200 years on, the joy and magic of train travel endures
Two hundred years after the first train plied, train travel endures despite being written off every now and then. The sway of carriages, the changing scenery through the windows and chance encounters make it the most enchanting form of travel
On a nippy, grey December morning in 2024, I joined a motley bunch of strangers at Bengaluru’s Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station for a trip to four colonial-era railway stations on the Bengaluru-Kolar line, organised by the Bengaluru chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), a non-profit that works to protect heritage. Laid around 1915 by the British, the line was a thriving commercial conduit but the stations had run to seed over time, until Intach stepped in four years ago and began restoring them with the help of local businesses and communities.
Over two hours, we hopped off and on to see the results of the restoration at Dodjala, Devanahalli and Avatihalli stations. All three are small stone structures with sloping Mangalore-tile roofs, wooden rafters, overhangs and stone columns, depicting a mix of colonial and local traditions, including the monkey top, the pointed window decorations that are a distinctive feature of Bengaluru’s colonial architecture. But it is at the last stop—Nandi Halt—that the colonial features are more pronounced. It is a big, rectangular stone building with an arched entry passage flanked by a few rooms which probably served as waiting rooms. The ticket counter is tucked away in a corner, where old-fashioned, pre-printed tickets are still issued from an Edmondson ticket machine.
The trip feels fortuitous, since 27 September this year marks the 200th anniversary of the first ever public train run—from Stockton to Darlington in Northern England. It’s a short journey, about 40km, but it set off rumbles in every direction that are reverberating till today. It’s a legacy that the British empire left wherever it went.
British author and railway historian Christian Wolmar in his book Fire and Steam: How the Railways transformed Britain (2008) characterises the railway as a “wonderful system that changed the lives of everyone in the nineteenth century and continues to play a vital role in the economies of many countries in the world nearly two centuries after the first tracks were laid." He is so convinced of their pre-eminence that he opens his book Railways and the Raj: How the age of steam transformed India (2017) on the history of Indian railways with “The British never really conquered India. But the railways did."
Be that as it may, it is the joy and allure of train travel that are most enduring, and no two train trips are the same. Every now and then, with the advent of automobiles and aeroplanes, train travel has been written off, only to be proven wrong.
While the railways have always had a strong going in India, at least in terms of passenger numbers if not ticket sales (increasing by an average of 5-6 % over the last few years, though it is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels), global train travel had been steadily declining until the covid-19 pandemic walloped the world. As lockdowns lifted, train travel saw a vigorous bounce back globally; people got on track for the combination of sustainability, slow travel and invoking the childhood joy of train travel.
Walking around the Nandi station engulfed me in déjà vu as I recalled a four-and-a-half-hour train journey from London to Glasgow, peppered with images of similar tiny stations. I’d boarded that train on a grey morning a few years ago at London’s Euston station. As London’s built-up sprawl slipped away, I saw farmlands edged by pretty hedgerows, little streams and canals, punctuated by clusters of houses and church spires. I stretched out in my seat, half-sitting, half-lying, and lazily listening to the muted conversations.
Unlike most Indian trains, it was relatively quiet, but voices carry in the silence and I eavesdropped on colourful gossip that moved from office and family to celebrities and politicians; two youngsters were discussing the previous night’s music concert; an amusing one-way phone conversation ensued between an exasperated son and presumably his mother. Unwittingly, I learnt so much by listening in.
As the train left the Midlands, the scenery changed. Patches of green expanded into broader and wilder expanses, reaching for the horizon. The green sprawl was broken by hedges and stone walls that enclosed sheep and cattle. In the distance on the eastern side, the Pennines stretched out like a muscular ridge while coastal plains and glimpses of the sea were visible on the west. Even though the coach was sealed, I could imagine the smell of the sea. Imagination turned to reality when the train stopped at Lancaster. As the doors opened, salty air rushed into the coach. A weak sun turned the waters of the Morecambe Bay into sheets of shimmering silver, a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
This set the tone for possibly the best part of the journey. Relatively flat expanses resolved into undulating ridges and valleys. The greenery felt bright and fresh under a shiny sun as the train rolled into the famous Lake District, the land of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats. As the train negotiated the Lune Gorge, the gentle rises and falls got more intense and became steep hills and deep ravines, fed by mellifluous streams and rivers.
Arguably, it is difficult to beat the beauty of the Lake District and I expected the rest of the journey to be a climbdown, but I was pleasantly surprised. At Carlisle, the train stopped for a few minutes. Close by was Hadrian’s Wall, a 2,000-year-old ruined Roman wall that runs for more than 115km, which is colloquially referred to as the border with Scotland.
The scenery changed again. Under a bright blue sky, expansive moors generously speckled with blobs of flowers stretched to the horizon while occasional squat farmhouses seemed to double down against buffeting winds. It felt ancient and untamed, the open spaces almost overwhelming.
