World's Top Ten Scenic Train Rides

Plane travel can be pretty boring. Sure, it gets you there in a hurry, but there's not much to look at along the way. And driving is fine for passengers, but drivers miss the sights as they concentrate on avoiding accidents or missing exits. Personally, I prefer to take a train and do so at every opportunity.

The Society of American Travel Writers surveyed its 1,100 Canadian, American, European and Asian professional members. These travel editors and writers, plus travel industry experts, were asked to rate the 10 most exciting train journeys in the world.

Here are their Top Ten train trips:

1. Sierra Madre Express: This train in northwestern Mexico passes from tropical coastal valleys to a high plateau, traversing through the spectacular gorges and rivers of the Copper Canyon.

2. Glazier Express in Switzerland: The trip runs between Zermatt and St. Moritz, passing through 91 tunnels, over 291 bridges and offers countless magnificent viewpoints.

3. Canadian Rockies: The two-day run between Vancouver and Jasper, Banff and Calgary on the Rocky Mountaineer is the first of two Canadian trips selected. This popular ride passes through Jasper National Park and the Yoho Valley, just west of the Alberta-British Columbia border. The valley is so steep, trains would regularly run away down the slope. So the railroad built the famous spiral tunnels to reduce the grade to a safe level.

4. Venice Simplon-Orient-Express: This is a train journey into the past, a romantic re-creation of railroading from its golden era, with 5-star service, food and scenery.

5. Cuzco-Machu Picchu, Peru: Only four hours long, this unforgettable trip is one of the most thrilling train rides in the world -- travelling high in the Andes Mountains of Peru to the lost city of the Incas.

6. Blue Train, South Africa: This first-class train -- with service, food and scenery to match -- travels 1,000 miles from Pretoria to Cape Town, passing through the Karoo Desert and the Kimberley diamond fields.

7. Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado: Opened in 1881, this narrow-gauge railroad still uses steam locomotives to travel the 45 miles between the two Old West mining towns, passing through mountains and canyons along steep, hair-raising cliffs.

8. White Pass & Yukon Route, on the Alaska/Canada border: Built in 1898 during the Klondike gold rush, this train travels through some of North America's most dazzling scenery between Alaska's Skagway and Fraser, British Columbia. Travellers than switch to a bus to travel on to Whitehorse, capital of Canada's Yukon Territory.

9. TGV between Paris and Geneva: One of the world's fastest trains glides through pleasant French and Swiss countryside at speeds of up to 269 km per hour (167 mph).

10. Nile Valley Express in Egypt and the Royal Scotsman of Edinburgh, Scotland: These two tied for 10th place. The Egyptian train journeys from Cairo to the ancient wonders of the Valleys of the Kings at Luxor and at Aswan follows the Nile River, on this British-built railway dating back to 1870. And the "world's most exclusive train," the Royal Scotsman, carries 36 passengers and 14 crew. It's really a moving hotel that tours Scotland, offering gourmet meals and wines in restored rail cars.

Close finishes: Jungfraubahnen in Switzerland; Tokyo Bullet to Takayama; Moscow to St. Petersburg overnight train; Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in India; and the Bergen to Oslo, Norway, train.

Personal choice: Somewhere I would have placed the Toronto to Vancouver VIA Rail trip, a stimulating passage through Canada's vastness. After all, it's hard to top the matchless beauty and grandeur of our mountains, forests, rivers and prairies.

© June 2000 Fifty-Plus.net

I am very inexperienced, but I do recall the train out to the rural area from Calcutta had some cool drunken bum fights that were interesting to watch.

damn, all those sound real nice.

the Machu Picchu train would be my first choice.

The paris and geneva is a close second.

I'd love to catch a ride on the Moscow to St. Petersburg train.

Originally posted by Snow Walker

3. Canadian Rockies: The two-day run between Vancouver and Jasper, Banff and Calgary on the Rocky Mountaineer is the first of two Canadian trips selected. This popular ride passes through Jasper National Park and the Yoho Valley, just west of the Alberta-British Columbia border. The valley is so steep, trains would regularly run away down the slope. So the railroad built the famous spiral tunnels to reduce the grade to a safe level.

Fuck yeah, we rock. Those spiral tunnels are crazy.....

It's just as nice a drive, though, too....

OK, I didn't want to start a thread so I searched for any threads about the film, Darjeeling Limited and this is what I found.

On topic with the thread, I've only ever done long distance train rides in Australia and Europe/ UK and I would have to say that the ride from Berlin to Prague is absolutely beautiful. For a large portion of the trip, the train snakes along the very scenic, Elbe River Gorge. I whole heartedly recommend it to anybody interailing. As an added bonus, they're both rad cities that you want to visit.

Now, why I was searching for threads related to the Darjeeling Limited is because last time I watched it (today), I noticed for the first time that when they are visiting the first temple and one of the brothers goes off to pray on his own, there is a mysterious boy standing on his own holding a gun. He is just in the right of the shot as you are facing the brother praying. The gun is pointed towards the brother but not at him. There is absolutely no mention of it in the film and I can't find anything on wiki or anywhere else about it.

There must be an explanation. Anybody?

Couldn't you have posted this in the films thread? Pretty tenuous link here...

On the topic of railways I saw some guy going through Madagascar on the train on TV a while ago, it looked amazing.

I don't know but this is a good theory here.

Taken from the IMDB messageboards:

"my guess would be that the kid with the gun symbolises what Brody feels is the murder of his current life by his newly arriving first child. As they say when you have children your life ends and you become a servant to your childrens lives."

Since my only internet these days is on my phone and its a bitch getting around sites I'm not gonna post the link to the thread of my train trip from oregon to indianapolis on amtraks empire builder in january but you can click on me and find it that way.... Iguess I'm sayin it was awesome, about a month ago I took the same route back to portland and have some awesome pics of the trip but this time it was basically summer and I tried to flick the same spots.

