a lot of time sipping sweet, hot tea out of little one-use clay cups in train stations in India as well. And an overnight train from Delhi to Jaipur, hugging my backpack as tight as I could. A friend had his stolen almost from underneath him the week before on his way to Varanasi, so I was quite wary.

During university, I always travelled from Ottawa to Oshawa and back on Via Rail. I'd rush to the back of the car, to those seats by the emergency exit reserved for groups of 3 or four. Usually there weren't any such groups and the train wasn't too busy so I'd get to spend the trip with my feet up on the seat facing me, getting some good reading done as the countryside whipped by.

I'm on my way to London next week, accompanying a friend 'on business' for his new, rather posh job doing CRS for a law firm. I think perhaps we'll visit the bar on their tab!


From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jul 2003  |  IP: Logged
Mr. Magoo
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posted 09 February 2006 06:19 PM      Profile for Mr. Magoo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
When I was about 8 I had cousins who lived in Strathroy, about 45 minutes from Sarnia where I lived. Occasionally my parents would take me to the train station and put me on a train, and my aunt and uncle and cousins would be there to meet me at the other end and I'd stay for the weekend or whatever.

At the age of 8, 45 minutes of true autonomy and adult freedom is like a drug! Mind you I mostly just read a book and listened to the clickey-clack of the (at that time unwelded) tracks. I'm sure the conductor was looking in on me regularly and all, but I certainly felt like I could do whatever I wanted, free of meddling adults and their namby-pamby ways.

My only regret is that now they weld the tracks. Like, did somebody complain about the clickety-clack?? Bastards.


From: ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
Transplant
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posted 09 February 2006 06:24 PM      Profile for Transplant     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by 'lance:
As for the Lake Superior portion, of course that's gone now as the Canadian takes the CN route through northern Ontario -- hundreds of miles of virtually featureless boreal forest...

Punctuated by rocks and water, just like in the Arrogant Worms song.

quote:
I found it interesting, though, that it stops at little fishing camps (or was still doing so in 1993 anyway), with fishing guides apparently using it to commute between camps.

Still does, and to pick up/drop off canoeists.


From: Free North America | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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posted 21 February 2006 09:55 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Then there are short-distance journeys, by tram or local train. In the interests of avoiding thread proliferation, I'm posting this Le Devoir article about Paris trams and the Montréal mayor's visit (hmm, funny how they always choose places like Paris, London...)

I've taken the tram that rings part of Paris to the north; the southern one seems more high-tech still.

A fascinating tram is the Kusttram Belgian coastal tram Kusttram - the longest tram line in the world, along the Flemish coast.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
unionist
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posted 21 February 2006 10:43 AM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by gabong:
I once hitch hiked from St.John's to Halifax (damn the NF government for ripping up the rails).

Can't blame the NF govt. for that. It was CN that shut down the Newfoundland Railway (briefly known as Terra Transport, when CN was trying to offload it in order to avoid its obligations to the workers) in 1988, with the blessing of the Mulroney govt. of the day.

They had to keep paying workers' salaries because of an "employment security" provision that had been negotiated nationally just 3 years earlier. So to add insult to injury, after closing down the railway shops and lines, they assigned the workers to tear up the tracks. No great loss in one sense, given that they were narrow-gauge -- but the idea of a province like Newfoundland & Labrador not having a functioning rail line borders on the obscene IMO.

As for personal tales, I have travelled by rail from Winnipeg to Vancouver, and when I was 12 years old, from Winnipeg to New York once with my family. Unforgettable. The only way to go.


From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
chester the prairie shark
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posted 21 February 2006 11:45 AM      Profile for chester the prairie shark     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Sigh, its sad to think that train travel used to be so important even in the 60's and even in small town saskatchewan and now its so expensive and inconvenient.

I remember when the train used to stop in the tiny town i grew up around and was tended by a *station master*. we use to put cream on the train and send it to the dairy 30 miles away. i used to get birthday presents from my aunty which we would pick up at the station.

