Long Distance Rail Travel

[erkpod]

I know this is a FF forum but sometimes, you've just got to catch a train! Or you're someone like me who is a rail tragic from way back & has been in the industry for a long time (20 years next February for me).


We were having a discussion in another question thread comparing air & rail travel between NYC & DC & the subject of high speed rail came up but there's nowhere here to really put those discussions that are general in nature.


So I'll start one here!


What long distance train trips have you enjoyed?


What high speed trains have you been on?


For me:


High speed trains I've done, all in 2011:

Shinkansen (Tokyo - Hiroshima & vv)

TGV (Paris - Lyon & vv)

Eurostar (Paris - London, ow)

ICE (Amsterdam - Frankfurt ow)

Thalys (Amsterdam - Brussels & vv)


AVE (Madrid - Sevilla & vv)

Highest confirmed speed on in-car display was the ICE at 300kph. Mind you, it was 46°C the day I rode the AVE.

Favourite/best trips were the Shinkansen & Eurostar.


Long distance (not high speed):

Indian Pacific (Sydney - Perth vv)

Various Amtrak trains (LA - New Orleans, New Orleans - Miami via DC, NYC - PDX via Chicago & DC)

EDIT: Forgot to mention trips I did in the UK on various trains.

London - Sheffield - Edinburgh - Glasgow - Liverpool - Oxford - London.

My favourite Amtrak trip was LA - New Orleans on the Sunset Limited. Too bad I started that trip with the effects of food poisoning picked up in LA.

 

[nlagalle]

I did Alice Springs to Darwin on the Ghan in 2006 for the Baton Relay. It was fantastic and would do it again.

 

[samh004]

I traveled Europe with my mum in 2007, Frankfurt - Vienna - Budapest - Prague - Frankfurt. Was pretty good other than the brief bit of rail in Slovakia where we were made to pay for our tickets all over again

 

[SeatBackForward]

I'm a bit of a railway nut too (my decision to become an engineer, not the toot-toot kind, was based on my childhood enjoyment of all things railway related)

What long distance train trips have you enjoyed?

My longest train trip was Delhi to Bangalore in Second Class A/c. 50hrs got to watch the sun rise on New Years out of a train window. I was originally on a two hour flight, but all flights were cancelled due to fog, so this was another option, and using a foreign passport and paying in USD meant I could grab a tourist quota seat on a train that is sold out several months in advance.


Otherwise, perhaps the most scenix trip I've done was Seattle to Vancouver by Amtrak. Rails right on the beach!

What high speed trains have you been on?

The Shinkansen in Japan from Tokyo to Hiroshima and Nagano is the fastest I've been on. Very amazing system they have, and the speeds gliding out of Tokyo above the rooftops, before plunging kilometre after kilometre of tunnels is simply spectacular. All of course to within 15second accuracy! Would love to get to go on the high-speed networks across Europe, but as that side of the world is not high on the to-do list, it might not happen. Of the Chinese high-speed network might be the next big one to venture onto. And no unless our population double rapidly, it aint happening in Australia.

For me:


High speed trains I've done, all in 2011:

Shinkansen (Tokyo - Hiroshima & vv)

TGV (Paris - Lyon & vv)

Eurostar (Paris - London, ow)

ICE (Amsterdam - Frankfurt ow)

Thalys (Amsterdam - Brussels & vv)


AVE (Madrid - Sevilla & vv)

Highest confirmed speed on in-car display was the ICE at 300kph. Mind you, it was 46°C the day I rode the AVE.

Favourite/best trips were the Shinkansen & Eurostar.


Long distance (not high speed):

Indian Pacific (Sydney - Perth vv)

Various Amtrak trains (LA - New Orleans, New Orleans - Miami via DC, NYC - PDX via Chicago & DC)

My favourite Amtrak trip was LA - New Orleans on the Sunset Limited. Too bad I started that trip with the effects of food poisoning picked up in LA.

