Spectacular scenery, unhurried itineraries and interesting fellow travellers with whom to share the journey – there’s nothing quite like taking the slow train. Andrew Eames shows that it’s not always about the destination, but how you get there
This local circular line throws a lasso around the city of Yangon, splicing suburbs and countryside as it goes. The trains have open carriages with no doors or windows, and set off regularly from the main station fully laden with a stream of walk-through vendors selling everything from watermelon to sweet tea. The full route takes around three-and-a-half hours, but you can jump on and off along the way. Key stops are at a wet fish market right by the tracks and then at the giant fresh produce market in Danyingone, where the air fills with flying bunches of fruit and vegetables as traders scramble aboard. Beyond, it jogs past farmers standing knee-deep in the paddy fields, before doing a slow pirouette down the city’s western flank. Its modernisation commences this year, so don’t miss this backwater gem before it’s hurtled into the 21st century. From £1pp. go-myanmar.com
Japan may be famous for trains that go fast, but some of its slow trains are pretty memorable, too. The Kure Line meanders between Hiroshima to Mihara along the steep, scenic shoreline of the islet-strewn Seto Inland Sea - Japan’s equivalent of the Med. This gentle journey allows you to connect to the Sanyo Line on to Onomichi – a port town worth savouring. It’s a favourite local route and at weekends the trains fill with the smell of miso and ramen as passengers unwrap elaborate bento box lunches en route. It takes around two hours total and promises an authentic taste of local life along the way. On arrival, expect waterside bike paths, a retro shopping arcade full of craft boutiques and restaurants plus a hillside temple walk. Stay at trendy industrial hotel, Hotel Cycle, on the revitalised wharf development, Onomichi U2. From £11pp. westjr.co.jp
The Bernina Express is one of the slowest international expresses on the planet (around four-and-a-half hours), but who wants to go fast when you’ve got scenery like this? This immaculate red train is the spitting image of its more famous sibling the Glacier Express, and follows much the same route, zigzagging up the Unesco-listed Albula Pass, crossing tumbling rivers, staggering viaducts and chasing its tail in tight, mountain-disembowelling tunnels. At the top it makes a break for the border, sidestepping St Moritz and climbing higher, past glaciers and minty-blue lakes. There are several trains on the route daily, so break the journey at the top, at Ospizio Bernina, to walk to Sassal Mason, where two crot (cellars) stand next to a mountain café affording a view of the Palü Glacier. Then, pick up the train at Alp Grüm and descend through vineyards into glorious, pastoral northern Italy. From £51pp. rhb.ch
The Bohinj Railway was built by Austro-Hungarian aristocracy who wanted a convenient route from the imperial court to Slovenia’s elegant lakes and Italy’s Friuli vineyards. These
days it’s an old rattler of a train which rambles past lakes Bled and Bohinj, on the sunny southern side of the Alps, in around two hours or so. The former has the faded gentility of an old- fashioned spa resort, with a romantic church-topped island in its middle, while mountain-surrounded Bohinj is wilder and more outdoorsy. After Bohinj, the train burrows through a six kilometre-long tunnel under Mount Kobla, before bursting into the valley of the River Soča, famous for its emerald-green water and marble trout. After rumbling across stone river bridges, it dives off west to its final stop, Nova Gorica, a border-straddling town which is now counted as a single metropolitan zone along with Gorizia, its Italian sister. From £6.30pp. slo-zeleznice.si
The Petit Train Jaune or ‘Little Yellow Train’ is a mountain goat of a service which leaps up through the tumultuous scenery of the French Pyrenees to Latour-de-Carol, on the Spanish frontier. Here you can cross the border, change trains and descend through the sunny uplands of Catalonia right down to Barcelona, all in one day. The intrepid little locomotive sets out from Villefranche-de-Conflent, a medieval fortified town which has been both French and Spanish, before climbing up through 19 tunnels to the highest railway station in France (Bolquère) at 1,593m. The train runs all year round, and you can wave it down at any of the stations en route and buy tickets as you board. During its three-or-so-hour journey, it clatters over its own power source: rivers are big producers of hydro-electricity hereabouts. Some of the rolling stock dates back to the early 1900s, including open coaches with bench seats in summertime. A curiosity near the top is the enclave of Llivia, a little splodge of Spain surrounded by France. To connect to Barcelona, jump off at the sleepy little commune of Bourg-Madame, from where it’s a 20-minute walk to the Spanish station in Puigcerdà. From £21.60pp. ter.sncf.com
The West Highland Line invariably features on lists of the world’s most spectacular rail journeys. The route – starting at Britain’s most westerly station – is active year round, but