In the 60's and 70's and even the early '80's i used the train quite a bit. I remember taking the dayliner from Prince Albert to Saskatoon and then the mainline west right to my small town after a visit with relatives; all by myself when I was about 10. The dayliner used to provide commuting services between regina, saskatoon and prince albert at least twice a day! back then.

I took the train between saskatoon or unity and edmonton a number of times, it was economical, convenient and fun! young hippies, the bar car...ahhhh. I used to ride my bike out to the saskatoon station and throw it on the train and go out to visit family (well a couple of times any way). I also remember though, one winter when the via east bound was 36 hours (!) late coming into Saskatoon. It was very cold and the train just froze up.

The last time I checked a round trip between Saskatoon and Jasper cost about $350/person. That might work for one person but take a family and you can rent a van or a car cheaper, too bad cause its a fantastic way to travel.


From: Saskatoon | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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posted 21 February 2006 12:03 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Don't moan, organise! Transport 2000 (yes, the name is dated, I agree) started in the UK as an association devoted to promoting public and sustainable transport, including trains. This is the site of Transport 2000 Canada. They worked alongside us hippies in Le Monde à bicyclette and Vélo Québec on the development of cycle paths, support for commuter trains, etc.

This could be a far more popular cause in the coming years with the combined impact of climate change and a relative scarcity of petroleum.

Time spent on commuter trains is not necessarily wasted time, unlike driving or taking the bumpety bus, as one can read, write or even work if one so desires...


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Willowdale Wizard
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posted 21 February 2006 12:47 PM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
A fascinating tram is the Kusttram Belgian coastal tram Kusttram - the longest tram line in the world, along the Flemish coast.

i was on a similar coastal tram this summer, but it was in germany along the baltic coast to the polish border.


From: england (hometown of toronto) | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
HalfAnHourLater
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posted 21 February 2006 01:20 PM      Profile for HalfAnHourLater     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
One of my favorite rail journeys, was back in 2002 in Morocco. The railcars and trains were brand new, convenient, impeccably clean and cheap too; amazing when compared with Canada. Here's the link., a great country by rail all they have to is connect some of the bus routes through the High Atlas. If you follow the links, you will see that they plan on building all the connections; where's Canada in all this?

Another couple great rail (albeit slow and incredibliy hot) trips are From Bamako to Dakkar and Through Togo and Benin from the north down to the coast. Breathtaking change in secenery; Sahel to Lush Tropcal!

[ 21 February 2006: Message edited by: HalfAnHourLater ]


From: So-so-so-solidarité! | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Policywonk
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posted 21 February 2006 08:48 PM      Profile for Policywonk     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Two train routes I'm surprised no-one has mentioned.

Singapore to Bangkok

White Pass and Yukon Railway

It used to go from Skagway to Whitehorse before it was shut down in 1982 but now I think it goes from Skagway to Carcross as a tourist train. I walked and skied along the tracks far more often than actually taking the train.


From: Edmonton | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
al-Qa'bong
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posted 21 February 2006 09:30 PM      Profile for al-Qa'bong   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Policywonk:
Two train routes I'm surprised no-one has mentioned.

Singapore to Bangkok



Yabbut, the portage is a killer.

I made a couple of CNR solo trips from Prince Rupert, B.C. to Yarbo, Sask. when I was 11-12. This was in the early 70s.

My mom gave me a box of baloney sandwiches, apples and about four Cragmont canned pops, and sent me on my way. It was a lot of fun.

I liked standing outside on the platform between cars, watching the mountains go past at pretty close range.

I've taken the TGV in France, too. It's so fast and smooth (and the stops in cities like Angers and LeMans don't take much longer than civic bus stops in Canada) that it doesnn't even seem like a train ride.


From: Saskatchistan | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged
Bobolink
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posted 22 February 2006 01:51 AM      Profile for Bobolink   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Another great trip is the steam-powered cog railway up Mount Washington in New Hampshire. I remember the smell of coal and cinders which brought back memories of the CPR in southern Quebec in the early 1950's.
From: Stirling, ON | Registered: May 2004  |  IP: Logged
arborman
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posted 09 March 2006 01:36 AM      Profile for arborman     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Man, the trains in 'eastern' Europe are awesome. Every little town has a station - you can go everywhere. Czech, Slovakia and Hungary are simply fantastic by train.