Perhaps its my childhood experiences, but the railway network in India is simply amazing. The sheer scale, size and complexity of it is hard to comprehend, even when seeing it first hand. I remember one occasion I was at a station, waiting for my train, it eventually arrived 9hrs late..but hearing other announcements - 12hrs, 16hrs late, I think the latest was one running about 32hrs late!

 

[medhead]

ICE multiple times FRA to Munich. Did FRA to Koln with mum and hit a displayed 305 or there about. We also have some video from in the train drivers cabin. He sped up for us.

TGV FRA to Paris and also Paris to Bordeaux.

The Spanish high speed train Madrid to Barcelona.

Then long distance trips of note are Rome to Munich. Then the Orient Express Vienna to Venice.

Munich to Budapest was also interesting.

The sunlander in 1982 was also interesting. Stopping in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason for 30 minutes.

 

[erkpod]

I really like the Amtrak Superliner lounge/cafe car with the lounge on the upper deck & the cafe on the lower deck. It's a nice time to pass the time away & you can see out of the windows easily.

 

[trooper]

Several AMTRAK trips... longest being Chicago to Sacramento... also El Paso to Dallas.... LA to Albuquerque....Niagara Falls to NYP.

Remember the old Southern Aurora? Did that... and the GHAN from Adelaide to the Alice...

..and the MAGLEV from PVG to the city....

Will fit some more in as opportunity allows!

 

[erkpod]

I loved the Shinkansen - didn't matter to me if it was in economy or in Green Class - an experience I'm looking forward to repeating in February 2014.

 

[amaroo]

EuroStar (Paris - London ow)

Maglev (Shanghai vv)

AVE (Madrid - Sevilla ow)

Shinkansen (Tokyo - Kyoto vv)



Next one will be Dec this year

Acela (NYC - DC ow)

Favorite would be AVE Madrid-Sevilla.......lovely scenery.

 

[trooper]

Whoops... forgot the Colombo to Galle trip..... I really should do a TR on THAT! Standing up most of the way down etc...

 

[Simo]

Not a huge fan of rail travel.

I do it it commute to meeting some times when car is not convenient.

I would like a shadow on my commutes into meetings in the city but no can do.

But maybe just never been given the right opportunity to enjoy it either.

 

[SFSC]

Good train memories:

High Speed

TGV Paris to Tours (visited Château de Chenonceau) - 2002
ICE Frankfurt Fernbf to Munich (saw 300 kph indicated near Nürnberg) - 2012

Other

Northern Tablelands Express Sydney to Maitland. My first journey as an unaccompanied child. I ordered an icecream in a dish topped with malt and caramel sitting up at the buffet car and the engine was a 35 class - 1953
Sunlander Brisbane to Cairns in a sleeping compartment with our then 18-month-old - 1974
D&S Narrow Gauge Railroad Durango to Silverton return - 1984
Amtrak Grand Junction, CO to Omaha, NE - 1984
BAM1748 Sydney to Thirlmere drawn by 3642 - 2010
Ghan Adelaide to Darwin 2012

 

[here2go]

As backpacker 13 years past I took the train from Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec, Halifax, Montreal, NYC, WashingtonDC then across to San Jose. Interesting who you meet, and things you see.

 

[bass_ke]

I love a good train trip!

We've done the full spectrum In Japan from the Shinkansen, to some of the slower JR routes on Kyushu (Kagoshima - Beppu - Fukuoka), to some of the random little single car trains on the Eizan electric railway - love Japanese trains!

We did a bit in Europe including the Eurostar and a train from Paris - Milan followed by some slower trains from Milan - Pisa - Naples - Sorrento.

Where we've done the bulk of our train travel is SE Asia, land borders are good fun! I've still got a hand written "Exit stamp" crossing from Johor Bahru to Singapore.

Thai sleepers are great fun, I had one of my favourite street vendor experiences outside the train station in Hat Yai waiting for a train at some ungodly hour. I managed to watch a Thai version of hey hey it's Saturday with the family running the stall and have a good yarn with them in body language!

Sri Lanka was a kinda cool experience on the train, we road from Galle to Hikkaduwa Nadi spent most of my time standing in the end of the carriage wedged in with only my pack and the world racing by a few centimetres to my right!

