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Ticket to Ride: Around the World on 49 Unusual Train Journeys
Tom Chesshyre has made it his mission to experience the world through train travel – on both epic and everyday rail routes, aboard every type of train, from colonial steam locomotives to high-tech bullet trains. Join him on the rails and off the beaten track as he takes us on a whistle-stop tour of some of the most exhilarating journeys around the globe, from Sri Lanka to Tehran and beyond.
With his trademark wit and humour, Tom takes us on fascinating adventures through diverse landscapes and cultures and introduces us to an ever-changing cast of memorable characters, all of whom share a passion for train travel. Whether you're an armchair traveller, a daily commuter or a seasoned train adventurer, this platform-hopping odyssey will open your eyes to the joys of life on two rails.
With his trademark wit and humour, Tom takes us on fascinating adventures through diverse landscapes and cultures and introduces us to an ever-changing cast of memorable characters, all of whom share a passion for train travel. Whether you're an armchair traveller, a daily commuter or a seasoned train adventurer, this platform-hopping odyssey will open your eyes to the joys of life on two rails.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 2016
68 people are currently reading
608 people want to read
About the author
Tom Chesshyre
20 books36 followersTom Chesshyre has been writing travel stories for UK national newspapers for over15 years. After reading politics at Bristol University and completing a journalism diploma from City University, he had stints at the Cambridge Evening News, Sporting Life and Sky Sports. During this period he won the Independent's young sports writer of the year competition and was runner-up in the Financial Times young business writer awards. His first travel piece was about England's cricket fans in Barbados for the Daily Telegraph. He freelanced for the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs, wrote a column for Conde Nast Traveller, and contributed to the Express, the Guardian, and the Independent, before working on the travel desk of the Times. He has assisted with the research on two books - W. G. by Robert Low, a biography of W. G. Grace, and Carlos: Portrait of a Terrorist by Colin Smith, a biography of "Carlos the Jackal". He has written magazine pieces for Wanderlust, Geographical and Business Traveller - and contributes book reviews to the TLS. His travel writing has taken him to more than 75 countries. He lives in south-west London and was born in 1971.
His first book, How Low Can You Go: Round Europe for 1p Each Way (Plus Tax) was published by Hodder in 2007. To Hull and Back: On Holiday in Unsung Britain was published by Summersdale in July 2010, followed by Tales from the Fast Trains: Europe at 186 mph is published in July 2011.
His first book, How Low Can You Go: Round Europe for 1p Each Way (Plus Tax) was published by Hodder in 2007. To Hull and Back: On Holiday in Unsung Britain was published by Summersdale in July 2010, followed by Tales from the Fast Trains: Europe at 186 mph is published in July 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
February 8, 2025
This book starts out with the author hanging out with and discussing trainspotters. I persisted just long enough for him to move on and away from that topic and onto his journeys. Chesshyre explains that he sets out to understand why people love trains so much - I suppose it needed to cover trainspotters to achieve this goal, but it was a bit too much at first, and then became just scattered observation of them.
Ostensibly Chesshyre took 49 train journeys - it says so on the cover, although it's more like nine actual journeys, some of which are made up of multiple legs, sometimes running together, sometimes with other travel or flights between. There are another couple of chapters which are mashups of multiple journeys, which I guess then adds up to his 49. The also visits 22 countries although I only found 21.
Chesshyre writes well enough in capturing his journey. The narrative is a mix up of his actual experiences on the train (and getting to it etc); conversations with his fellow travellers (sometimes amusing, often dull or tedious); history about the country/area being passed through; history pertaining to trains in the country/area being passed through; details about the train. The details about the train are technical specifications, numbers, where it was manufactured etc - loads of things most people have no interest in - trainspotter stuff again).
Some chapters I found more interesting that others. Most likely this is the travel reader in me - a biased interest in places I have either been or want to go... so the Indian Pacific in Australia, the Trans-Siberian Thru Russian and on through China, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Iran were all good in places. I found the USA and Europe sections less interesting.
Overall I am not sure there is a specific target audience for this. For train enthusiasts, probably not enough train detail; for travel readers - probably too much peripheral information. It was an easy enough read, but filled with lots of trivial information about encounters with random people.
Lightly amusing enough that I read it all I suppose!
3 stars
Ostensibly Chesshyre took 49 train journeys - it says so on the cover, although it's more like nine actual journeys, some of which are made up of multiple legs, sometimes running together, sometimes with other travel or flights between. There are another couple of chapters which are mashups of multiple journeys, which I guess then adds up to his 49. The also visits 22 countries although I only found 21.
Chesshyre writes well enough in capturing his journey. The narrative is a mix up of his actual experiences on the train (and getting to it etc); conversations with his fellow travellers (sometimes amusing, often dull or tedious); history about the country/area being passed through; history pertaining to trains in the country/area being passed through; details about the train. The details about the train are technical specifications, numbers, where it was manufactured etc - loads of things most people have no interest in - trainspotter stuff again).
Some chapters I found more interesting that others. Most likely this is the travel reader in me - a biased interest in places I have either been or want to go... so the Indian Pacific in Australia, the Trans-Siberian Thru Russian and on through China, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Iran were all good in places. I found the USA and Europe sections less interesting.