For the beer lover, you can do a beer tour. Go to Pilzen and have an original Pilsner, then carry on to Budweis and have a Budweiser.


From: I'm a solipsist - isn't everyone? | Registered: Aug 2003  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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posted 09 April 2006 11:55 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Here is an Observer article from a traveller who always chooses the train rather than "budget" flights to get around inside Europe" Make tracks in Europe

On his own site, the man in Seat 61 also discusses how to get deals on railway fares, and reminds us that trains travel city centre to city centre, and don't have the other hidden costs planes do, as well as the environmental factors and the pleasure in train travel itself, of course.

arborman, the countries you name are most certainly Mitteleuropa!


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
CWW
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posted 09 April 2006 03:13 PM      Profile for CWW     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We used to take the VIA from Salmon Arm BC to Golden once every summer. Incredible views of the rockies not visible from the trans-Canada. Lots of really neat tunnels, bridges and scenery.
From: Edmonton/ Calgary/Nelson | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 03 February 2007 01:11 AM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Has anyone here ever ridden the TranzAlpine from Christchurch to Greymouth, from one coast of New Zealand to the other?
quote:
It is rated as one of the top scenic train journeys in the world. The train crosses the patchwork farmlands of the Canterbury Plains, winds its way through the spectacular gorges and river valleys of the Waimakariri River, crosses the spectacular Southern Alps, via the alpine village of Arthur's Pass and past beautiful Lake Brunner before descending through lush beech rain forest to the West Coast town of Greymouth – a great base for visits to Punakaiki and the always popular glaciers.

The TranzAlpine includes both one way seating and tabled group seating. Both styles allow you to experience the amazing views while enjoying the company of other passengers on-board. An open air viewing carriage allows you to get even closer to the stunning scenery and provides many opportunities to photograph your favorite spots.

The journey is 223.8 kilometers long and takes just four and a half hours. There are 16 tunnels, and 5 viaducts.



As a bonus, it's now the most southerly regularly scheduled passenger train in the world, isn't it, since they axed the train to Dunedin?

From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Southlander
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posted 03 February 2007 02:47 AM      Profile for Southlander     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
A more southern NZ train http://www.taieri.co.nz/timetable.htm

Why is it so cool to write about trains? Why do they envoke such feelings?
There is the walking and talking, the constant vibration, perhaps like the womb? The being in touch (meeting locals, seeing people, being able to call out to, and wave, to the people you pass) but conversly the feeling of distance (we could almost be in a lounge chair, watching a documentary, we don't seem to affect the surroundings we pass thorough). Then there's the train stations, old, new, magnificant, decrepit, with flowers, with staff, unmanned. Fences and gates. The tiolets and restrooms, the tiles, the bars on the windows, the tickets, cardboard, plastic, paper, the cafe inside the train station (ten minutes to get a cup of tea in a china cup and saucer, stamped NZR) sellers on the platform.
The carriages, upstairs, old and new, roof racks, emergency stop cords, leather seats, seats that turn and face the other way. Tables that fold out, dining cars, white table cloths, small cafes in the corner of a carriage. Tiolets, rocking and lerching, don't flush in the station. Someone making up your bed for you. Your own compartment, with a sliding door. Over bridges, standing on the back platform, riding in the engine, watching the guards, clicking the tickets.
Going home, going back, holidays.
I have riden on only ten or twenty different train services, but they evoke such memories!
The view goes past floating or flying, but the inside of the train!
Catch a plane and they're all the same.

[ 03 February 2007: Message edited by: Southlander ]


From: New Zealand | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
N.Beltov
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posted 03 February 2007 06:17 AM      Profile for N.Beltov   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I took the train from Vancouver to Winnipeg when I moved here. I remember it like yesterday. Trains are a happy contrast to the hurried travelling of the tourist. They draw attention not only to the destination but also to the journey.

quote:
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi:There is more to life than increasing its speed.

[ 03 February 2007: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]


From: Vancouver Island | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 03 February 2007 02:17 PM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Southlander:
A more southern NZ train http://www.taieri.co.nz/timetable.htm

Lovely trip. Thanks.

