By Ted Thornhill, Mailonline Travel Editor

Published: 04:47 EDT, 23 September 2023 | Updated: 04:47 EDT, 23 September 2023

City Pub Group sees increase in revenues despite poor weather and train strikes

• Revenue increased to £31.7m for the first half, up from £26.7m 
• Like for like sales at London-listed pub operator were also up 14%

By Daniel Fessahaye

Updated: 10:41 EDT, 21 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

Read any interview with an Olympian, A-lister or high-flying entrepreneur and they’ll likely reference rising at the crack of dawn, whether to train, meditate or start firing off emails.

The idea that ‘the early bird catches the worm’ has such a grip on society that getting up as early as 5am has become semaphore for good health and great success – even those of us who’d rather have a lie-in are lucky to set an alarm for much past 7am, thanks to the timing of the typical working day.

But in fact experts say as few as 5 to 10 per cent of people are true ‘larks’ (early to bed and early to rise) with most (myself included) preferring to both go to bed, and get up, later.

The bad news is that we night owls (late to bed and late to wake) could be at a serious disadvantage when it comes to long-term health.

A study published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggested that late types could be 19 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than early birds.

The research, undertaken at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, looked at the health outcomes of almost 64,000 middle-aged female nurses over a period of eight years and also found that those who described themselves as night owls were 54 per cent more likely to have unhealthy lifestyle habits including smoking, inadequate sleep and low levels of physical activity.

The good news is that it could be possible to ‘retrain’ yourself to have a healthier sleep type.

Every one of us has a ‘chronotype’ – also known as a circadian preference – which refers to our preferred timing of sleep and waking.

This is mostly genetically determined, but can be dynamic as it’s also influenced by factors such as our hormones (more on that later). Our chronotype lies on a spectrum between being a lark and an owl. Inbetween types are known as doves.

As Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience and head of the Sleep & Circadian Neuroscience Institute at Oxford University, explains: ‘Our internal clocks – located within our suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), an area deep within the brain – are set to a cycle of around 24 hours.

‘However, it is only around 24 hours: they tick a little faster or a little slower depending on the individual. These differences are due to changes in one or more of our clock genes.’

This wide spread of sleep-wake times is specific to humans, he says, and is thought to be adaptive: ‘In early human societies, it would have probably been very useful for tribes to have a certain number of their population vigilant at different times of the day.’

Today, however, being a night owl can be a burden. But it is possible to change your chronotype to better fit with modern life – within reason.

Experts say that it could take only a few days if you keep to a strict regimen. Our sleep-wake times have roughly two hours of ‘flex’ built in – so if you’re a night owl, heading to bed at midnight and waking around 8am, you could realistically become a lark happily bedding down by 10pm and rising at 6am.

Professor Foster says: ‘With a good routine and commitment to early light exposure, this degree of shifting your chronotype is realistic.’

But he adds: ‘Sleep is as fundamental [to our existence] as being awake. I can see that for many people today, having larkish tendencies would be much more convenient – but it mustn’t come at the expense of sleep duration.’

I certainly think I would be better off as a lark. I was born a late type and have always had a fractious relationship with sleep, having spent years unable to balance my inability to fall asleep in good time with the need to get up early for school and, later, work.

Now, added to the mix, I have a six-month-old who likes to begin the day anywhere between 4am and 6am – and I’d love to greet the morning with as much enthusiasm as he does.

But before you set about trying to shift your chronotype, it’s important to understand the factors that shape it.

‘The first is your genes,’ says Professor Foster. ‘There are subtle changes in the clock genes, Per and Cry1, which can speed up or slow down our internal master clock, the SCN.’

‘Second, our chronotypes change over time, from childhood to old age,’ he adds.

‘From about the age of ten, there’s a tendency to want to go to bed later and later.

‘Then from your 20s onwards there’s a slow shift towards becoming more of a morning type again, and by the time you’re in your late 50s, early 60s, you’re getting up and going to bed at about the time you did as a pre-teen.’

This amounts to a difference in ideal sleep and wake times of on average two hours – meaning if you enjoyed a midnight bedtime in your 20s, by your 60s around 10pm will feel more natural.

