When train travel first began in the early 1800s, the world grew that little bit smaller. Friends and family members living across the country could be reached with ease and the ‘weekend away’ became a new opportunity for those looking for a break away from everyday routines. Chugging along the tracks, the steam locomotives transported excited travellers in varnished wood cubicles to their destinations.
In 1905, Edith Nesbit’s novel The Railway Children captured the allure of train travel by looking through the eyes of the child. The children in the book, excited by the train tracks at the end of their garden, are entranced by the strangers on the train and the idea of setting out on an adventure.
But does your train journey still evoke a sense of adventure and discovery? What were your trains of thought last time you travelled along the tracks? From an exotic journey on the Rajdhani Express from New Delhi to Mumbai, to a short commute to work; from all six thousand miles of the Trans-Siberian Railway (the longest possible train journey), to visiting a loved one in another region: the time spent on a train offers a unique space where new ideas and discoveries lurk behind every corner.
Train travel is one of the most relaxing forms of travel, making the train an ideal zone for creativity. In Phillip Larkin’s poem The Whitsun Weddings, Larkin’s imagination captures the ability that train travel has to unmoor us from unnecessary concerns. He writes:
“One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All the windows down, all the cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone.”
Larkin’s focus on Slow Movement and the often cathartic effects of train travel is just one of many poems that deals with this subject. In Peter Ashley’s poetry anthology Railway Rhymes, W.H Auden, T.S Eliot and John Betjeman all respond to the matchless experience of train travel.
But apart from being a place cut off from A and B, why have trains captured the imaginations of our poets and novelists? It might be that trains are modern instruments of fate, making a collective out of those who would not usually be together.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who becomes fascinated by the people lining the train carriage. Have you ever wondered what the man with the red hat will be doing when he gets off the train? Or thought about who the old lady in the suit will be seeing when she arrives at the platform? When we stay fully present in the moment and view life in the train carriage, stories can really come alive. So why not enjoy the communal experience of train travel, take out your notepad and find your inner storyteller?
If you are more into reading than writing, then choosing the right novel can really enrich your travel experience. We often buy travel guides for swatting up on the history and character of a place, but pouring over a novel set in your destination can bring the history and character of the place truly alive. It’s so easy to exit through the sliding doors of a train and march straight to your check-in desk or office without thinking about the city, village or town around you. Books are the perfect antidote to this.
I recently read Iain Sinclair’s book Lights Out for the Territory, a book about London which uses the concept of psychogeography (the effects of a geographic location on the psyche) to passively take pleasure in the character of the city, rather than take from it. In Sinclair’s own words: “To shift away from the culture of consumption into a meandering stream. Cut those wires.” Getting off the train at London, I wandered to my destination, staring at the city’s architecture and appreciating the diverse range of people pushing along its busy streets.
There are many books to choose from which evoke the secret pasts and idiosyncratic characters of your chosen destination: Just think of Margaret Atwood’s novel Cat’s Eye set in Toronto that depicts a woman’s return to her hometown and her past. Or how about Charles Dickens’s descriptions of murky and yet entrancing Victorian London through the eyes of the dazzled Pip in Great Expectations? Or perhaps Paul Auster’s wandering writer in Oracle Night who lives between the fictional worlds he creates and the brownstone streets of Brooklyn. Spending time reading about your destination really is an investment in your travel experience. Getting off the train, you get that feeling that you know the place a little bit deeper than before.
Viewing a train journey as an in-between space, not inhabited by the routines and worries of home or work life, helps you appreciate the possibilities open to you while travelling on the tracks. If you’re a commuter, it may be that you find yourself planning ahead the day of work, which can sometimes leave you arriving needlessly stressed at the office. But have you ever written a ‘to-do list’ of things you just can’t wait to do? Your journey to work is a space between the home and your workplace, so why not plan fun things to do for the next week? Last time I was on a train I turned off my mobile phone, brought out my diary and wrote down the people, places and things I wanted to see over the next few weeks. If you happen to be on a train journey abroad this might not be hard, but even in places we are familiar with there’s always an opportunity to discover.
For those longer journeys, why not feed your tummy and your hunger for new experiences by sharing a communal feast? In India, families gather around tiffin boxes full of homemade goodies, with food carts of hot soup always on offer. On the Orient Express travellers awake to a decadent and unhurried breakfast in a new and unfamiliar location. Eating a selection of homemade treats either created from the cupboard contents at home or the extraordinary markets you visit on your travels is a true delight. You might even be able to trade some grub with your fellow passengers if you like the look of their concoctions.
The train carriage is a place to get your creativity flowing, to enjoy a sense of community and to take some time to enjoy the thrill of discovering new people and places. Be it hot, bustling trains in India or air-conditioned TGVs in France, the train is a unique setting for taking some time to reflect on the world around you. As the railway children in Edith Nesbit’s novel believed, the train is a place where magic might happen.
image: flickr
