Munich to Paris

It was approaching the end of our trip, but this particular leg was one I had been especially looking forward to. Any journey between two of Europe’s greatest cities is always going to be an exciting and evocative one, not least when it is a sleeper train. Moreover, this was going to be no ordinary…

Zurich to Graz

Scouring the departures board at Zurich’s main railway station, there was a moment of mild alarm when our intended Graz sleeper train wasn’t there. In its place though, at exactly the same departure time, was a train to Belgrade. I thought for a minute, and realised that given Belgrade was beyond Austria, this was indeed…

Interchange

Montparnasse.  My head was slowly adjusting to the French signs and adverts, to the sound of a not quite familiar language, and the value of prices in a currency I didn’t often use.  The same hubbub and background noise of any major transport interchange, blurred by the high roof, but in a slightly different accent.…

Flying by train

Our three week rail journey through Europe began with a twenty-four hour trip from Inverness to Toulouse.  It could not have presented a starker contrast between the antiquated rail system in Britain and the superb high-speed rail network of mainland Europe. Our sleeper from Inverness to London was a cramped, clunky and slow old beast,…

The Great Olympic Bargain Berth Fiasco

Friday morning was the last cog in the wheel in terms of planning our summer’s European rail adventure: three weeks, seven countries, and eleven trains.  You’ll of course be hearing more about this trip in due course. Over the past few weeks I’ve been watching various European  train operators’ websites like a hawk, waiting for…

The Next Stop

I got back this weekend from a six-day journey down the Inverness to Edinburgh train line.  I stopped at every station, twenty-three in total, including my start and end points.  I tried to spend at least a couple of hours in each place, staying overnight where timetables dictated.  It was an interesting chance to see…

The advantages of being delayed

I spend a lot of time on trains.  Too much, at times.  I’m at the stage where I recognise train conductors, can recite stations along routes my most regular routes, and have often found myself at the whim of the vagaries and foibles of ScotRail.  Mostly, to be fair, ScotRail does a good job, though…

Going off the rails?

You may have read a wee while back about the Scottish Government’s consultation on rail services in Scotland beyond 2014. When launched, it made a few headlines because of eye-catching questions like whether alcohol should be banned from trains or whether the sleeper service and daytime cross-border journeys between the north of Scotland and England…