But it's a tourist train, a scenic ride only, while the TranzAlpine from Christchurch to Greymouth is not only a scenic train journey but a working daily passenger train to Greymouth. Or am I making a wrong assumption?


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Southlander
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posted 04 February 2007 02:27 AM      Profile for Southlander     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Wilf Day:

Lovely trip. Thanks.

But it's a tourist train, a scenic ride only, while the TranzAlpine from Christchurch to Greymouth is not only a scenic train journey but a working daily passenger train to Greymouth. Or am I making a wrong assumption?


This is obviously the assumption the TransAlpine publicists are making, when they call it the most Southerly. However I think the difference may be mostly pedantic, as the Tairia train runs every day, and tickets are avilable one way or return. The service to Palmerston (not daily) is used by my mother sometimes to get to and from my sister's in Dunedin. What defines the difference between a scenic train and a passenger train? Both these trains are scenic, and they both carry passengers. I will concede many of the Tairia passengers do return on the same day, on the same train, however this criteria could also be applied to the other one, and surburban train lines, which are usually not purely scenic trips.


From: New Zealand | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 04 February 2007 08:26 AM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Southlander:
What defines the difference between a scenic train and a passenger train? Both these trains are scenic, and they both carry passengers. I will concede many of the Tairia passengers do return on the same day, on the same train, however this criteria could also be applied to the other one, and surburban train lines, which are usually not purely scenic trips.

I guess if the majority of the passengers come straight back after a 10 minute turnaround, they were there for the ride.

But what I was wondering is, might that also be true of the Christchurch / Greymouth run, which comes back an hour after it arrives? Or are the majority of those passengers people who actually want to go somewhere?


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Southlander
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posted 04 February 2007 11:31 AM      Profile for Southlander     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
If you go to their website, the giveaway on the Tairi train is the price, $40 one way $59 return to Palmerston, train is there 1 1/2 or 2 hours.
From: New Zealand | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 04 February 2007 12:59 PM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Southlander:
$40 one way $59 return to Palmerston, train is there 1 1/2 or 2 hours.

Or 45 minutes?

Once a week?

I don't see why they do that run? Not that I'm complaining, it's better than nothing. Why did Tranz Rail ax the Christchurch - Dunedin run?


From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Southlander
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posted 04 February 2007 02:08 PM      Profile for Southlander     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Wilf Day:

I don't see why they do that run? Not that I'm complaining, it's better than nothing. Why did Tranz Rail ax the Christchurch - Dunedin run?


Reason for run. People from Dunedin, family groups loved day out on Tairia line, get to repeat family fun day on trip to Palmerston.
Second query is a bit difficult for me to comment (usual foot in mouth problem) without insulting staff, however.... Govt in NZ often gave into union pressure and in several sectors people working for government were given very good wages and more expensive perks sometimes including accomidation, return transport, uniform service, days in lue, holiday pay rates, extras for family, etc. I do not know if this happened in the railways. The only place I know it still happens is in parliment itself!
Anyway, weither this contributed or not I don't know, but the railways were running at a loss, so the lines were closed.
I did catch one of the last trains to run Dunedin to Chch, and there were 5 staff on the platform organising the bags (one trolley full), and three people in the small on-train shop. However as it was possibly the last run, that may have been the reason for so many staff?

[ 04 February 2007: Message edited by: Southlander ]


From: New Zealand | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
Wilf Day
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posted 27 February 2007 01:24 AM      Profile for Wilf Day     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Anyone ridden the new train to Lhasa yet?

From: Port Hope, Ontario | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Lard Tunderin' Jeezus
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posted 01 August 2008 02:27 AM      Profile for Lard Tunderin' Jeezus   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I had the pleasure of riding the Eurostar through the Chunnel last week. TGV trains are very impressive, they are definitely something we should have; it makes me feel that I come from a rather backward place that we don't.

BTW, there were no economy seats left for the trip back to France, so I went Business Class. It came with a meal. The food was good, far better than I've had on any airline - and about 7000% better than the inedible swill I was served on Air Transat.