This change is associated with the alteration in hormonal levels associated with puberty: ‘The sex steroids – oestrogen in women and testosterone in men – interact with the master clock within the brain,’ says Professor Foster.

As I am breastfeeding, my oestrogen levels are likely to be quite low – so perhaps that would help make mornings easier for me at the moment, I wonder. Professor Foster hypothesises that it could well do.

Excellent news – this should make my journey from owl to lark easier.

The third, and most important factor to consider in altering your chronotype is light exposure.

Light helps keep our 24-hour body clock running to time, entering through the eyes and signalling, via the retina, to the SCN.

‘The key thing to remember is that morning light advances the clock,’ says Professor Foster.

‘So if you want to train yourself to be a lark, get outdoors in the morning light as soon after dawn as you can for at least 30 minutes; you’ll find it easier to go to bed earlier and get up early the next day. Exposure to light at dusk has the opposite effect.’

And simply sitting by a window won’t do when it comes to becoming ‘more lark’ – nor will switching on the lights.

‘We have data to show that just 30 minutes of light at 10,000 lux can have an effect on our brains, but average domestic lighting conditions are about 100 lux, office lighting is maybe 400 lux, so we’re effectively living in dim, dark caves,’ says Professor Foster.

He suggests using a lux metre (around £15 online; free on an app on your phone) to assess the lighting conditions in your home. To really make you feel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, add in some movement – ‘morning light exposure and exercise can act synergistically,’ says Professor Foster.

He adds: ‘There’s evidence that the timing of physical exercise will also shift the clock – as well as morning exercise being good for your metabolism.’

So would making these kinds of changes help me? I decided to try it out for a month. As it turns out, I had a secret weapon: my cocker spaniel Vincent.

‘There’s some data that suggests people who own dogs have better sleep-wake patterns,’ says Professor Foster.

One theory is that this is because you have to get up and get them out in the morning. ‘And that gives you a ‘photon shower’ [shower of light particles],’ he explains.

The first morning I took Professor Foster’s advice and threw open the curtains at daybreak: but the light on that cloudy day measured just 410 lux. Even outdoors on my patio it was just 3,426 lux.

This suggests that in the UK even a half-hour outdoor photon shower may not cut it – especially as we head into winter.

‘The answer may be to use a lightbox,’ says Professor Foster, ‘and have your breakfast in front of it.’ (Popular models will set you back around £60 to £90.)

As well as throwing open the curtains and hitting the patio first thing, I try to take an early dog walk – well before noon – and head to bed at a respectable 10pm (OK sometimes closer to 10.59, rather than my standard midnight-ish).

After a month, while my chronotype isn’t quite transformed – partly because a new baby makes my nights so unpredictable – on the days that I’m able to follow my ‘lark’ routine, I feel so much better, and find the following morning – and the next, and the next – considerably easier.

The key is consistency, says Professor Foster. But I know the darkening mornings will make it hard to keep up momentum. Time to look into that light box…

Kim Jong Un is believed to be en route to Russia ahead of a summit with Vladimir Putin that has sparked western concern about a potential arms deal that could bolster Moscow‘s on-going war in Ukraine.

A brief statement on the Kremlin’s website said the visit is at Putin’s invitation and would take place ‘in the coming days’.

It also was reported by North Korea‘s official Korean Central News Agency, which said the leaders would meet – without specifying when and where.

Reports in South Korean – citing intelligence sources – said the North Korean dictator is currently in transit, travelling from North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang to Russia, likely the eastern city of Vladivostok where Putin arrived today.

However, unlike most modern-day diplomatic meetings, it is understood that Kim is not travelling by private jet, but rather on his very own heavily armoured train.

Kim has rarely left his isolated country since he assumed power in 2011 following the death of his father Kim Jong Il, and has not done so at all since before the pandemic.

When he has, he tends to use the luxuriously decorated racing-green locomotive to make state visits to neighbouring China and Russia as an alternative to air travel.

As is the case with many aspects of North Korea, little is known about Kim’s train itself, and few outside the country have ever stepped on board.

