Trains

Tag Archives for Trains.

A 2nd Class Thai Train ride is almost 1st Class! Surat Thani from Hat Yai

Last month, I had five train journeys which took me on an epic rail voyage from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok. As part of this week-long ride, I had two Second Class train trips with State Railways of Thailand. The first was from one of the southern most cities in Thailand: Hat Yai (E on the map below) 292 kilometres (181 miles) up to Surat Thani (jumping off point for Koh Samui).  Scheduled for a 16:23 departure this four-hour eight-minute train journey in Second Class comes with a meal for nine US Dollars!  The other Second Class train…

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Five things you must do while waiting for plane

There is a debate in my family over how early to get to the airport. Some family members like to be there four hours before a flight. Not me! I try to balance between spending the least amount of time waiting with having adequate time if something goes wrong. Even with my routines aimed at minimising every second I spend at airports, I still spend way too long waiting for planes! I reckon I have spent close to fifty days of my life waiting for planes at 212 airports around the globe! I have not counted…

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The Man in Seat 61

  As someone who is wild about travel, I love the opportunity I get to ride trains. I have now ridden the rails in four continents from the high speed TGVs to the outback trains of Queensland, Australia! For me, the Bible of train travel is a website called the Man in Seat 61. The site is run by Englishman: Mark Smith and is named after his favourite seat in the first class carriage of the Eurostar. Mark and his seat are pictured below. Mark has three ams for the site and the site performs…

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Amtrak goes Electronic

Amtrak, the US Rail system has some of the most archaic ticketing systems of any rail system in the world. One element of their system is that you have needed a paper ticket to ride. Not anymore. As of last Monday,  Amtrak passengers may print out their own tickets at home or download them to their smartphone or tablet. Yes, E tickets have arrived on trains, only years after airlines abolished paper tickets. The system was trialled in California and had a massive uptake. I have been generally using the electronic ticketing machines at stations which…

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