I would love to post this trip but I aint got access to any computers.

Ps.

The Slut girl who's titties I slept on on the train had a pole dance session on a corner of the lower level I got flicks and would like to share, maybe soon dudes.

I think #5 sounds pretty awesome. I recently went to Colorado Springs CO... they have a cog railway that goes to the top of Pikes Peak . I didn't ride it though... I was only there for the Hill Climb.

Parramatta to Town Hall circa 1988.

Best art gallery in the world.

I've ridden trains all around South Korea and Japan.

Shit is beautiful once you get into the countryside.

I love trains.

CHOO-CHOOOOOO

I think #5 sounds pretty awesome. I recently went to Colorado Springs CO... they have a cog railway that goes to the top of Pikes Peak . I didn't ride it though... I was only there for the Hill Climb.

Looks fucking rad!! The view and the train cars. I'd never heard of a cog railway before.

 

Close finishes: Jungfraubahnen in Switzerland;

 

I have taken many trips & spent a lot of time in the Bernese Oberland, all of the area trains and boats are beyond words.

Actually, any trains/drives through the ALPS are amazing.

The train line along the Rhine is nice, I plan to dedicate a whole trip to just travel the river by boat and visit many castles.

I also enjoyed the train from Berlin to Prague (in Autumn).

I'm supposed to be about 20 miles away from Silverton right now camping with family..

Here:

Looks fucking rad!! The view and the train cars. I'd never heard of a cog railway before.

 

 

I've done that. Recommended.

Looks fucking rad!! The view and the train cars. I'd never heard of a cog railway before.

I HIGHLY recommend that everyone goes to the top of Pikes Peak... it is a toll road... it is totally awesome, I had no idea that I'd be out of breath like that though in the upper elevations.

I think that cog rail way is very very old... you should be able to pull up some history on it if you dig around.

Bergen to Oslo, Norway

I took this, it was expensive and it sucked.

But it was my fault. Left around 3-4pm on a winter day so I caught like 30min of daylight.

At one point I realized we were crossing a fjord or something, but it was pitch black outside, couldn't see shit.

ive taken a train from santiago chile south to villarica or temuco i forget.....awesome shit guy

 

CHOO-CHOOOOOO

your execution is impecable my son.

now come, join me in the hills of utah on my compound where you will have more prepubesant women than one could dream and an unlimited supply canadian beer.

I got the train from New York to Montreal, had to make an emergency stop because some dude was wilding out just before the boarder.

I ate a hot dog in the snack cart and nearly shit my pants.

I took the same train in the opposite direction

wasn't too much fun what with the 2 hours sitting at the border...

your execution is impecable my son.

 

now come, join me in the hills of utah on my compound where you will have more prepubesant women than one could dream and an unlimited supply canadian beer.

Throw in acid and/or shrooms and you have a deal.

I prefer elderly women though.

I got the train from New York to Montreal, had to make an emergency stop because some dude was wilding out just before the boarder.

iv done that route aswell, and for the record... east coast borders are jokes. aint nothin like crossing from b.c. into wash, or vice versa for that matter.

and amtrak is whats up. iv gone montreal to new york/new york to chicago/chicago to portland, and plenty of quickies from vancouver to seattle.

booze on board ftw.

iv had shit happen(searches) you wouldnt believe.

complete with unblocking and handing over my blackberry, mechanics under carrage sliders with two cutoms agents underneath for like 20 minutes dressed with elbow/knee pads and weird searching "sticks" (whatever the fuck they do), all the seats removed from my vehicle aswell as under the hood checks complete with my battery being removed and more than a few hour long interegations.

all cause i used to pass very frequently visiting an exgirlfriend whos canadian visa expired and had to move back to the states to seattle.

I took a train out of NYC 2hrs. upstate on the hudson river and was very impressed. I had no idea New York was so beautiful.

Can you gimme a likelihood ratio of me not getting into Canada because of previous misdemeanors based on borders or suggestions of where to cross on either the west or east coasts?

ny has def a pretty landscape, same with jersey. it was a trip going thru montana of all places aswell. literally like thousands of buffalo wondering the plains feeling like yer on some straight cowboy shit.

montana was also good to me for other reasons passing thru aswell, seen a holllow onna panel as we hammered thru some yard. which was pretty fucking kewl, considering apart from the early 2000's i really dont paint many trains no more.

it was a good feeling, i coulda been looking the other direction, or sat on the other side of car. never woulda seen it.

shit was koo.

word

i dunno why homie but canadian customs are alot tighter than the americans. guess we try and uphold some tall standing do-gooder society gameplan.

criminal records coming into can make shit tricky. best advice i can give to anyone that asks is get yourself a little file folder elementary styles and get yourself as much documentation as you can muster up, the more the better.

im talkin employment records, bank statements so they can see you have a few bucks without having to much and making them think you aint gonna leave. print out addresses of hotels and/or peoples places youll be staying at. and on, and on.

sounds like alot, but really a little planning with some time to wait for the documentation(s) to be sent out will go along, long way. its well worth it, i do exactly the same things when i head south and thus luckily iv had a ton of expierience dealing with them so i know how they work, what they say/ask and everything they need.

again, its worth it. canada is a really kewl place if youv never been. youll be surprised how different, yet the same it really is. and vancouver specificly is well worth the little effort youll have to put in. great city, great vibe. all the things you get from a major american city without the brutal neighborhoods and racial profiling wether it be from police or anyone on the street that gos down like clockwork down there. i mean, dont get me wrong. were a very big city with big city problems, just not to nearly the extend a city of our size would have south of the 49th.