But thanks to photographs from state media, accounts from the select few who have travelled on it and intelligence reports, we do at least have some idea.

Firstly, we know that it’s slow.

According to reports, Kim’s train has a top speed of 37 miles per hour. (By comparison, across most of the UK trains have a maximum speed of 125mph).

The distance from Pyongyang to Vladivostok is – as the crow flies – slightly less than 430 miles, meaning even if the train could travel in a perfectly straight line at its top speed, the journey between the two would still take around 11 hours and 40 minutes.

Naturally, that is not the case.

Instead, the lumbering train must wind its way through the North Korean hills before crossing the narrow border with Russia and finally navigate around Amur Bay.

A lack of information about North Korea’s rail routes means it’s hard to gauge exactly how long the journey takes, but his last journey to Vladivostok took 20 hours.

The vagaries around Kim’s arrival, as well as the time and date of his meeting with Putin, suggests this has been accounted for.

From what we know of the train, it is easy to understand why it’s so sluggish.

According to a 2009 article from South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, which cited intelligence reports, the train has up to 90 rail cars in total.

What’s more, each of these cars is understood to be heavily armoured.

Georgy Toloraya – a Russian diplomat who travelled with Kim in 2001, wrote at the time Russian technicians had found armoured sheets beneath the two main rail cars used by the North Korean dictator for accommodation and official purposes.

The technicians, who carried out an inspection of the train, also found the cars originated from the Soviet era, but had been heavily modified at some point since.

Some cars are also believed to have been designed to carry vehicles. Toloraya later wrote that two armoured Mercedes were carried on the train when he travelled on it. 

This suggests a host of other weighty cargo could be carried in the 90 carriages.

On board, Kim also enjoys impressive luxury.

Pictures released by state media show it is complete with pink leather sofas, dark wood panelling and – it is understood – plentiful supplies of alcohol. 

There are also long tables for meetings and flat screen monitors.

One of the most detailed accounts of the train comes from Konstantin Pulikovsky, another Russian official who told the tale of his trip across Russia’s Far East with Kim Jong Il in a book called ‘Orient Express.’

In the book, Pulikovsky describes a gourmet menu with a vast variety of food.

‘It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine,’ Pulikovsky wrote, adding the train was stacked with cases of Bordeaux and Beaujolais, which had been flown in from Paris especially, and live lobsters.

He also recalled that travellers on the train were kept entertained by young female singers, who were introduced as ‘lady conductors’.

In addition to its massive weight, the fortress-like train brings with it a vast security operation that makes most presidential motorcades seem understated.

The Chosun Ilbo article says that around 100 security agents are sent ahead of the train to sweep stations for potential threats.

Meanwhile, the power is turned off at all stations it passes through to prevent other trains from moving, bringing other rail routes to a temporary halt.

Kim’s train also receives support from a logistical support group that includes Soviet-made Mi-17 helicopters and Il-76 transport planes.

What’s more, another decoy train is sent ahead of Kim’s to make sure the tracks are safe, while a third train brings up the rear, bringing support personnel and bodyguards, while also keeping a look out for any possible attacks. 

It is also understood that Kim had 20 stations built across the country that only his train can use.

Travelling by rail does bring its benefits for someone like Kim Jong Un, however.

His father was reportedly afraid of flying, and his grandfather – North Korean founder Kim Il Sung – also used a train to conduct international travel.

Unlike planes, trains can’t be spotted with flight-tracking data or radar, and most of Kim’s rail journeys have been announced after he arrived at his destination.

That being said, for some high-profile summits – such as the 2018 meeting with former US President Donald Trump – Kim used a Air China-operated Boeing 747.

That same year, he also used a North Korean aircraft to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the city of Dalian.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to Kim’s travel arrangements, Putin was pictured riding in a helicopter during his working trip to Russia’s far eastern Primorsky region.

The pair last met in April 2019, in Vladivostok, where Kim arrived after a 20 hour journey. The train also took him to Beijing, and to Vietnam in 2019.