Overall I am not sure there is a specific target audience for this. For train enthusiasts, probably not enough train detail; for travel readers - probably too much peripheral information. It was an easy enough read, but filled with lots of trivial information about encounters with random people.
Lightly amusing enough that I read it all I suppose!
3 stars
February 12, 2018
The book itself was well written and very interesting. However, I take issue with the claim that it covers 49 train journeys. Perhaps so, if one includes the several accounts briefly glossed over in the final chapter, which strains Truth in Advertising (Trades Description Act). Realistically, it's an in-depth description of roughly ten journeys.
January 17, 2022
When I began reading this book I was not aware that a major theme was to be Trainspotting, something I have absolutely zero interest in. Although the author doesn’t admit to it, he manages to talk the talk more than a bit. I suspect there is Trainspotting somewhere in his soul. The reader will get more than a bit of statistics on size, speed, age, country where engines are built, etc. but Chesshyre tends to brush by it pretty quickly. The human stories are more important. The trips were made in 2014 for the most part.
Ticket to Ride is organized around a number of train trips in far flung parts of the world. A number of themes appear such as why the train lines were originally built (the economy of a place, for spreading soldiers and administers in colonies, fast communication) and the usefulness of tours and travel by train as opposed to auto or plane trips.
Chesshyre’s fellow riders get the chance for Trainspotting and older people do and see things they can’t do by flying. Travel in places like Iran, North Korea and Siberia are nearly impossible for the lone traveler anyway. Chesshyre learns something from the railroad employees, local riders, tour representatives and even fellow passengers. He wouldn’t have gotten that experience on planes or his own car. And of course there are the usually male variously called Trainspotters, foamers, gunzels and gricers in their different countries. They can be found everywhere in the world if you know what to look for—plastic shoulder bags, cameras with long lenses, manic note taking, unfashionable clothing and a certain ecstatic look in the eyes. The author tries very hard not to disrespect these people.
Because Chesshyre sells his stories to British newspapers, the chapters are not completely uniform. Occasionally he travels with a friend and is fixed on a particular bit of tourism or is reporting on a new political situation. He ties tourism and train travel to newly improved political situations in Iran and Sri Lanka.
I didn’t find the author particularly pompous, whiny or disagreeable. The first class passengers on the cross-Australian line thought otherwise and made for an interesting chapter.
Ticket to Ride is organized around a number of train trips in far flung parts of the world. A number of themes appear such as why the train lines were originally built (the economy of a place, for spreading soldiers and administers in colonies, fast communication) and the usefulness of tours and travel by train as opposed to auto or plane trips.
Chesshyre’s fellow riders get the chance for Trainspotting and older people do and see things they can’t do by flying. Travel in places like Iran, North Korea and Siberia are nearly impossible for the lone traveler anyway. Chesshyre learns something from the railroad employees, local riders, tour representatives and even fellow passengers. He wouldn’t have gotten that experience on planes or his own car. And of course there are the usually male variously called Trainspotters, foamers, gunzels and gricers in their different countries. They can be found everywhere in the world if you know what to look for—plastic shoulder bags, cameras with long lenses, manic note taking, unfashionable clothing and a certain ecstatic look in the eyes. The author tries very hard not to disrespect these people.
Because Chesshyre sells his stories to British newspapers, the chapters are not completely uniform. Occasionally he travels with a friend and is fixed on a particular bit of tourism or is reporting on a new political situation. He ties tourism and train travel to newly improved political situations in Iran and Sri Lanka.
I didn’t find the author particularly pompous, whiny or disagreeable. The first class passengers on the cross-Australian line thought otherwise and made for an interesting chapter.
October 23, 2024
Like the author I too enjoy a nice train ride - especially abroad - so this was a great book to read about interesting train journeys. :-)
December 14, 2016
The complicated thing about reading/writing travelogues is that the author's personal style and voice is what will determine the reader's enjoyment; if your writing is strong enough to bring your readers on the same journey you did. I really wanted to like T. Chesshyre's Ticket to Ride but found it really difficult for the reason above.
I have a soft spot for trains. Most of us likely do. To see the landscape blur behind the glass window, and to be heading somewhere and nowhere at the same time. There is a nostalgia that can be captured when it comes to trains. So when I was first grabbed by the book's title - it sounded like a perfect book to read. I did not expect a factual commentary on train history. No, even that was a disclaimer T. Chesshyre constantly reminds us of.
His objective in Ticket to Ride is to take a pulse of the locations he visits, as well as document his journey with the passengers (mostly trainspotters). A great concept but one that does not manage to realise its full potential due to the author's writing. Travel writing, its style and voice can divide a room into fractured divisions who prefer some narrative style over others. Perhaps, if I am to be honest, I gravitate more towards writing styles such as George Orwell or (controversially) Pico Iyer.
While enjoyable at times, T. Chesshyre's narrative lack immersion. His attempts to do this can be seen in how he inserts (sometimes disjointedly) the current political progress of the countries he's in, based off the newspapers he was reading, or television he was watching then. And while many travel writers do that as a way of grounding the character of a country, Chesshyre uses it more as a tool that sticks out, as opposed to one that seems naturally weaved into his writing.