Gradually the moors gave way for the rolling hills of the Southern Uplands, dotted with wind turbines whose blades turned lazily against a sluggish breeze. The hills quickly receded and yielded to Glasgow’s suburbs and bridges across the River Clyde. The train slackened speed and by noon, it slowly pulled into the city’s domed station.
RAILS OF POPULARITY
Before trains, the trip would have taken days, if not weeks. But people, and more so businessmen, were quick to catch on to the sheer convenience of trains soon after that inaugural trip 200 years ago. So much so that there was a “railway mania by the 1840s" resulting in a “stampede to form railway companies and lay lines," and that “the railways took barely two decades to reach all but the most remote parts of the United Kingdom," Wolmar writes in Fire and Steam. He goes on to add that “railways were not just about enabling people and goods to get around more cheaply and rapidly than ever before. There are so many facets of modern life that they did influence."
Though the extensive network in the UK was meant for the transport of goods primarily, and aid citizens in travelling for work and business, people quickly discovered it was a source of pleasure. By “1850s people were flocking to the trains, taking advantage of guaranteed cheap third-class fares or the numerous excursion trains which gave them the first taste of the seaside. The railways enabled them to sample fish and chips in their home town as well as by the sea," Wolmar says.
Across the pond, in North America too, train travel took off at similar speed in the 19th century with tracks being laid across the length and breadth of the US and Canada, and many families making their fortunes off the railroads. Today, many of these routes are largely scenic with highways taking most of the traffic, and one of the best train journeys in North America is the transcontinental passenger train The Canadian, a near coast-to-coast ride from Toronto to Vancouver, spread over four days. Strapped for time, I opt for a part of it, from Jasper to Vancouver, a distance of 800km that takes about 20 hours.
On the afternoon of a clear autumn day in late September, I arrived at Jasper station, which sits at the foot of the Rockies, overlooked by towering bluish-grey peaks contrasted against a bright blue sky. The air was fresh with the smell of pine and mountains. The light was golden and beautiful, warm, fall colours were everywhere. The train was already parked and gently humming in preparation for departure. It left in a flourish, with a short burst of its horn. Very quickly, all signs of civilisation fell away and wilderness engulfed us. Dense forests give way to meadows, glacial rivers and lakes, only to be swallowed again by thick wild greenery. Occasionally, there were glimpses of startled deer and elk.
The train soon approached the Rockies and slowly thundered through the mountains for over an hour-and-a-half. At Yellowhead Pass, both sides are flanked by jagged peaks, the most dramatic being Mount Robson, the highest in the Canadian Rockies, at over 4,000m. Its peak was ringed by clouds touched by the evening sun. The train was dwarfed by the mountain’s majesty.
The scenery shifted as the train left the Rockies and descended into British Columbia’s interiors. The mountains opened into vast swathes of forested hills filled with fir, pine and spruce interspersed with lakes and rivers. As the train entered a series of river canyons—Thompson and Fraser—the scenery shifted once again. There never really was a dull moment.
Soon, darkness fell like a curtain. Sitting in the panorama compartment with the seat slightly tilted back, it was riveting to stare at constellations and cosmic bodies. Together with the gentle motion of the train, it induced a deep and dreamless sleep. Several hours later, disembarking at Vancouver’s crowded station, with people rushing in all directions, the magic of the starry night sky and the majesty of the Rockies all seemed like a dream.
CARRIAGES OF DELIGHT
In contrast to this wild beauty are the picture postcard journeys Switzerland offers. As a Bill Bryson fan, I chuckled when I first read these lines in Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe: “There is this curiously durable myth that the European trains are wonderfully swift and smooth and a dream to travel on. The trains in Europe are in fact often tediously slow and for the most part the railways persist in the antiquated system of dividing the carriages into compartments. I used to think this was rather jolly and friendly, but you soon discover that it is like spending seven hours in a waiting-room waiting for a doctor who never arrives."
Imagine my shock, then, when my first experience of European train travel about a decade ago, on a Swiss train from Zurich to Basel, was quite the opposite. Not only was the journey swift and smooth, but such a pleasurable one owing to the stunning landscape. I was smitten by the experience and felt Bryson urgently needs to update his book, which, to be fair, was published in 1991.
Since that trip, there have been several other even more spectacular ones in Switzerland over the years. Up and down the mountains of Rigi, Schilthorn, Pilatus and Stanserhorn, trundling through vast manicured meadows bobbing with Alpine flowers and grazing cows, valleys dotted by villages with towering church spires surrounded by red-roofed houses, gliding along the edge of shimmering lakes of Lucerne, Geneva and Thun… the beauty overwhelms to the point of exhaustion. But the crowning glory amongst these is the slow and breathtaking journey to the top of Jungfraujoch, accomplished through a set of connecting trains from Interlaken. The last bit runs through tunnels, but the train stops a few times for passengers to get off and gasp at the blindingly icy mountainous landscape visible through large picture windows cut through the tunnel walls. If the tunnels are a cold engineering feat, the thoughtful gesture is heart-warming.