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Boom Boom
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posted 01 August 2008 03:55 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I hitch-hiled from Ottawa to Vancouver in 1968 and took the train back - it was a great trip, but I recall I was tired as hell, because I found it almost impossible to sleep on that noisy train. I gather it's improved since.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Willowdale Wizard
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posted 02 August 2008 12:48 AM      Profile for Willowdale Wizard   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
A list that is a bit biased towards British journeys ... but interesting nonetheless.

quote:
Oslo–Bergen

It took 12 years to build this 489km railway. Many break the journey at Myrdal for the spectacular branch down to the sea at Flam, so steep the train has five braking systems. The last stretch from Voss is seldom out of sight of fjords. The area around Finse was used for The Empire Strikes Back.

Where European Rail (020-7619 1083; www.europeanrail.com)

How much £87 Komfort class, one way

How long 7hrs

==

Exeter–Penzance

Arguably the finest stretch of main-line railway in Britain, the journey west from Devon’s capital begins with the glorious stretch along the seawall through Dawlish and Teignmouth. After the deep, wooded valleys of the South Hams, there are views across the flanks of Dartmoor before a succession of panoramas from lofty viaducts engineered by Brunel. The crossing of the Tamar by his Royal Albert Bridge marks the entrance to Cornwall. St Michael’s Mount is a fitting climax.

Where: First Great Western stations (08457 000125; www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk)

How much: £15.70-£67.80

==

Nice–Pisa

There are few stretches of railway so continuously beside the sea as this curve around the Ligurian Sea. Inland are the Alps crashing abruptly down to the sea. French groves of oranges give way to palm-sheltered promenades at the series of Italian resorts.

Where Rail Europe (0844 848 4069; www.raileurope.co.uk)

How much £31 one way

How long 9hrs 15mins

==

Lima–Huancayo

This journey over the highest rail crossing of the Andes takes you up to 15,688ft at Galera, and oxygen is available on the train. Once a daily train, it now operates about twice a month, though the carriages have been recently refurbished with windows in the roof and better seats.

Where Journey Latin America (020-8747 8315; www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk)

How much from £271

How long 3 days



From: england (hometown of toronto) | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
rural - Francesca
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posted 02 August 2008 04:25 AM      Profile for rural - Francesca   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I tear a little.

I was born in southern England, and you took the train like people take the TTC now. My grandfather had worked for British Rail and trains were always a big part of our life. We always waved at the trains, and they would 'toot' in reply.

Seeing a train now, gets me so excited. My daughter just laughs and joins in waving, my son slinks down in his seat with a grumble of 'mommooommmm".

With the daughter heading to college this fall we check both Ontario Northland's rail and bus service. The train is cheaper, but she has to get off in Orillia, which is a long car ride for me to get her. The bus will bring her to Barrie.

The problem is Lake Simcoe (can we fill it in?). The train goes down the east side, if it went down the west side it would be so much better.

She wants to ride the train, the bus makes her nervous (even more now). She's never ridden on a public coach before. But she grew up with Thomas the Tank Engine, her British grandparents ensuring both children had plenty of themed toys, videos, songs, clothes etc.

My father, a train fanatic, would go back to England and find the real trains the Thomas series was based on and take pictures of them for the kids.

Not a summer went by, that they didn't head over to Tottenham for a taste of train travel.

I once had a delightful conversation with a First Nation cousin who was 10 the first time he saw a train. He and his friends were walking to school and this bellowing beast was in the forest, spewing steam and smoke, huge iron monster. Truly terrified him. Such a contrast to my childhood where my grandfather would introduce us to the Engineer and we'd get a sneak peak at the engine compartment.

We had a wonderful time over tea comparing our impressions.


From: the backyard | Registered: Dec 2007  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 02 August 2008 09:14 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm taking a long train ride a couple of days from now, on Amtrak. It's much nicer crossing the border by train than by bus - when you go by train, the border guards and immigration come on the train and just walk through the aisles and ask for your documentation there. When you go by bus, everyone has to disembark and walk through immigration and customs with all our luggage and carry-ons.