That said, Chesshyre's strength can be seen in more human moments. Such as when a group of gold-class train travellers incited a mutiny against him on the Australian Indian Pacific when they suspected he was writing this book, and may be capitalising on their life stories (true, to an extent). While it may have been his most unpleasant experience during his whole train journey - it was one of the few moments I could feel myself identifying with him, his perspective and his emotions. This, in my opinion, is what makes good travel writing. Other parts of his narrative feels like a basic recounting of what happened, where and who as opposed to an internal reflection of the localities and his experiences.
Another positive note is that I like Chesshyre's description of the train's interior life and brief observations of the other passengers that take the ride with him. He's honest with himself, very self-aware and I can imagine, the quiet sort who'd indulge in others to tell their stories and he'd happily listen. Ticket to Ride, while it looked like started out talking about trainspotting culture, turned into a personal travelogue across the world's different train experiences. After the first two chapters where he delves deeply into the trainspotting sociology, he drops it entirely and only returns in small bites throughout the rest of the book.
Perhaps it's fair to say that his narrative becomes increasingly less about the train experience or trainspotting (very noticeable towards the end of the book) because after all, once you've gone on one train ride too many - all the rest start looking the same. It's likely experience fatigue as opposed to a lack of narrative.
While Ticket to Ride did not inspire me to go on different train experiences, it's definitely a helpful guide for what to expect if you ever do intend to ride on any of these railway carriages. I'm still waiting for the day I can get experience the post-Soviet Trans-Siberian and India's Toy Train.
I have a soft spot for trains. Most of us likely do. To see the landscape blur behind the glass window, and to be heading somewhere and nowhere at the same time. There is a nostalgia that can be captured when it comes to trains. So when I was first grabbed by the book's title - it sounded like a perfect book to read. I did not expect a factual commentary on train history. No, even that was a disclaimer T. Chesshyre constantly reminds us of.
His objective in Ticket to Ride is to take a pulse of the locations he visits, as well as document his journey with the passengers (mostly trainspotters). A great concept but one that does not manage to realise its full potential due to the author's writing. Travel writing, its style and voice can divide a room into fractured divisions who prefer some narrative style over others. Perhaps, if I am to be honest, I gravitate more towards writing styles such as George Orwell or (controversially) Pico Iyer.
While enjoyable at times, T. Chesshyre's narrative lack immersion. His attempts to do this can be seen in how he inserts (sometimes disjointedly) the current political progress of the countries he's in, based off the newspapers he was reading, or television he was watching then. And while many travel writers do that as a way of grounding the character of a country, Chesshyre uses it more as a tool that sticks out, as opposed to one that seems naturally weaved into his writing.
That said, Chesshyre's strength can be seen in more human moments. Such as when a group of gold-class train travellers incited a mutiny against him on the Australian Indian Pacific when they suspected he was writing this book, and may be capitalising on their life stories (true, to an extent). While it may have been his most unpleasant experience during his whole train journey - it was one of the few moments I could feel myself identifying with him, his perspective and his emotions. This, in my opinion, is what makes good travel writing. Other parts of his narrative feels like a basic recounting of what happened, where and who as opposed to an internal reflection of the localities and his experiences.
Another positive note is that I like Chesshyre's description of the train's interior life and brief observations of the other passengers that take the ride with him. He's honest with himself, very self-aware and I can imagine, the quiet sort who'd indulge in others to tell their stories and he'd happily listen. Ticket to Ride, while it looked like started out talking about trainspotting culture, turned into a personal travelogue across the world's different train experiences. After the first two chapters where he delves deeply into the trainspotting sociology, he drops it entirely and only returns in small bites throughout the rest of the book.
Perhaps it's fair to say that his narrative becomes increasingly less about the train experience or trainspotting (very noticeable towards the end of the book) because after all, once you've gone on one train ride too many - all the rest start looking the same. It's likely experience fatigue as opposed to a lack of narrative.
While Ticket to Ride did not inspire me to go on different train experiences, it's definitely a helpful guide for what to expect if you ever do intend to ride on any of these railway carriages. I'm still waiting for the day I can get experience the post-Soviet Trans-Siberian and India's Toy Train.
December 30, 2020
Chesshyre starts this book by gently poking fun at train enthusiasts, and tries to claim he isn't one, but with every train he takes he insists on telling us engine numbers and speed details. It's a laborious joke, I assume, but it's one that wears thin quickly as he hurtles round the world on a bunch of trains, and gently pokes fun at the train enthusiasts he meets while protesting slightly too loudly that he isn't one.
Any "travelling on a train" book that starts with a reference to Paul Theroux is already on a hiding to nothing. This isn't a Theroux-like book; the characters Chesshyre meets on the trains he takes are less interesting and less complex than Theroux's. It's probably partly because Chesshyre travels in first class in as many trains as he possibly can, and seems to only talk to other Brits in much of this book. Theroux took the time to learn to speak in Spanish for his trip down to Patagonia, but Chesshyre appears to be the quintessential Brit abroad - only speaking in English and almost always to the British people he discovers.