By Ted Thornhill, Mailonline Travel Editor

Updated: 05:10 EDT, 2 August 2023

An increasing number of Britons are turning to rail travel to transport themselves to ‘cloud wine’, Trainline has revealed.

Data gathered by the rail and coach platform shows that stations serving five UK vineyards have all seen a marked increase in footfall this July compared to last year, with Trainline’s Chief Product Officer Dave Price pointing out that ‘Trainline’s digital railcards are a brilliant way to make a saving’ for group trips to the vines – with no designated driver needed, of course.

Here we reveal the five vineyards trending for train trips. 

Which one is your pick of the bunch?

DENBIES WINE ESTATE, SURREY: 41% RISE IN TRAVEL TO THE NEAREST STATION – DORKING

There are trains from London that reach Dorking station in under an hour – and from there it’s a speedy ten-minute walk to the 265-acre Denbies Wine Estate, so you’ll be sipping premium wine before you know it.

Along with several other English vineyards, Denbies – which produces a million bottles a year – shares the Champagne region’s chalky ground, enabling its sparkling wine to give French fizz a run for its euros in the taste department. 

What’s more, it has a hotel in the old farmhouse with 17 rooms. 

RATHFINNY WINE ESTATE, EAST SUSSEX: 41% RISE IN TRAVEL TO THE NEAREST STATION – SEAFORD

It’s a 90-minute walk from the station at Seaford to the Rathfinny Wine Estate, which lies just three miles from the English Channel, but Trainline points out that the scenery along the way is ‘beautiful’ and the quality of wine awaiting you impressive.

Plus, there are vineyard tours to enjoy, ‘dine in the vine’ experiences to savour and scenic vine walks to embark upon.

Fancy staying the night? B&B doubles cost from £100 or £238, including dinner for two and a harvest tour.

RIDGEVIEW WINE ESTATE, EAST SUSSEX: 35% RISE IN TRAVEL TO THE NEAREST STATION – BURGESS HILL

After alighting the train at Burgess Hill station it’s a ‘lovely’ 35-minute walk to the Ridgeview Wine Estate, notes Trainline.

The vineyard, which sits on the edge of the South Downs National Park, has cemented itself as one of England’s most prestigious producers.

Queen Elizabeth II served bottles of Ridgeview’s Grosvenor sparkling wine to guests at her 80th birthday party and a glass of its sparkling rose, Fitzrovia, to Barack Obama during a state visit. 

The vineyard offers a winery shop, open every day from 11am to 4pm with complimentary tastings, and a restaurant – The Rows & Vine – that’s open Thursday to Monday.

TINWOOD ESTATE, WEST SUSSEX: 35% RISE IN TRAVEL TO THE NEAREST STATION – CHICHESTER

Hop off the train at Chichester station, then hop on the number 55 bus and it’ll take you to within a 15-minute walk of the Tinwood Estate. 

This vineyard offers the chance to learn the journey of its award-winning sparkling wines ‘from grape to glass’ on a one-and-a-half hour tour before relaxing in its tasting room with three samples to try, paired with food from the vineyard kitchen.

Visitors can also stay overnight and wake up with a view of the vines.

ARTELIUM WINE ESTATE, WEST SUSSEX: 30% RISE IN TRAVEL TO THE NEAREST STATION – PLUMPTON

Tours and tastings are on offer at Artelium, which boasts of being a ‘vineyard with hospitality at its heart, a space to enjoy wine and art against the breath-taking backdrop of the Sussex countryside’. 

The vineyard also offers a ‘Collective’ membership, which includes 18 bottles of fine English wines annually, exclusive cuvee discounts, culinary experiences, and estate gatherings.

It’s a 20-minute walk through fields to the estate from the nearest station, Plumpton.

If you weren’t depressed before you took the train between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, you will be by the time you get off.

The gloom descends the moment my train slides out of the platform and into Monument Road tunnel at Birmingham New Street station, for I have commenced what is possibly the most depressing rail journey in Britain – a trip to Wolverhampton. The long tunnel was the scene of a decapitation of a trespasser a few years ago.