SPEED JUNKIES ASSEMBLE
Across the world, and at the other end of the speed spectrum, was my journey from Tokyo to Kyoto on a winter morning in 2019 on the famed Shinkansen, aka bullet train. It is so smooth that there is absolutely no perception of movement, even when it approaches speeds close to 300 kmph. There is no sound, nothing even remotely resembling the usual clickety-clack. There is a Kannada phrase for this kind of smooth motion: kudida neeru alladadha haage, where water that is drunk doesn’t move. About 40 minutes into the journey, there was a mild frenzy as people gravitated to the windows on the right. I joined the crowd and caught a fleeting glimpse of Mount Fuji, with snow covered slopes and its tip hidden in clouds.
Over the years, there have been other high-speed train journeys. The Eurostar from London to Paris: the train travels underground for 25 minutes and it is a bit unsettling to think of the weight of all the water of the English Channel sitting on the head. On the AVE between Malaga and Madrid in Spain, the train thunders through the countryside and everything is a blur, leaving a sensation of an endless expanse of olive trees laden with fruit. Germany’s ICE trains are the epitome of efficiency. But the Shinkansen is on another level altogether. It is fast, smooth, noiseless. The train zips through 450km in just over three hours, while rice paddies, rivers, villages, towns and distant mountains merge into an abstract collage of green and blue. As the train quietly entered Kyoto, there was no frenetic activity. Everyone lined up and de-boarded in silence, in an orderly manner. For an Indian, it was a culture shock.
As much as each train journey stands out for the unique experience, they are also united by diverse human interactions. Fleeting relationships that are meaningful in the moment. I have discussed the merits of “curry" over “pilaf" in Britain, entertained a toddler while the harassed mother prepared a bottle in Spain, shared ready-to-eat upma with the coach attendant of the Cairo to Luxor overnight train in Egypt, talked politics with a German, had a hilarious time trying to explain cricket to an Italian, been angrily glared at by an office-goer on his laptop on a Swiss train when a friend and I giggled a lot, and held forth on the diversity of Indian food with a Russian, a Mexican and an American on an Amtrak train. Just like the free-frames that flash by, so too these conversations; briefly alive and quick to dissipate.
An incomplete list of the best train journeys in the world
The Reunification Express, Vietnam: Spanning over 1,700km, this network of trains offers an adventurous way to experience the country, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. No single train carries this name officially and the experience can be had from any train on the route. Misty mountains, paddy fields, and languid villages glide past while a constant barrage of Vietnamese food and talk is on offer.
The Ella to Kandy Train, Sri Lanka: Called one of the most scenic train rides in the world, the seven-hour journey on narrow tracks snakes through verdant tea country, undulating hillsides with waterfalls and stunning landscapes.
The Ghan, Australia: Running north-south, from Darwin to Adelaide, the route has a history going back to the 19th century. Spread over three days, the journey covers the ridges of MacDonnell Ranges as well as the opal mining town of Coober Pedy.
Palace on Wheels, India: Cocooned in luxury and old-world pampering, it touches Delhi-Jaipur-Agra and is like a fairy-tale journey through the country’s royal history with decadent food to match.
Southern Cross by Rovos Rail, Africa: Spread over 11 nights and crossing four countries, the Southern Cross is a mesmerising experience of southern Africa. Off train cultural experiences and trips into Kruger, the Drakensberg Mountains and Victoria Falls are just some of the highlights.
Bernina Express, Switzerland and Italy: The train goes through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges between Chur, Switzerland, and Tirano, Italy. There are breath-taking views of Swiss mountains.
Royal Scotsman, UK: With just 40 passengers, Belmond’s Royal Scotsman departs and arrives in Edinburgh, circumnavigating the heart of the Scottish Highlands. It passes such stunning landmarks as the Kyle of Lochalsh and Cairngorms National Park.
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Europe: Running from London to Venice and stopping at a changing carousel of European cities, the journey offers jaw-dropping views of the countryside.
Andean Explorer, South America: With just 35 cabins, the Andean Explorer weaves through the Peruvian Andes at 14,000ft and gives guests a memorable experience, aided by alpaca wool blankets and a diverse sampling of Peruvian cuisine.
Rocky Mountaineer, US: The train winds through 350 miles from Moab to Denver, offering a magical way to witness the landscapes of Utah and Colorado. The journey is best done on the train’s glass-domed observation carriages.
Anita Rao Kashi is an independent journalist based in Bengaluru.
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