He gets his come-uppance in Australia. He manages to rub almost every gold-class passenger up the wrong way, for some reason, and beats a hasty retreat to the cheap seats. Reading this chapter, it seems entirely unlike the Australian culture that I know, but also the Aussies don't like airs and graces, and especially don't like aloofness in any guise. His attempt to be apart from the train enthusiasts, who he derides throughout the book, dismally fails here. He writes the entire chapter as some kind of revenge attack on his fellow passengers, pretending that he's no idea why they were all being so mean to him.
Chessyre's as see-through as rice paper, though. Towards the end of the book, he suddenly - and for no real reason - starts talking about how excellent Christian Wolmar is, a fellow train enthusiast and author. Christian is a god amongst men, you'd think after the flowery paragraph that Chesshyre gives. Lo and behold - the quote on the front cover is from Wolmar. Scratch my back, etc.
As you read it you notice Chesshyre has form with writing books about train trips - he's written quite a few already, making his faux protestations about not being an awful train enthusiast even more irritating.
All this isn't to say that this book is worthless. It isn't - it's a relatively easy jaunt through a number of train trips, and some of it is rather enjoyable. Were it not for the aloofness and disengagement with his journeys, it would be rather better.
Any "travelling on a train" book that starts with a reference to Paul Theroux is already on a hiding to nothing. This isn't a Theroux-like book; the characters Chesshyre meets on the trains he takes are less interesting and less complex than Theroux's. It's probably partly because Chesshyre travels in first class in as many trains as he possibly can, and seems to only talk to other Brits in much of this book. Theroux took the time to learn to speak in Spanish for his trip down to Patagonia, but Chesshyre appears to be the quintessential Brit abroad - only speaking in English and almost always to the British people he discovers.
He gets his come-uppance in Australia. He manages to rub almost every gold-class passenger up the wrong way, for some reason, and beats a hasty retreat to the cheap seats. Reading this chapter, it seems entirely unlike the Australian culture that I know, but also the Aussies don't like airs and graces, and especially don't like aloofness in any guise. His attempt to be apart from the train enthusiasts, who he derides throughout the book, dismally fails here. He writes the entire chapter as some kind of revenge attack on his fellow passengers, pretending that he's no idea why they were all being so mean to him.
Chessyre's as see-through as rice paper, though. Towards the end of the book, he suddenly - and for no real reason - starts talking about how excellent Christian Wolmar is, a fellow train enthusiast and author. Christian is a god amongst men, you'd think after the flowery paragraph that Chesshyre gives. Lo and behold - the quote on the front cover is from Wolmar. Scratch my back, etc.
As you read it you notice Chesshyre has form with writing books about train trips - he's written quite a few already, making his faux protestations about not being an awful train enthusiast even more irritating.
All this isn't to say that this book is worthless. It isn't - it's a relatively easy jaunt through a number of train trips, and some of it is rather enjoyable. Were it not for the aloofness and disengagement with his journeys, it would be rather better.
January 18, 2021
I was actually quite surprised to find out that the author had already written and published other works on the topic of train travel because this one was severely disappointing and I think that three stars is slightly generous.
The book just doesn't seem to know what it is. It starts off by delving into the life of trainspotters (something that Chesshyre is at such pains to let us know he isn't that it becomes highly tedious), then seems to switch between being a face value take on the people he encounters, to a political statement on the countries he visits, to a travel guide about the trains and routes that he takes. In the end, only the latter of these things is done anything like well.
My main gripe about the book is that he is just so insulting to almost everybody he meets. I'm hardly surprised that he had a run in with what sounds like the entirety of his carriage in Australia if he is anything like he comes across in his writing. I believe that he thinks he is being neutral but he has absolutely nothing nice to say about anybody, whether it be their physical appearance, shared thoughts or general culture. He ends the Australia chapter with a dig about England winning the ashes, all thoughts of the reader's enjoyment disappeared behind him wanting to get the last word in.
There is also an extremely peculiar chapter near the end where he shoehorns in notes from train journeys gone by (some of them seven or eight years prior to the main bulk of the book) that gives the impression of trying to hit word and title quotas. We hear about trains to South Korea and Machu Piccu in a couple of pages of text, and one trip to Bordeaux that seriously smacked of showing off that he and a mate managed to drink their body weight in wine while pretending to write about trains.
Overall, while the writing itself isn't bad, the impression I have of Chesshyre is that he is paid to go on luxury or famous train trips where he spends his time drinking, judging people and hurriedly writing a few notes to try and justify the wage and this, along with the almost complete lack of photos to illustrate the trips, took away most of the enjoyment of what I was reading. Buy something by Monisha Rajesh instead.
The book just doesn't seem to know what it is. It starts off by delving into the life of trainspotters (something that Chesshyre is at such pains to let us know he isn't that it becomes highly tedious), then seems to switch between being a face value take on the people he encounters, to a political statement on the countries he visits, to a travel guide about the trains and routes that he takes. In the end, only the latter of these things is done anything like well.