Bursting out into the sunlight, the train passes through Ladywood – described in 2009 as the poorest constituency in the country by The Campaign to End Child Poverty and once the constituency of Labour firebrand MP Clare Short – famous for her attempts to ban topless models in the tabloids. 

On the right I see run down tower blocks and a housing estate that few would live in by choice – and who can blame them?

Ladywood may have improved slightly since that damming 2009 report, but it’s still a neighbourhood with many social problems. 

As the train progresses, council estates give way to factories – both active and derelict – plus copious amounts of graffiti . 

The canal on the left, obviously having seen better days, doesn’t make a welcoming site and is as far removed from the waterways of Venice (it often being said that Birmingham has more canals than the Italian city) as it’s possible to get. Don’t expect any boater singing ‘Just one cornetto’ here.

Next up are the delights of Soho – a scrapyard piled high with old cars, greeting passengers as they look to their right. Looking to the left are the abutments of the former Harbourne branch line bridge that carried it over the canal. 

Passenger services ceased in 1934, but up until then the railway would run special trains for factory owners and the like, whisking them home to the salubrious suburb to enjoy lunch with their wife. Imagine such a service today!

Unlike Ladywood, Harbourne is still a sought after location for those wishing to live in Birmingham. 

If passengers are really fortunate, they may just be able to catch a glimpse of Winson Green prison, just before arriving at Smethwick Rolfe Street, the first station on the route and a station where one wouldn’t wish to spend any longer than necessary.

Although obviously having being cleared relatively recently, the railway embankments at the bottom of gardens are once again showing signs of rubbish being dumped over the fence. 

Prior to the clean-up, it was not uncommon to see anything from unwanted play things, such as large plastic toys, to household furniture thrown away – leaving the railway with a huge clean-up bill. One council worker at a nearby block of flats told me that someone is employed to walk around the ground at the base of such flats, picking up dirty nappies that people throw off their balconies.

During my journey, I speak with a regular passenger on the route, who says ‘I do wonder what visitors to Birmingham think when they have to pass through this dump before reaching New Street. I mean, it’s a bit of a let down compared to the image that the council portrays of the city.’

Another was more direct , describing it as ‘a complete s**t hole’. A young woman from Dudley, with a pushchair, felt a bit more upbeat, telling me that ‘We ain’t got nothing, but people look out for each other – there’s a real sense of community’.

Things soon get a bit ‘lively’ with the arrival of a pair of revenue protection inspectors, who have the authority to issue penalty fares to ticketless passengers.

The number of passengers without tickets, is astounding. Excuses range from not having enough money on a credit card, to buying a ticket for only part of the journey, because they suddenly changed their mind regarding their destination. 

The inspectors show no mercy, no doubt having heard every excuse going, and dish out £100 penalties – reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days – without a second thought. This includes a family of adults, where no one in the group of four has a ticket.

One piece of Birmingham’s heritage that has not been swept away is the beautifully restored Galton Valley Pumping Station, which can be viewed on the right, shortly after the train departs Rolfe Street – it’s chimney revealing its location. It dates from 1892 and during the summer is open one Saturday a month.

Pushing on, My train is held at a red signal near Sandwell & Dudley station, but at least I have the opportunity to study the remains of a glass works factory, that is nothing more than an empty shell and looks as if it could collapse at any moment. Seagulls circle above, but this is no seaside location.

The station made the headlines for all the wrong reasons when it opened in the 1980s – the driver of the first train forgetting to stop, resulting in all the VIPs being left stranded on the platform.

All the way between Ladywood and Sandwell, the railway has passed through a corridor of factories, council estates, dereliction and warehouses – little that could raise the spirits of passengers – and so it continues for the final ten minutes of the 20 minute journey.

Tipton, once famous as the home of William Perry – AKA prize boxer The Tipton Slasher – flashes by and the train stops at Coseley. Here a most bizarre incident happens. A woman on the opposite platform decides she wants to catch my train, so jumps on the track – just seconds before an Avanti train to Euston roars through the station – and boards my train. The guard sees what happened, but doesn’t say anything. One gets the impression that he’s used to seeing this type of behaviour, and worse, on the route.

