Outside the UK, I find travelling by rail so much more enjoyable than by air. Yes, it’s slower, but it’s exciting, refreshing, romantic and so many other things. The main pleasure for me is the stations themselves – often towns within cities, sometimes cathedrals of their time and built recently enough to have a place in the modern world yet old enough to remind us of another era.
Take New York’s Grand Central Terminal. For starters, what a name – so much more appealling than Birmingham New Street or Wakefield Westgate! The largest station in the world, marble everywhere, complete with a barrel-vaulted ceiling containing 2,500 stars, a Whispering Gallery and 22 restaurants.
Times have changed since Lauren Bacall – in her wonderful autobiography, “By Myself and Then Some” – describes how she left New York by train as a young actress to go to Los Angeles (and then meet and marry Dirk Bogarde ….). Three days on the train to get to Los Angeles – “The station was large, but nothing like Grand Central”, she writes. But no station is. It now serves only the northern suburbs and Connecticut, but it still has a magical feel to it. I’m lucky to have been to it a couple of times, and if I ever go back to New York, Grand Central Terminal (along with the Brooklyn Bridge) are the two places I would always go back to.
Closer to home there are still stations that do offer that opportunity to get on a train and arrive the next day in another capital city. When I stand it a Parisian Station and see all the exciting places I could get to by jumping on one of the trains that are standing there, I get a shiver of excitement. A couple of times I have used European overnight sleeper trains and whilst they can seem like they are verging on Dickensian in their facilities, I don’t care – it is just such an evocative way to travel!
And so unlike the Eurostar experience. Generally efficient, but not a lot of fun. I feel like I am being herded, as at an airport. I can feel my enthusiasms for all things trains oozing out of the palms of my hands as I think about Eurostar, so enough of that.
Even closer to home we have the London Underground. I always enjoy going on the Underground as it reminds me of visits to London as a child, but I’m aware that people living in London may have a different take on it! I visited the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden earlier this month and was really surprised to see how many underground stations had closed over the years. For some reason I only thought that had happened with over ground trains.
And I see blogs being like railway stations. Virtual stations for the 21st century. People come and go – some people are regulars, some people visit occasionally. Some have a real hustle and bustle about them, others are less frequented. Some grow in size and are updated, others fall into disrepair and are closed. Some have a real ‘wow’ factor to them, others … well, others just don’t.
So what’s your favourite railway station and why?
Paul