My main gripe about the book is that he is just so insulting to almost everybody he meets. I'm hardly surprised that he had a run in with what sounds like the entirety of his carriage in Australia if he is anything like he comes across in his writing. I believe that he thinks he is being neutral but he has absolutely nothing nice to say about anybody, whether it be their physical appearance, shared thoughts or general culture. He ends the Australia chapter with a dig about England winning the ashes, all thoughts of the reader's enjoyment disappeared behind him wanting to get the last word in.
There is also an extremely peculiar chapter near the end where he shoehorns in notes from train journeys gone by (some of them seven or eight years prior to the main bulk of the book) that gives the impression of trying to hit word and title quotas. We hear about trains to South Korea and Machu Piccu in a couple of pages of text, and one trip to Bordeaux that seriously smacked of showing off that he and a mate managed to drink their body weight in wine while pretending to write about trains.
Overall, while the writing itself isn't bad, the impression I have of Chesshyre is that he is paid to go on luxury or famous train trips where he spends his time drinking, judging people and hurriedly writing a few notes to try and justify the wage and this, along with the almost complete lack of photos to illustrate the trips, took away most of the enjoyment of what I was reading. Buy something by Monisha Rajesh instead.
Read
May 3, 2019Train travel has its devotees. Paul Theroux pioneered a genre and made a reputation as a travel writer with documenting his travel experiences with such titles as "Riding the Iron Rooster," "The Old Patagonian Express " and "The Great Railway Bazaar." Tom Chesshyre, a Brit, expresses his observations of many obscure routes throughout the world with a lighter touch. He explores the question of "train romance" and why some people like trains so much and wryly satirizes the trainspotters who spout trivial facts about gauges and locomotives. In addition to such classic routes as St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, he also includes rides on the new fast trains in Japan, China and France. Some of the 49 journeys are also off the beaten track in Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Iran. The author is always upbeat and fun. Surprisingly his one negative experience was in Australia where he had the misfortune of having to share a tour with some obnoxious fellow travelers. This book provides ideas for adventures you might not have considered. All you need some stamina and time to slow down to ride the rails and look out the window on some surprising worlds.
November 3, 2017
I always rate the books I’ve read but rarely review them. In this case, Tom Chesshyre’s Ticket to Ride really struck a chord with me and I am now eager to plan my own rail-based adventure. I picked up a copy of the book from a hotel library last year and now that I have read it, I am pleased to have been able to return it to the same hotel so that, hopefully, others will get the chance to enjoy it as I have. Tom’s writing style has the steady rhythm of the train journeys he describes and he is able to impart information with just the right amount of detail. His ‘people watching’ skills are on point and he portrays the characteristics of his fellow travellers, and those he encounters along the way, perfectly. I highly recommend this book to rail enthusiasts and non-rail enthusiasts alike.
September 4, 2023
The author Tom Chesshyre’s book “Ticket to Ride” is a refreshing and yet an informative work on the world of trains; appealing not just to lovers of trains but also to general readers who enjoy travel. He takes you on a worldwide journey aboard every type of rail ride including steam locomotives to bullet trains and introduces you to some colorful characters whom he meets while on the rails. Through the pages we embark on a memorable journey round the world from SriLanka to Iran via Crewe, the Australian outback and beyond. Here however I have chosen to review the first rail story on Crewe and then the amazing Trans- Siberian railway.
The author is not just travelling by train but he is on a mission. He wants to dig deeper and discover why people have a passion for train travel and why this form of getting from A to B is somehow more “real” , more calmer, less stressful and more illuminating as compared to other forms of travel. Paul Theroux in his book , “The Old Patagonian Express”, talks about taking a flight described as entering a “dingy fuselage” and how you end up counting the minutes till you make a safe landing. Perhaps according to the author, the reason for the recent bubble of interest in trains is “the tedium of driving along characterless motorways or flying between identikit airports in identikit planes.” The emphasis is on the resurgence of train travel, which the author wants to experience first-hand. With this purpose in mind he decides to become, what is called a “trainspotter, railway enthusiast or maybe a gricer”for a few days. He signs up with a company based in North Wales who offer a package especially for “rail holidays around the world”. In Crewe where he begins his journey across the world, the author chose this as his starting point not because you have renowned trainspotters there but because of its place in rail history of Britain. Moreover, it offered a convenient point of travel between Liverpool and Birmingham. According to the author you can spot a gricer a mile away and who would typically say, “ I’d go anywhere for a 37”. It is platform 5 of Crewe station England. The rails , “crackle, hiss, rumble and groan”and a sleek cherry-red train adorned with the message, “arrive awesome” emerges. This is the 17.05 Virgin Service to Manchester. This is an event that stirs up the entire platform. The train then moves to Manchester after kicking up activity in Crewe . Silence resumes. Next, there is an announcement on the concourse that there are three 37s coming in a moment and set for platform 3. The trainspotters come into their own. All hell breaks loose as they scurry off, clutching their cameras oblivious to everything else. The regular passengers look on with bewilderment as they make a spectacle of themselves. They snap away at the three locos, full of admiration. The locos are solidly built with navy blue bodies and bulbuous mustard yellow noses. When asked what they like most about trains, they say, “the smell of diesel, the sight of steam”. But at times, when asked about train travel, the common reply that one would get to hear is that “there is a romance about trains”. Or the other reason could even be that of a greener way of travel of sitting by the window seeing the world go by and listening to the constant clickety-clack motion of the train. The author then meets Mike Lenz, general manager at the Crewe Heritage Center who is doing a good job of keeping the interest alive in the growth and development of trains, by preserving old railway paraphernalia, shiny locos and carriages. But the matter that seems to be weighing on his mind is that he feels that the volunteers are in their forties and fifties; when the need of the hour is to get the younger generation interested in overhauling and operating the steam trains so that they don’t disappear. On his advice the author takes in a good specimen of an APT Prototype, BR Class 370 by the entrance to the heritage center, before checking into Crewe Arms Hotel. This hotel happens to be a favorite with hardcore rail enthusiasts who choose rooms facing the station so that they can indulge in extra spotting from the comfort of their rooms.