Wolverhampton is now but a few minutes away, but the depressing landscape lingers on. More dereliction, more graffiti, more scrap yards and Wolverhampton suburb Heath Town – a place with a terrible reputation – hones into view. The railway is elevated at this point, allowing passengers a grandstand view of something they probably wish they didn’t have to see.

The space between the tracks at Wolverhampton station is home to an abundance of flowers and weeds, one member of platform staff quips ‘We should enter the station for the Chelsea Flower Show’, before telling me that in the days when train lavatories flushed into the track, it was far from uncommon to see tomato plants growing between the rails.

For passengers travelling further north, the pain of having to suffer such desolate views will soon be over, for within minutes of departing Wolverhampton, the view changes to a much greener and pleasant one – allowing passengers to heave a sigh of relief.

For the inside track on the best railway journeys in the world there is no greater authority than Mark Smith, creator of the acclaimed Man in Seat 61 website.

He used to be station manager at London‘s Charing Cross, Bridge and Cannon Street stations, but now runs his website, named after his favourite Eurostar seat, full time.

Here he reveals his favourite 10 railway journeys, from the Caledonian Sleeper to Switzerland’s Bernina Express, and from the California Zephyr to New Zealand’s Northern Explorer.

All aboard for bucket-list trips of a lifetime…

LONDON TO FORT WILLIAM BY CALEDONIAN SLEEPER 

It’s the train they call the Deerstalker. For me, it’s the best train in Britain. 

Knock back a whisky or two in the club car with some haggis, tatties’ n neeps as the Caledonian Sleeper races north from London Euston on a busy six-track main line. Retire to your private sleeper – some with private shower and double bed – and wake to mountain streams and gnarled oak trees, deer bounding away from the train as it twists and turns at 40mph on the lonely single track to Fort William. 

There’s no early morning rush. You can linger over a cooked Scottish breakfast as the train toils over the bleak expanse of Rannoch Moor, summits near remote Corrour, passes the languid water of Loch Treig and the white running waters of Monessie Gorge before rolling into Fort William just before 10am, a few minutes’ walk from the foot of Ben Nevis.

BERNINA EXPRESS 

The Bernina Express is the most spectacular Swiss Alpine ride of them all – a four-hour narrow-gauge journey from Chur in Switzerland to Tirano in Italy on the 120-year-old Unesco-listed Rhatische Bahn. 

The 144km (90-mile) route includes 55 tunnels and 196 bridges, gradients as steep as 1 in 7 and a summit at Ospizio Bernina 2,253 metres (7,391 feet) above sea level.

The train crosses the dramatic (and much-photographed) Landwasser Viaduct, skirts the Morteratsch Glacier and Lake Poschiavo, spirals around on itself to lose height at Brusio, and concludes with a traffic-stopping entry into Tirano on rails laid through the streets. An Italian regional train links Tirano with Milan along the eastern shore of Lake Como, making this a slow but incredibly scenic flight-free route from London, Paris and Zurich to Italy.

BELGRADE TO BAR 

A mere €21 (£18/$22) buys a ticket for this 476km (296-mile) 11-hour ride from the Serbian capital to Bar on the Adriatic over a breath-taking railway completed in 1976 and opened by President Tito of Yugoslavia. 

South of the Montenegrin border the train clings to rugged grey mountainsides hundreds of metres above narrow valleys. 

It crosses the Mala Rijeka Viaduct 200 metres (660ft) above the Mala Rijeka river – the highest railway bridge in the world until 2001 when it ceded the title to a new bridge in China – before curving around to the far side of the valley. 

After calling at Montenego’s capital, Podgorica, the train crosses a causeway over beautiful Lake Skadar, past the ruined Lesendro fortress of 1843, and after a short run in view of the sunny Adriatic coast, it reaches Bar.

CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR 

In the land where plane and automobile rule, U.S train operator Amtrak maintains a choice of three or four superb rail routes across America. 

Amtrak’s impressive double-deck Superliner trains feature spacious reclining seats, an observation lounge with a cafe on the lower deck, a dining car and private sleepers, some with private toilet and shower. 