 

[moa999]

Fastest
Shanghai Maglev - both at top speed and 300kph
China G-Set Guangzhou - Wuhan
Japan Shinkasen Tokyo - Osaka
Done Eurostar a number of times

 

[footy99]

Japan have nailed rail travel. I've spent a few months there on different trips taking the train everywhere. The fast ones are never even a minute early or late, without exception in my few hundred trips. Always have a reserved seat with the JR Pass. It's just a delight. That JR pass also gets you onto incredibly expensive trains and buses too, which if you were going to take them anyway, pays for the whole pass. Not the best for overnight but there is always a Comfort Hotel outside pretty much every station which is excellent quality for under $50/night to break up the longest ones from Hokkaido to Kyushu.

On long distance trains, I really liked China for the price. I think the longest trip I took was around 60 hours (Beijing to Dunhuang) in a hard sleeper for about $60, which was excellent. The soft sleepers are mostly for tourists to feel more secure or families who like the space to themselves. I took numerous hard sleeper basic overnight trips too. Full bed, great night sleep, watch the world go by during the day through the massive windows and try to communicate with the locals through a combination of your terrible Mandarin and their only slightly better English. On very popular tourist routes, there are even a few trains with English menus and toilets (Z trains from memory), which is a bonus.

 

[casanovawa]

Been on a few train rides including Eurail pass in Europe in 2008..

2008
Amsterdam-Cologne-Munich-Geneva-Zurich-Salzburg-Vienna-Budapest-Venice...
The first two legs were on ICEs in Germany but i seem to recall only seeing about 160kmh coming up on the display inside?? The scenery climbing out of Zurich towards Salzburg up through snow capped mountains was simply amazing... The trip from Budapest to Vencice was about 14 hours overnight but on a seat rather than a bed, but i remember quite a few stops by rather disagreeable Croatian security as we transited that country and one lady being hauled off at the Hungary/Croatia border...

2010
Took some not too fast trains from Paris out to the Normandy area (Caen/Bayeux) to look at the Omaha beach/US military Cemetary etc..

2011
Train too and from Aguias Calientes to near Cuzco to then go up Machu Picchu, scenery was reasonabe there as well plus Rome-Naples trip

2012
Trained from Prague to Bratislava and then took an overnight sleeper train from Bratislava to Krakow before dropping my bags at the hostel to go straight out to Auschwitz.

2013
Took a regional type train from Tokyo out to Kamakura, before then taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka... Unfortuantely no speed display (in english anyway), but did the trip in about 2h40m... Haven't gone and looked up the distance but pretty sure that would be the fastest train i have been on...

 

[SeatBackForward]

We've done the full spectrum In Japan from the Shinkansen, to some of the slower JR routes on Kyushu (Kagoshima - Beppu - Fukuoka), to some of the random little single car trains on the Eizan electric railway - love Japanese trains!

I remember in one day we went from Hiroshima to Kawaguchi on the northern side of Mt Fuji, 7 different trains, the latest one off timetable by about 20seconds.. But yes some little lines too, apparently they still run them at a decent profit

 

[medhead]

Been on a few train rides including Eurail pass in Europe in 2008..

2008
Amsterdam-Cologne-Munich-Geneva-Zurich-Salzburg-Vienna-Budapest-Venice...
The first two legs were on ICEs in Germany but i seem to recall only seeing about 160kmh coming up on the display inside??

160 sounds about right for the trains beyond Munich, night trains and such and perhaps on some sections on the ICE towards Munich. However, the Koln to Frankfurt track was, apparently the only 300km/h section in Germany in 2005. So you should have hit 300 at some stage in 2008. 250 should have been at least done between Frankfurt and Munich as well.

 

[samh004]

But maybe just never been given the right opportunity to enjoy it either.

There's plenty of rail experiences offered by QR, I did one around this time last year, up to the Toowoomba flower show and back again in an old carriage. Then they've got some really expensive inland trips too.