So much so for Crewe. Now onto the must-do Trans- Siberian railway.
The author approaches the Trans-Siberian railway from Helsinki by taking an overnight train with a first-class cabin to Moscow . He spends a day in Moscow sightseeing after which he takes the seven-night Trans-Siberian service (second class) touching Mongolia and then through Manchuria to Beijing. Of all train journeys this definitely occupies the topmost position. It takes you all the way across a continent, from east of Europe to the Far East. This stretch of service is called Tolstoy Night Train which is a ten hour Helsinki –Moscow service where also, the author feels the sleeper cabin’s cost is reasonable. He thus begins his journey in Helsinki’s famous art deco Central Railway Station, where he is met up with his Finnish contact Maria, who gives him a lowdown on the country’s architecture and history. The station itself is wonderful with grand arches, clusters of tubular lights, polished wood benches, columns cut with snake-like patterns and ticket desks with lampshades. After saying adieu to Maria, the author embarks on train number one of his two-train 6000 mile journey. The train is gray, shiny and modern with smart attendants or provodnistas by the doors. Coach number 11 is spotless, with burgundy carpets and other inventories that make up a first-class sleeper on this train. As you rumble along, you feel like you are on this journey first-hand. The author here describes the passing landscape that includes “glistening lakes, emerald fields…followed by silver birch forest with ethereal light filtering between wispy tree trunks.” The train track then starts to run parallel to the road for sometime as farmhouses, barns and arable fields come into view with some more of silverbirch and pine forests. The dining carriage where the author takes you is described as garish and ornate with pictures of Leo Tolstoy adorning the walls. The author samples sandwich and caviar and some Baltika beer from the generous collection of vodkas, brandies, bottles of champagne that was made available. The attendants were hospitable but with a no-nonsense attitude, mostly with curt “spasibas”. At the Finnish- Russian border there is the usual checking of passports, and the author is relieved that he is travelling not as a journalist but as a tourist to avoid unwanted attention to his travel plans. On entering Russia what should be more appropriate than opening the first page of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, the aim being to finish “the novel of all novels “ by Beijing. Morning brings one to Moscow at the Leningradsky terminal. The station is “cavernous”and confusing with all the Cyrillic signs. The author then makes his way to the Yaroslavsky terminal, built in the Russian Revival style which was the departure point of the Trans-Siberian railway. The author had 15 hours in all to kill in Moscow. The underground stations were another good “train reason” to take the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Yaroslavsky station was a key transit point in Russia and it had a “frontier feel” to it. Just as in China, the Trans-Siberian railway contributed to political instability and even fuelled the revolution. The author is travelling second-class and the entire journey to “Pekin” costs 515 pounds, one of the best travel bargains. This train takes you right upto Vladivostok covering 5,752 miles but the author had opted for the TransManchurian route which is one of the three distinct pathways to the east. He meets John from Kingston, London who takes tips on travel and expresses his intention of meeting backpack westerners like him. He is terrified of taking the flight to Beijing and would rather travel by train. Together, they rattle “onwards through the Russian taiga forest …deeper and deeper into the Siberian wilderness, into the coal-black night. “ The next stage is the Ule-Ude to Beijing, and after having fortified himself with a bowl of borscht and drink of kozel, the author braces himself to the next phase of his journey. There is a changing of bogie, or carriage if you like, just before the Chinese border, which would have been of interest to rail enthusiasts and also, the track was said to be noticeably smoother in China, a point of interest to trainspotters. You also switch to “Beijing Time” as you pass through time zones while on this journey. The Chinese scenario resembles mini Manhattans, factories and cooling towers. On arrival, the author comes across Chinese trainspotter taking pictures of the train who typically reels off train figures and statistics and rushes off to see another train, the ZI57 Express as it enters another platform. Eric Newby a travel writer describes this train as “a big, red train ride”, and which the author feels is just that. In the end you have reached the capital of China from Europe without leaving the ground.
In the final analysis, this book is not just for hardcore train lovers but an interesting travelogue and tells you about the class of people who would go to any length to gain information about this amazing form of travel, that is railways.
