Modes of transport - Miss Alice

Question of the week: what's your favourite way of getting about?

"I love train travel - to me it seems like the most civilised way of getting about, especially now you can take the Eurostar and get almost anywhere in continental Europe by rail. No faffing about getting to airport, much less of that 'hurry up and wait stuff' that makes taking the plane such a pain, no lost luggage, no extra charges for daring to have a suitcase, and when you get there, you're actually there - slap bang in the middle of your destination city, not in some airport several miles outside.


It's a little late to be posting for National Poetry Day, which was last week, but The Night Mail has to be a contender - it's a classic 1930's documentary film, following the mail train from London to Scotland narrated by Auden's poem of the same name (the dvd is in the library, if any of my students are reading) Isn't it magical?

The BBC did something similar in the 1950s and again in the 80s, with a time-lapse journey from London to Brighton, which is less lyrical, but still hypnotic. The modern version? How about London to Glasgow in 5 minutes.

Practical stuff? nationalrail.co.uk is your one-stop-shop for times, routes, and ticket prices for the UK (when you get to the booking stage, pick one of the rail companies, who don't charge you fees on top, and not trainline.com, who do) and for Eurostar, eurostar.com.

Some people rate air travel for glamour, but me, I'll take the train. It's not all about Victorian nostalgia, either - although I can't imagine how anyone can not be moved by the soaring architecture of the big Victorian terminus station. Yes, it's great to be able to sit and watch the countryside roll past outside your window, but one of the reasons I love train travel is that it's productive time for me. I get really travel sick in cars and on coaches, but on a train I can read, or write, or, if I'm on one of the swish 21st century trains, plug in my laptop, fire up the wifi, and spend a couple of hours getting on with stuff - and watching the country roll past outside my window."
- Miss Alice

* Photo 1 by will likes tea and biscuits, used under Creative Commons. Photo 2 by me.