Photo by Jools Stone

This is how my 2 week Trans Canadian rail trip begins. There’s no time to get maudlin, I’ve a train to catch and a 2 day wait if I miss it! Entering the palatial Union Station feels like a religious experience. It’s a veritable cathedral to rail travel. Like many cathedrals its high ceilings and polished floors echo with emptiness. Apparently it’s Canada’s busiest transport building, busier even than Toronto Airport (abstractly coded YXX for some reason) ferrying some 200,000 people a day. But at 9.30pm on a Thursday you wouldn’t guess it.

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Travellers and foodies visiting London need no longer be confined to the newest eateries that have hit town, the swankiest bars or the latest trends in food and cuisine. A contender has arrived on the scene delighting train travellers and gourmands alike.

Last year’s trip to London took me on a voyage of culinary discovery right in the heart of St Pancras International. The refurbished train station became home to the Eurostar in 2007, and with a modern makeover, a remarkable range of eateries and bars have made themselves at home and turned a vintage station into a food haven.

From the moment you step through the station, your eyes are draws to the arched blue steel and deep orange bricks. Geometry plays an integral part of the design, leading your eye into the distance adding another dimension of space.

Comprising two levels, the lower level is dominated by the Eurostar departures and ticketing. Further along, you might think you’re in a shopping mall or retail arcade were it not for the trolley bays and travellers wheeling their luggage. A strip of shops and informal eateries run along each side where you can pause for a coffee and croissant at the likes of Le Pain Quotidien, enjoy a glass of wine at a Wine Bar or browse through a bookshop for something to read on your outward journey.

Away from the ebb and flow of commuters, the upper concourse offers a more subdued ambience. Art and upmarket eateries occupy the vast space surrounding the platforms from which the Eurostar and regional trains depart.

The statue of former poet Sir John Bentjeman pays homage to his role in saving the old station. Equally impressive is The Meeting Place, a tall statue of a modern couple locked in an embrace.

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Well hang on just a darn cotton pickin’ minute there because the almighty locomotive of rail news of  interest to myself and seven other people is about to bullet into town.

This week’s Rail Good Find!

InterRail Alternatives

My pick of the week this time goes to promising new travel blogger and photographer Jonny Whitlam for his myth busting post on alternatives to the time-honoured gap year tradition of Inter Railing.  Jonny argues quite sensibly that depending on where you plan to travel in Europe it can often be cheaper to buy individual tickets or combine it with buses.

This is especially true in parts of Eastern and Central Europe as he points out and in parts of the Balkans where, for example, you can cut your journey in half by getting a bus form Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast to Istanbul. Then again, who wants to sit in a smelly coach for 8 hours?  It does beg the question as to whether InterRail is gradually falling out of favour with the travelling yoot of today.

This great find came via the lovely Cathy Sweeney of the fine Travelling with Sweeney blog.

Flickr Photo by Michael Ruiz

Back to Back with Amtrak

Now here’s a dream gig for you.  Observer journalist Anna Pickard snubbed the warnings of her American friends and spent 15 days travelling some 6,500 miles across America on woebegone national operator Amtrak, taking in Seattle, Chicago, LA, New Orleans and San Fransisco along the way, the lucky little chipolata.  She found it a ‘soul calming’ experience gliding through such vast expanses of landscape, watching the grain silos slide by her window.  I’m with her all the way: I can feel my own soul unfurling with a purr of contentment just reading her account.  It’s a journey we have pencilled in for our Honeymoon in the next year or two.

Get Motorinoing

Here’s quite a handy 10 point guide to getting around Italy by rail with Tenitalia, courtesy of the Italy Inside blog.  Regular readers may remember my own slightly frustrating experience with the vagaries of the Italian transport network in rural Tuscany a few posts back, so it’s worth getting a bit of inside track from the man who amusingly refers to himself in the third person as Motorino Man.

Sounds like a motivational speaker doesn’t he? Hopefully his tips will motivate you enough to give the Italian train network a try and explore such bella cittas as Rome, Florence and Venice. Rather charmingly he advises you to ‘bring some bread and proscuitto with you’ for the journey, possibly in a little red spotted hanky tied to a broom handle. Boun Viaggio!

Flickr Photo by Tambako the Jaguar

Who would swindle the Swiss?

Well apparently Joanna of the Kaleidoscopc Wandering blog would.  But seeing as she loves train travel so much we might let her off . In this post she explains how to take full advantage of the super clean, hyper efficient Swiss rail network, including the pros and cons of buying the various Swiss Rail passes and taking a dip in the Swiss Chocolate Train which slides with velvety smoothness from Montreaux all the way deep into Gruyere country.

Eurostar and Duetsche Bahn  seal the deal

In my last round up I looked at the competition between the two European rail powers. A pleasing development since then has been an agreement between DB and Eurostar to work together in High Speed rail projects throughout Europe from 2013 onwards.

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Glasgow's Clockwork Orange (underground) / Photo by Jools Stone

Apart from the occasional trip to the excellent Kelvingrove Museum & Gallery, the city means two things to me: shopping and gigs.  Last night I was on my way to see the brilliantly animated ‘gangsta country’ band Felice Brothers, and more on that soon.

Glasgow seems to get the lion’s share of decent bands in the central belt, Edinburgh – despite having some fine venues – just doesn’t compete.  I don’t know why: maybe the Edinburgh Festival saps everyone’s event energy for the year or perhaps it’s just the  innate conservatism of the place.

A circular line of 15 stations with overwhelmingly orange interiors

Anyway, as last night’s gig was at Oran Mor, far away in the boho, studenty enclave of Ashton Lane and Byres Road, (you can tell it’s a posh bit of Weedgieland cos they’ve got at least 2 artisan delis and a Waitrose) I jumped straight off the overland train from Queens Street to the underground one at the confusingly named Buchanan Street station, which is directly outside, to the right of the main entrance.

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Smoke on the tracks / Photo by ashley rose

This book charts her journey around most of America’s coast, the many interesting encounters she has with ordinary people and the personal memories some of these trigger in the author. As with much of her travel writing, it’s more about an inner journey and a retraction from the world than a straight travelogue. I’ll be posting more about her in my forthcoming round up great rail reads.

Some trains still allow smoking onboard

Anyway, most of her encounters take place in the smoking car, bar or lounge, where strangers often open up to her with surprising candour. The book was published in 2002 and since then smoking has been banned on board all Amtrak services with the exception of the Auto Train which ferries drivers and their vehicles from outside Washington to near Orlando. (I’ve no idea why this train gets special treatment – anyone across the pond care to enlighten me?)

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Leaving Preston on the Caledonian Sleeper / Flickr photo by Danny McL

So earlier this year I gave the Caledonian Sleeper a whirl, zipping me from my from my hometown of Edinburgh to my old stamping ground, London. This goes shuttles between the two cities with just a few unobtrusive stops en route (Carstairs, Carlisle and Watford Junction) and we were fortunate to bag a bargain mid-week single for around £30 a piece. Admittedly it was just the first leg of an amazing journey on the Orient Express, but more of that later…

Getting on board

The train sets off from Waverley at 11.30pm, but we were hopelessly early as usual and had plenty of time to stock up on vending machine provisions for the long night ahead.  Our steward didn’t exactly greet us with open arms, but we were boarded efficiently enough with plenty of time to settle into our cabin.  Maybe capsule is a better word. Space in our 2 person bunk was tight indeed, but it’s fine once you’re decanted and our cases fitted neatly in the overhead slot.

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