The author is not just travelling by train but he is on a mission. He wants to dig deeper and discover why people have a passion for train travel and why this form of getting from A to B is somehow more “real” , more calmer, less stressful and more illuminating as compared to other forms of travel. Paul Theroux in his book , “The Old Patagonian Express”, talks about taking a flight described as entering a “dingy fuselage” and how you end up counting the minutes till you make a safe landing. Perhaps according to the author, the reason for the recent bubble of interest in trains is “the tedium of driving along characterless motorways or flying between identikit airports in identikit planes.” The emphasis is on the resurgence of train travel, which the author wants to experience first-hand. With this purpose in mind he decides to become, what is called a “trainspotter, railway enthusiast or maybe a gricer”for a few days. He signs up with a company based in North Wales who offer a package especially for “rail holidays around the world”. In Crewe where he begins his journey across the world, the author chose this as his starting point not because you have renowned trainspotters there but because of its place in rail history of Britain. Moreover, it offered a convenient point of travel between Liverpool and Birmingham. According to the author you can spot a gricer a mile away and who would typically say, “ I’d go anywhere for a 37”. It is platform 5 of Crewe station England. The rails , “crackle, hiss, rumble and groan”and a sleek cherry-red train adorned with the message, “arrive awesome” emerges. This is the 17.05 Virgin Service to Manchester. This is an event that stirs up the entire platform. The train then moves to Manchester after kicking up activity in Crewe . Silence resumes. Next, there is an announcement on the concourse that there are three 37s coming in a moment and set for platform 3. The trainspotters come into their own. All hell breaks loose as they scurry off, clutching their cameras oblivious to everything else. The regular passengers look on with bewilderment as they make a spectacle of themselves. They snap away at the three locos, full of admiration. The locos are solidly built with navy blue bodies and bulbuous mustard yellow noses. When asked what they like most about trains, they say, “the smell of diesel, the sight of steam”. But at times, when asked about train travel, the common reply that one would get to hear is that “there is a romance about trains”. Or the other reason could even be that of a greener way of travel of sitting by the window seeing the world go by and listening to the constant clickety-clack motion of the train. The author then meets Mike Lenz, general manager at the Crewe Heritage Center who is doing a good job of keeping the interest alive in the growth and development of trains, by preserving old railway paraphernalia, shiny locos and carriages. But the matter that seems to be weighing on his mind is that he feels that the volunteers are in their forties and fifties; when the need of the hour is to get the younger generation interested in overhauling and operating the steam trains so that they don’t disappear. On his advice the author takes in a good specimen of an APT Prototype, BR Class 370 by the entrance to the heritage center, before checking into Crewe Arms Hotel. This hotel happens to be a favorite with hardcore rail enthusiasts who choose rooms facing the station so that they can indulge in extra spotting from the comfort of their rooms.
So much so for Crewe. Now onto the must-do Trans- Siberian railway.
The author approaches the Trans-Siberian railway from Helsinki by taking an overnight train with a first-class cabin to Moscow . He spends a day in Moscow sightseeing after which he takes the seven-night Trans-Siberian service (second class) touching Mongolia and then through Manchuria to Beijing. Of all train journeys this definitely occupies the topmost position. It takes you all the way across a continent, from east of Europe to the Far East. This stretch of service is called Tolstoy Night Train which is a ten hour Helsinki –Moscow service where also, the author feels the sleeper cabin’s cost is reasonable. He thus begins his journey in Helsinki’s famous art deco Central Railway Station, where he is met up with his Finnish contact Maria, who gives him a lowdown on the country’s architecture and history. The station itself is wonderful with grand arches, clusters of tubular lights, polished wood benches, columns cut with snake-like patterns and ticket desks with lampshades. After saying adieu to Maria, the author embarks on train number one of his two-train 6000 mile journey. The train is gray, shiny and modern with smart attendants or provodnistas by the doors. Coach number 11 is spotless, with burgundy carpets and other inventories that make up a first-class sleeper on this train. As you rumble along, you feel like you are on this journey first-hand. The author here describes the passing landscape that includes “glistening lakes, emerald fields…followed by silver birch forest with ethereal light filtering between wispy tree trunks.” The train track then starts to run parallel to the road for sometime as farmhouses, barns and arable fields come into view with some more of silverbirch and pine forests. The dining carriage where the author takes you is described as garish and ornate with pictures of Leo Tolstoy adorning the walls. The author samples sandwich and caviar and some Baltika beer from the generous collection of vodkas, brandies, bottles of champagne that was made available. The attendants were hospitable but with a no-nonsense attitude, mostly with curt “spasibas”. At the Finnish- Russian border there is the usual checking of passports, and the author is relieved that he is travelling not as a journalist but as a tourist to avoid unwanted attention to his travel plans. On entering Russia what should be more appropriate than opening the first page of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, the aim being to finish “the novel of all novels “ by Beijing. Morning brings one to Moscow at the Leningradsky terminal. The station is “cavernous”and confusing with all the Cyrillic signs. The author then makes his way to the Yaroslavsky terminal, built in the Russian Revival style which was the departure point of the Trans-Siberian railway. The author had 15 hours in all to kill in Moscow. The underground stations were another good “train reason” to take the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Yaroslavsky station was a key transit point in Russia and it had a “frontier feel” to it. Just as in China, the Trans-Siberian railway contributed to political instability and even fuelled the revolution. The author is travelling second-class and the entire journey to “Pekin” costs 515 pounds, one of the best travel bargains. This train takes you right upto Vladivostok covering 5,752 miles but the author had opted for the TransManchurian route which is one of the three distinct pathways to the east. He meets John from Kingston, London who takes tips on travel and expresses his intention of meeting backpack westerners like him. He is terrified of taking the flight to Beijing and would rather travel by train. Together, they rattle “onwards through the Russian taiga forest …deeper and deeper into the Siberian wilderness, into the coal-black night. “ The next stage is the Ule-Ude to Beijing, and after having fortified himself with a bowl of borscht and drink of kozel, the author braces himself to the next phase of his journey. There is a changing of bogie, or carriage if you like, just before the Chinese border, which would have been of interest to rail enthusiasts and also, the track was said to be noticeably smoother in China, a point of interest to trainspotters. You also switch to “Beijing Time” as you pass through time zones while on this journey. The Chinese scenario resembles mini Manhattans, factories and cooling towers. On arrival, the author comes across Chinese trainspotter taking pictures of the train who typically reels off train figures and statistics and rushes off to see another train, the ZI57 Express as it enters another platform. Eric Newby a travel writer describes this train as “a big, red train ride”, and which the author feels is just that. In the end you have reached the capital of China from Europe without leaving the ground.