The last time I went to the US, I took the train for the first time (that is, first time in the US, as opposed to normally taking the bus), coming back from NYC. It was very pleasant, and it was nice to see different scenery than the usual Thruway and I-81. Although...sigh...when you go by train, you don't get to see the gorgeous Delaware Water Gap the way you do when you go by bus.

Anyhow, looking forward to going both ways by train this time. It doesn't cost much more, and it's just so much more comfortable than the bus. And I don't even mind the length of the trip - 12 hours to relax, read, nap, write. What's a vacation for if not to be lazy for some of it?


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Policywonk
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posted 02 August 2008 05:13 PM      Profile for Policywonk     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm told the train from Singapore to Bangkok is nice. I've been on parts of it between Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
From: Edmonton | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
triciamarie
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posted 03 August 2008 02:49 AM      Profile for triciamarie     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Most memorable journey for me was a ten minute hop from Trenton Junction to Belleville, Ontario, in my teens, wearing full-on Halloween costume and makeup. My friend's dad worked for CN so she rode for free and we used to split the cost of my ticket. Way cheaper than a cab!

Before that, when we were wild kids we used to go sit and wait for the freight train, about 15 - 20 feet away from the tracks in the woods near our village. If you stood up on your knees and leaned backwards when the train went by, somehow the air currents would pull you forward a bit, so it would be like your upper body was floating.

Scary. Now my kids get a bit freaked out even being inside Union Station in Toronto on the track level. We do take them on trains fairly often just locally, and in a few years we plan to start taking vacations that way.

That's a great idea re: NYC. Hmmm....


From: gwelf | Registered: Jul 2006  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 03 August 2008 03:16 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Seriously, triciamarie, it's a really nice train ride. And if you're vacationing and not really strapped for cash, get business class seats. On Amtrak, the business class seats are not much more expensive - only $26 dollars more one way, so $52 round trip, unlike VIA, where you have to sell off your limbs or your firstborn to raise the money to pay for VIA 1.

But, unlike VIA, business class on Amtrak does not include meals and internet and such (although every seat has an outlet, so you can plug in your computer on the trip - you just can't go online). It's not "luxury class" like VIA 1. You get free non-alcoholic drinks, though, and the seats are very big and the leg room is vast - you can bring all your luggage with you as carry-on and there's room for it! That's what I did the one (and only) time I took Amtrak - upgraded to business class because it was so cheap to do so. This time, I had to really watch my pennies so I didn't do it - so I'll see what the regular coach seats are like tomorrow. They didn't look too bad from what I could see from the snack car.

That was fun too, by the way. The woman behind the counter on the snack car was gregarious and gossipy and altogether charming. So I spent a good hour of the trip chatting with her at intervals when she wasn't busy with customers, and so did a few other passengers.

The trains aren't as nice as VIA trains - they're older, and the windows are smaller. But the ticket prices are incredible compared to VIA. On VIA, if you want to travel from Toronto to Kingston one way (a 2.5 to 3 hour trip, depending on how "express" it is), you pay $84 coach. On Amtrak, if you want to travel from Toronto to New York City, you pay $100. For a 12 hour trip. Or $126 for business class. Very affordable.

Did you grow up near Trenton?? I have family there, and lived there for a couple of years myself when I was in primary school, so I know it well. We lived right near the train tracks too (in the neighbourhood near Domtar) and we were told fearsome stories in order to get us not to go near the tracks. The rule for us was, if you're standing on those black rocks (coal?) then you're too close. Soon after we moved in, they put in a service road next to the tracks, for trucks. So not only did we have trains whizzing past several times a day, and planes flying past from the air base, but the truck route meant traffic and trucks roaring by as well!

When we moved away, I missed the train noise. Once you get used to it, the trains and their horns become familiar and comforting.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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posted 03 August 2008 08:20 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Now, while I don't place much trust in Obama about anything else, any chance it will be easier for old activists to get across the border? I'd love to visit my friends in NYC, visit museums, even shop a bit (though no Sex in the City budget, and not even such a taste for shopping) - especially now that the dollars are more-or-less around par.

