After All: The gentle art of refreshing one's life with trains

Whenever possible I travel by rail. I know I am spoilt by Swiss Railways but it is wonderful to travel to the Tessin via the new Gothard rail tunnel in just over 3 hours when the motorists are spending the same time in the queue for the Gothard road tunnel   Trips on into Italy are also by rail easier than negotiating the motorways around Milan. I have yet to take some of the longer journeys but I find it exciting to look at the departure board at Zürich Main Station and see direct trains to places like Amsterdam and Hamburg.


I have traveled on the Bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo a very relaxing 6 hour trip but scary because it was built up the whole way, factories, houses and shops, no green spaces  


The Chinese high speed rail is also very good, ridiculously cheap and with some, to me, strange ideas. As a foreigner I had to present my passport to buy a ticket which then had the passport number printed on it. You had to pass your luggage through an airport type scanner to enter the station and you were only allowed on the platform shortly before your train was due. An hour long trip from Changzhou to Shanghai cost the equivalent of around £10. The Chinese also seem the find the scanners strange:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43057574


Best regards


Roger

Whenever possible I travel by rail. I know I am spoilt by Swiss Railways but it is wonderful to travel to the Tessin via the new Gothard rail tunnel in just over 3 hours when the motorists are spending the same time in the queue for the Gothard road tunnel   Trips on into Italy are also by rail easier than negotiating the motorways around Milan. I have yet to take some of the longer journeys but I find it exciting to look at the departure board at Zürich Main Station and see direct trains to places like Amsterdam and Hamburg.


I have traveled on the Bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo a very relaxing 6 hour trip but scary because it was built up the whole way, factories, houses and shops, no green spaces  


The Chinese high speed rail is also very good, ridiculously cheap and with some, to me, strange ideas. As a foreigner I had to present my passport to buy a ticket which then had the passport number printed on it. You had to pass your luggage through an airport type scanner to enter the station and you were only allowed on the platform shortly before your train was due. An hour long trip from Changzhou to Shanghai cost the equivalent of around £10. The Chinese also seem the find the scanners strange:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43057574


Best regards


Roger