Pages in category: Notes

European Rail News
published on 1 May 2021
We count it as a great privilege to have been allowed to publish each monthly Newslines column from the European Rail Timetable (ERT) on this website. It was ten years ago today that we received that permission from the then publishers of the timetable. We take a moment to delve back into ERT history.
published on 5 April 2021
We take a look at recent books by travel writers Tom Chesshyre and Vitali Vitaliev, both of whom are keen rail travellers. Each writer shows a strong focus on journeys, rather than just emphasising the destination.
published on 8 December 2020
Three routes in our Europe by Rail book are affected by major track renewal programmes in the first half of 2021. Get updates on how train service changes in France, England and Serbia are affecting travellers following those three routes.
published on 4 August 2020
Tony Judt, who died ten years ago in August 2010, is remembered as a first-class historian. But he was also a great advocate for rail travel. Berlin-based writer Paul Scraton shares thoughts on Tony Judt's enthusiasm for the train.
published on 15 May 2020
As a response to the pogrom against the Jews in Nazi Germany, the British Jewish community organized the Kindertransport which brought nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish children to Britain in 1938 and 1939. One of the children who came to Britain was Frank Meisler, then a boy of thirteen. He would grow up to become a sculptor.
published on 17 January 2020
Brendan Fox’s contribution to the European Rail Timetable extends over four decades. He was appointed Assistant Editor in 1982, moving up to Editor in 1985. He has now retired - for the second time in fact. Here's our tribute to Brendan.
published on 20 April 2012
Okay, so we've been a little lax of late. We've taken quite a spell out to travel and now feel refreshed and renewed after some very memorable rail journeys around Europe. All in the interest of researching new routes for the 2013 edition of Europe by Rail. Among the memorable rail journeys that either or both of us made in March and April 2012 were trips on five named trains.
published on 2 December 2011
There is something quite exquisite about grand railway termini. Folk fly through them, the dash for the train diminishing the status of these great cathedrals to travel. But these are not places through which one should rush. An earlier generation of Londoners referred to Victoria station as the "gateway to the continent". Victoria's role has been eclipsed by St Pancras — the grandest of termini in a capital that has many fine railway stations.
published on 10 June 2011
We sensed we were crossing into another world as the Moscow-bound train rumbled over the long bridge that spans the River Bug. The reed beds are full of wildfowl which are not troubled by the frequent trains that rattle overhead. This is the border wilderness that divides Poland from Belarus. It marks one of Europe's great divides: the Curzon Line.