Michelle, while Via is criminally expensive, there are deals available. Strangely, any person over 60 (!) can have a companion travel free. My close friend K who is 62 is in better shape than I am - she is one of those lean, runner types who enjoys wilderness camping. There are also deals available buying in advance, and others on their website.

But the whole damned thing should be subsidised - and important routes such as the southern Prairie one brought back. Essential if anyone is serious about the global warming crisis.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 03 August 2008 08:45 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I have no idea how hard it is for activists to cross the border, lagatta. I'm not exactly the revolutionary type and I doubt they read babble. I generally don't have too much trouble crossing the border - the only thing they do to me is question me carefully along the lines of whether I'm going to try to stay in the country when I say I'm coming into the country to visit friends - they want to make sure I'm not coming to visit a boyfriend or something, and then try to stay. Last time, they told me it would be a good idea to demonstrate ties to Canada by bringing various documentation like rent receipts, proof of employment, financial ties, etc. Which is fine, no problem, I'll bring them along this time. I'd love to be a smart-ass and wave my health card in their face and tell them, "Here's my strongest tie to Canada...you don't need to worry about me trying to move here as long as you have no universal health care." But of course I wouldn't - I'd rather not get acquainted with the rubber gloves, even if they ARE for my protection.

On the last couple of trips I've taken, I've found the American border guards to be nicer than the Canadian ones. In fact, last time, I got this really kind, grandfatherly type guy at the US border. Coming back, though, I was embarrassed at the hard time the Canadian guards gave the two women across the aisle from me on the train. They were unnecessarily surly and rude. They talked to me in the same clipped tone, and I made sure to match my tone to theirs - I'm not afraid of the Canadian border guards. It's my damn country and they work for me.

But I'm deferential to the US guards no matter what their demeanor, because I'm always quite conscious of the fact that I'm not a citizen of their country and have absolutely no "right" to enter their country, and probably not a lot of legal rights either.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Sven
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posted 03 August 2008 09:21 AM      Profile for Sven     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I've crossed the border in and out of Canada many, many times (I grew up about six miles from the border--and I travel there at least once or twice a year for fun). I've never had a bad experience. I just refrain from joking around...like I do with most people I come in contact with. It's just "business" when crossing the border.

My favorite border crossing is going to and from the Northwest Angle. The border crossing is literally a red phone booth with a video camera. You just pick up the phone and answer their questions and you're on your way. Not sure why they even bother with the booth.


From: Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!!! | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
oldgoat
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posted 03 August 2008 09:26 AM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Me and Mrs. OG almost got turned down at the border once. It was before we were married, so about 29 years ago. We had both just left our jobs and were going to take our time, camping for about a month with no particular itinerary except to head south and drop by her Mom's on the way back in Keene NH.

Anyway, we had to go into the office and the guy said "how do we know you're not going to stay"? I guess we both looked so non-plussed by the idea that he figured we hadn't thought about it. We both thought "why the fuck would we want to" but both were smart enough not to say it.

A few years ago the whole family crossed over at some tiny burg south of Estevan Sask. It was post 911, so I was a bit concerned. They were thorough, but very pleasant, and a lot of them for such a tiny town.

[ 03 August 2008: Message edited by: oldgoat ]


From: The 10th circle | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
jas
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posted 03 August 2008 10:56 AM      Profile for jas     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I love the train, and I love Amtrak. I haven't taken VIA yet in my adult life as it tends to be kind of expensive. I was going to this winter go from WPG - Van but unfortunately my plans had to change. But I've taken the Amtrak Coast Starlight route a few times, as well as the grinding "Empire Builder" route (I think that's what it's called) from Seattle to New York - and back. That was awesome but I believe that was three nights o/w and no, not much sleep.

This winter I did the Coast Starlight to LA and we got hung up in the Cascades for a few hours. I noticed some people stretched out in the luggage room and I joined them. That helped, just to be able to get horizontal and doze off in snatches.

During the day I enjoyed hanging out in the lounge car listening to the changing local radio stations (C&W dominating the airwaves for some reason) on my low-fi setup and buying stuff in the snack bar.


From: the world we want | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged

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