Great Train Journeys of the World, edited by Andrew Eames,
Time Out£16.99
Train journeys are suddenly hip. Maybe it’s the sudden realisation that we can’t keep taking flights everywhere that makes them environmentally appealing, or the fact that some ubersleek lines can hurl us across a continent at 300km/h, or the opportunity they give us to see and interact with the country we are travelling through on the way from point A to point B.
This large-format book is full of the romance of travel by train, with 40 trips from six continents taking in 30 countries and 100 cities. The trips are listed under headline-style chapters, such as Crossing Continents, State of the Art and Heritage Railways, with substantial travel articles on each, “siding” break-out panels for stopover suggestions, and information on how to book tickets, which is not as straightforward as you might think on some of the more obscure lines.
What is most surprising about these trips is just how different each is, from the scenery and the experience to the physical characteristics of the locomotives themselves. It’s all very well enjoying the sleek comfort of the AVE, which can make the 1,000km trip from Barcelona to Malaga in a little over six hours, but the shunting glory of the creaking Udarata Menike train line, which follows the Ceylon trading route to the high hills of Sri Lanka’s tea-growing country, seems a more thrilling proposition.
That said, there is plenty of luxury on offer here, although some of it comes in surprising places. The sumptuousness of the Orient Express was never going to be ignored in this collection, but the Hiram Bingham line that trundles up to the Peruvian wonder of Machu Picchu is perhaps the most unlikely location for a luxury rail line in the book.