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Train Journeys
February 8, 2006 - 6:12am
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
A pity that railways have become so expensive. A friend from Toronto, visiting the Quйbec solidaire congress, wound up flying as there were no more discounted tickets to Montrйal, and the plane was actually cheaper. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
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?
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.
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. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
What's great about the French trains is that they actually work. They are fast and new and they work! [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
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.
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.
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. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
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. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
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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 ]
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.
Train porn! [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Just a phenomal trip.
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. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
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 ]
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.
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.
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.
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.
[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] 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.
They are very proud of having travelled so much in their vast country, from the Himalayans to the tropics. [img]cool.gif" border="0[/img]
The Great Railway Bazaar.
My kids have done that. I haven't yet. What is wrong with this picture?
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.
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.)
Another great trip. Our kids actually have pleasant memories of it.
[img]confused.gif" border="0[/img] 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.