I’ve a soft spot for the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief, which runs through native American Navajo country and parallels Route 66 for much of the way, but for sheer world-class all-American scenery, the California Zephyr is the United States’ best train, period.

The Zephyr’s gleaming stainless-steel cars leave Chicago Union Station every afternoon at 2pm on an epic two-night 2,400-mile journey to San Francisco. 

The train rumbles over the Mississippi from Illinois into Iowa and heads west across the vast open Nebraska farmland. 

After breakfast next morning the train leaves Denver and scales the eastern flank of the Rockies, climbing steadily until the Mile High City becomes a dot below. Descending gradually through twisting Colorado canyons, the train is often just feet from the white waters of the Colorado River, groups of rafters saluting it in the traditional manner – by mooning.  

Next come the beautiful, colourful, eerie buttes of Utah, and after dinner and a late-night stop at Salt Lake City the train reaches the Nevada desert. 

On the final day the Zephyr enters California and heads through the fir-strewn Sierra Nevada mountains via the notorious Donner Pass, where the stranded Donner party resorted to cannibalism in the harsh winter of 1846. 

Finally, the train descends to Sacramento and its terminus at Emeryville, a short bus ride over the Bay Bridge from downtown San Francisco.

THE CANADIAN  

The Canadian is Canada’s great trans-continental train, linking Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver twice a week, all year round. Denied funding for new equipment back in the 1990s, state-owned passenger operator VIA Rail rebuilt the original stainless steel cars from Canadian Pacific’s 1954-55 Canadian, complete with streamlined dome cars, private sleepers, elegant diner and the famous ‘bullet lounge’ at the rear. 

It’s a true classic, with scenery to match.

On its four-night journey the train crosses the great Canadian shield from Toronto to just east of Winnipeg, a surprisingly beautiful and sparsely-populated area of forest, lakes and rocky outcrops. Next come the wide open prairies – big sky country – through Winnipeg and Edmonton. And finally, a ride through the awe-inspiring Canadian Rockies from Jasper to Vancouver along the Athabasca and Thompson rivers, past Mount Robson and the Yellowhead Pass.

The defining moment of a pre-pandemic westbound journey came some way east of Jasper. 

I awoke on day four and lifted the blind, expecting mountains. Nothing but endless fir trees. Disappointed, I left my family asleep and headed for the dome car. 

I poured myself a coffee, climbed the few steps into the dome and turned around. I gaped – and nearly dropped my coffee. Our stainless steel streamliner was heading through an avenue of fir trees straight for the towering eastern face of the Rocky Mountains, lit stunning pink and gold by the rising sun. If only you could bottle such moments…

AUCKLAND TO WELLINGTON

Tourists flock to the TranzAlpine train, a scenic south island ride from Christchurch to Greymouth. 

Greywhere? 

Scenic, yes, but in railway terms, a branch line. 

For me, the best train ride in New Zealand is from Auckland to Wellington on KiwiRail’s Northern Explorer, a 12-hour daytime run over the historic North Island Main Trunk Railway, the main line linking New Zealand’s economic and political capitals. 

Completed in 1908 with engineering feats such as the Raurimu Spiral, Makatote Viaduct and Turangarere Horseshoe curve, it passes almost every type of scenery, from gently rolling hills reminiscent of Tolkien’s Middle-earth to thick rainforest, deep gorges, volcanoes and coastline – all best viewed with a glass of excellent New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to hand, readily available from a well-stocked cafe-bar.

KOLKATA TO DARJEELING 

A century ago, the best way to escape Kolkata’s oppressive summer heat was to head for the hills. It still is. 

Book an AC1 or AC2 air-conditioned sleeper on the overnight Darjeeling Mail from Kolkata’s Sealdah station to New Jalpaiguri. 

From NJP (as it’s invariably known) a bus or jeep takes only four hours to cover the 55 miles up the hill cart road to Darjeeling. But in this case, slower is better: The 10am ‘toy train‘ takes almost twice that time to travel up the winding two-foot-gauge track into the Himalayan foothills, but every twist and turn is a delight. 

