In the first and second articles on Perth’s transport network I focussed on getting around the city so it seemed the obvious choice to use the Australind train to get down to the South West. Unfortunately, due to historic line closures the train only travels as far as city of Bunbury, so I booked onto the train to skip Perth’s highways before renting a car at the end of the line. Things didn’t really work to plan as I ended up on a replacement bus, on the highway, the whole w

In a previous article, I travelled on the Airport Express service into the central district of Hong Kong. Once in the city centre, it rained constantly so I had good use for the public transport options to get around. These included the MTR subway network, on-street light rail and the quite unusual Mid-Levels escalators. Central Hong Kong is split between ‘Central’ on Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon area across Victoria Harbour, on the mainland. The easiest way to travel bet

In the hope of seeing some Easter sunshine, I took a trip down to Cornwall to hike some of the South West Coast Path. The fastest journey from London to Penzance takes about 5 hours on Great Western Railway (GWR) so I travelled on the Thursday before Easter in order use a service that offered the full service Pullman restaurant. Overall, I’m glad I did as the Pullman dining service was excellent and well worth the money but beyond the restaurant there were some issues which d

Taking the long way round, I travelled to Milan via the South of France. After a few days on the Côte d’Azur I took advantage of the Thello service from Nice to Milan. Operated as an independent venture, this is the only direct train service from the French Riviera to Milan. Thello operates 3 times per day between Nice Ville and Milan Centrale, with one journey per day starting at Marseille St Charles. Journey time from Nice to Milan is approximately 4 hours 40 mins. On my jo

This year’s UK AirRail 2015 conference took place in London, giving the attendees an overview of current airport policy environment and recent developments at a selection of national airports. Many of these enhancements were presented in the context, and response to, a lack of a national aviation and surface access strategy and the move towards regional and local devolution. This review begins with the keynote speech by Lousie Ellman MP, Chair of Transport Select Committee, b

I’m used to travelling to Brussels and Paris on Eurostar so it seemed the obvious way to travel down to the south of France too. I hadn’t realised that the direct service to Marseille operated fairly regularly throughout the year. There is something romantic about the thought of boarding a train in London and stepping off in the Mediterranean. It’s not bad for a 6.5 hour train ride; that’s less than the 7 hours it takes to get to Aberdeen. Brussels, Paris and the Med! On the

Have you ever thought how relaxing it would be if you could get on a sleeper train in London and snooze your way through to Amsterdam or board a train in Manchester and travel through the night to Frankfurt? Well, when the Channel Tunnel was under construction, this was part of the plan: Nightstar trains were even built to operate sleeper services through the tunnel; however, the birth of low cost air transport in Europe meant that the service never got on the rails. After a

It’s spring, the sun is shining (well, it was last weekend) and I’m back in London. Perfect weekend for a bike ride in the country. I usually get South West Trains, Southern or Southeastern from London it’s possible to just turn up and take your bike on board; however, on this occasion I decided to travel further afield and went to Bath on First Great Western. I’ve travelled InterCity before with my bike but only ever up to the Lake District so it provided a great opportunity

As my other post described, taking the train to Switzerland can be a rewarding, if challenging, journey. Obviously, once you get yourself to the Swiss Alps for a meeting, you have to get back again. Taking the train across France would have been fine but with my sense of transport adventure, I decided to explore my alternatives. A quick, last minute search on Kayak narrowed this down to one choice: a flight back from Geneva was likely to cost over £300 so I opted to book a fl

Short haul European flights are often affected by weather in the winter months. On a recent trip, it was essential to arrive in the Swiss Alps on time; therefore, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to experience making the journey by rail and see how easy it is to travel beyond the core high speed network that Eurostar connects to. My journey took me from London to the Swiss town of Verbier. It turns out that it’s not as easy as you may think to arrange, unless you have

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the 2015 budget on 18th March detailing spending announcements and financial priorities. Within the main Budget Report, there are a number of rail and passenger transport commitments which are worth highlighting: Electrification of the Hull to Selby line is to proceed in CP6 (by 2024) – subject to an acceptable contribution from Hull Trains. Electrifying the line will allow for electric stock to run from Hull, through Leeds and Manche

In the second of our series on alternative London airports, we travelled up one sunny morning from London to experience the airrail link at Birmingham Airport. The Service: Virgin Trains operate 3 times per hour from London Euston to Birmingham International station, calling at Watford Junction on route. The journey took 1 hour and 10 minutes from Euston and 56 minutes from Watford Junction: this compares to a rail journey time of 49 minutes from Euston to Heathrow T5; 54 min

One of the first things you notice about a journey on Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann) is the space available. Trains operating in Ireland are a wider gauge than those in Great Britain, therefore, carriages feel a lot more open. On a recent journey from Dublin across to west Clare, I was impressed by the carriage layout on the ICR trains used for most InterCity routes. These trains have large standard seats aligned to the windows, with ample space above and below for luggage stor