Hall of Fame

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.