Hauled by a steam locomotive until only a decade or two ago, a diminutive diesel now takes charge of the daily run from NJP, but steam locos still ply the upper section of the Unesco-listed Darjeeling Himalayan Railway between Darjeeling and Ghum. Check in to the splendidly retro Windamere Hotel, a former boarding house for bachelor tea planters (or at least go there for afternoon tea) to taste the best tea in India.

THE SLOW TRAIN FROM THAZI 

Myanmar (Burma) is not currently a recommended destination, but in better times I’ve ridden the British-built railway from Yangon to Mandalay past mock-Tudor signal boxes and classic red-and-white semaphore signals. 

At the junction station of Thazi there’s a hidden gem: The branch line to Shwenyaung, railhead for the beautiful Inle Lake, one of Burma’s premier draws. 

Sit back in your reclining Upper-Class seat (you’ll probably have no choice, the recline mechanism will be broken) as the elderly train meanders through hills and forest on the winding single track, stopping at remote village stations where colourfully-clad vendors sell flowers and fruit through the carriage windows. 

In several locations the train circles back on itself to gain height and at one point climbs a hillside on a series of switchbacks, shunting backwards and forwards. No air-conditioning here, just wide open windows and wonderful hill country views.

BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 

Two trains a day link Bangkok’s Thonburi station with Kanchanaburi and Nam Tok. 

A third-class ticket costs only 100 baht (£2.50/$3.13) for this pleasant run, a cool breeze wafting in through open windows and vendors walking up and down the train selling soft drinks and succulent pomelo. 

A few kilometres beyond Kan’buri, the train stops at River Kwai Bridge, then proceeds at a snail’s pace across the infamous Bridge, hooting wildly at the many tourists crowding every part of the structure – they take a different view of health and safety here! 

The train continues along the beautiful River Kwai (also Kwae) over the precarious cliff-hugging Wampo Viaduct to the end of the operational line at Nam Tok.

The history of the line is less pleasant, built by allied prisoners of war and Thai forced labour during WWII, under appalling conditions. It’s well worth visiting the museum and memorial at Konyu Cutting, better known as Hellfire Pass, some 80km (50 miles) north of Kan’buri.

Strangely, the Bridge on the River Kwai doesn’t (or didn’t) cross the River Kwai.

Author Pierre Boulle knew that the ‘death railway’ ran parallel to the Kwai and assumed that the bridge near Kan’buri crossed the Kwai. He was wrong, it crossed the much larger Mae Khlong. 

So when David Lean released his 1957 blockbuster and tourists flooded in expecting a Bridge on the River Kwai, it gave the Thai government something of a problem. 

All they had was a Bridge on the Mae Khlong. Undeterred – and with admirable lateral thinking – they renamed the river. Since 1960, the Mae Khlong has been known as the Kwai Yai (Big Kwai) north of its confluence with the Kwai.

COLOMBO TO TEA COUNTRY 

The train ride from Colombo to the central highlands of Sri Lanka’s tea country is a delight. 

Resist the lure of a sealed air-conditioned first-class car on one of the modern Chinese-built ‘blue trains’, book a non-air-con second-class seat with opening windows, or best of all, a seat in the first-class observation car on an older train from which you can watch the line unfold behind you through the generous rearward-facing windows. 

It’s a steady climb up to Kandy and beyond on a broad-gauge single track, calling at country stations with old-fashioned signal boxes and signals that look so familiar to British eyes, give or take a palm tree or two. 

The train is soon snaking through the hills, with tea plantations on either side. Alight at Nanuoya for the hill station of Nuwara Eliya, one of the best places to explore the region, visit a plantation and (of course) try Sri Lanka’s excellent Ceylon tea.

For more from The Man in Seat 61 visit www.seat61.com.

Saboteurs derail Russian freight train with explosives 37 miles from Ukraine and destroy power cables in double blow to Putin

• Freight train, believed to be carrying Russian tanks to front line, hit by explosion

By Rachael Bunyan and Will Stewart

Published: 05:15 EDT, 1 May 2023 | Updated: 06:23 EDT, 1 May 2023