The Jacobite, which runs between April and October, offers one of the most picturesque scheduled steam-hauled services in the UK. It was also the train that played the part of the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter with a kaleidoscope of mountains and lochs behind. Beyond bracken, as it goes from glen to glen. The last hour of this two-Peninsula to stay at Doune, famous for its glorious sunsets and excellent local food. Regular train from £7.40pp; steam train from £37.75pp. scotrail.co.uk westcoastrailways.co.uk
Regularly referred to as ‘the most beautiful railway journey on Earth’, the Flåmsbana is something of a miracle in rail engineering, the route climbing as it does a remarkable 863m in its exhilarating 20km haul up the valley of Flåmsdalen, connecting the mirror-calm waters of the Sognefjord at the bottom with the mainline between Oslo and Bergen at the top. It’s a short but sweet sojourn of around an hour each way, and for most of its passengers it is part of a ‘Norway in a nutshell’ package. The loop starts with local trains and bus from Bergen to Gudvangen, where a boat is waiting for a two-and-a-half hour voyage to Flåm, down the Unesco-listed Nærøyfjord, a narrow ribbon of very deep and still water between towering walls. From Flåm, the train then creaks and squeals its way up its tortuous valley full of tumbling rocks, through what looks like Scotland on steroids, to connect once again with the railway back to Bergen. The hills here are streaked with whitewater, and the train even stops by the Kjosfossen’s thunderous 225m cascade so that passengers can take photographs. From £33pp. visitflam.com
If you’re not expecting it, the orchard-cloaked landscape of the Val di Non in the southern Alps comes as a delightful surprise. This is Melinda country, where swooping hills are carpeted in apple trees as far as the eye can see (farmers here produce a staggering 70 per cent of Italy’s and 15 per cent of Europe’s apples). Expect glorious blossom in spring and russet-hued harvests in autumn, plus eye-catching hilltop castles all year round. Threading through all of this is a little hill-climbing train which starts down in the valley at Trento and ends up, two hours later, in the small village of Mezzana in Val di Sole. From June through to September, special castle-visiting services run regularly – eleven-hour itineraries with a lunch of local produce included, along with transfers to castles Thun, San Michele, Caldes and Valèr. To fully savour the high valleys, take a taxi from end-station Mezzana to Hotel Cevedale in the pretty village of Cogolo, a wood-lined property with its own fine-dining restaurant. Regular train from £4.20pp; castles service from £59pp. iltreninodeicastelli.it
There are few places in the world where you can experience all the charisma of steam locomotives working hard during both winter and summer, but Germany’s Harz Railway (HSB) offers just that, on its privately run network of 140km of narrow-gauge track in Lower Saxony. Wernigerode is the heart of the HSB, where the locomotive workshops are located, and the trains leave town with much ceremony and clanging of bells in preparation for the climb into the forested hills. A lot of walkers get on and off at Drei Annen Hohne, particularly because a branch line snakes all the way up the Brocken – the highest peak in the Harz mountain range at 1,125m. Beyond Drei Annen Hohne the landscape is mainly woodland, with many a hiking trail leading off among the trees. At Eisfelder Talmühle you need to change trains to continue to Quedlinburg, chugging along a pleasant and pastoral route which first crosses a high plateau before ending, four hours later, in a town famous for its cobbled streets and timber-framed houses. From £23.30pp. hsb-wr.de
Ella to Kandy, Sri Lanka Chug through Sri Lanka in open carriages on a six-hour ride through lush tea plantations, with travelling vendors selling spicy on-board snacks. First class has air-con but you can’t open the windows, so book second
if you want a proper view. From £11pp. bookaway.com
Lima to Huancayo, Peru Witness the snow-topped Huaytapallana mountains on Ferrocarril Central Andino, the world’s second highest train route, which winds its way through the Andes. You’ll cross switchbacks, 58 bridges and 69 tunnels before reaching Galera – which sits at a staggering 4,782m. From £123.59pp. ferrocarrilcentral.com.pe
Adelaide to Darwin, Australia Shimmy along Australia’s fiery Red Centre aboard luxurious hotel-on-wheels serviceThe Ghan. The trip lasts three days, with stopovers in art-rich Alice Springs and Katherine, where you can cruise down the Nitmiluk Gorge. From £1,176pp. journeybeyondrail.com.au
Guayaquil to Quito, Ecuador The elegant Tren Crucerooffers a four-day adventure in the southern Andes. You’ll pass through coffee and banana farms, stopping each evening in
a local town, before climbing up the dramatic cloud-clad Devil’s Nose mountain. From £1,431pp. trenecuador.com
Chicago to San Francisco, USA From the soaring Willis Tower in Chicago across the majestic Colorado Rockies, theCalifornia Zephyr sleeper travels over 3,000km of America in three days. Watch from the all-glass Sightseer Lounge as you pass through the dramatic Sierra Nevada. Or hop off and on at Salt Lake City, Reno or Denver. From £114pp. amtrak.com
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