In the final analysis, this book is not just for hardcore train lovers but an interesting travelogue and tells you about the class of people who would go to any length to gain information about this amazing form of travel, that is railways.
January 31, 2020
A return to the Christmas present pole (thanks Carys). An interesting collection of travels by train, although the author perhaps drifts away from his original promise of demystifying why a large number of people are fascinated by trains He does return to this theme at the end, but the middle is by and large an enjoyable and well written travelogue that weaves people, geography, politics and history in to the description of 49 train journeys
September 26, 2016
Ticket to Ride takes you around the world through 49 of the most interesting and unusual train journeys. There are famous train trips like the Indian Pacific across Australia or the Trans-Siberian through Russia, as well as lesser-known journeys through places like Iran and North Korea. The trains vary from China’s ultra-modern high-speed lines to rickety Indian mountain railways, but the enthusiasm for life on the rails is universal. The stories of the people he meets along the way are what really make the book. I might have mostly read it on a GWR train between Cheltenham and London, but I felt myself being transported everywhere from the Scottish Highlands to Sri Lanka.
December 3, 2022
The author pokes fun at train enthusiasts and fellow travellers but, after a few pages, it's apparent the joke is on the reader who falls for the blurb. Chesshyre is distainful of fellow passengers, guides and foreigners generally. He offers modest historical and cultural context of travel brochure banality but if you want to know the colour of lino or what's on the wall - every wall - he's your man. Tedious and mostly awful.
Absurdly, on the back cover Sara Wheeler describes it as 'hugely entertaining'. It's published by Summersdale, who publish Thom Wheeler.
Absurdly, on the back cover Sara Wheeler describes it as 'hugely entertaining'. It's published by Summersdale, who publish Thom Wheeler.
July 20, 2024
It's taken me ages to read this book, I didn't want to pick up another one to read alongside this as it was complicated enough. It's written by a travel writer Tom Chesshyre (love the spelling of the surname), who sets off to make 49 unusual train journeys. Well according to the chapter headings he doesn't.
Nevertheless those included in the book aren't a bad choice. He starts off standing at Crewe station surrounded by men in anoraks with notebooks and binoculars (how wide are these platforms at Crewe station?). He finds himself being drawn into a society where trainspotters are a bit like demi-gods, they certainly know their stuff and can trot out all sorts of fascinating information to non-trainspotters. Well I thought it was fascinating, and so does Mr Chesshyre as he then takes himself off trainspotting around the world. Well some of the world.
I really liked his descriptions of the trains and the countries he visits, I take note that the book was written in 2016 and there will be more restrictions on travel in these countries today. I enjoyed his descriptions of his fellow passengers, he doesn't want them to know he is a travel journalist and pretends to be picking up information to self-fund writing a brochure on whatever town/country he is in. Until he gets to Australia and I admit to finding this funny, gets bullied by all the gold class passengers and he hides away in the cheapest class instead, which means he has to run the gauntlet of the gold class to get to the red class restaurant every time he wants a meal! (I probably shouldn't have found it funny. Being bullied. By passengers. Because he was writing a book and not a brochure. They weren't daft).
I did find this book interesting, maybe because I come from a family where all the men on one side of the family worked on the railways, mostly as signalmen as far as I can see with the odd porter thrown in for good measure. Not a bad book, just a tad difficult to read, tons of descriptions of different classes of trains... (well it is a book on trains after all).
Ps he journeyed to Crewe, Kosovo, Macedonia, China, Sri Lanka, India, Turkey, Iran, Finland, Russia, Australia, America, France, North Korea, Poland, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Kaliningrad, Lithuania, Inverness, Kyle of Lochalsh, Mallaig, Glasgow, Kent and East Sussex well Tenterden to Northiam anyway.
Nevertheless those included in the book aren't a bad choice. He starts off standing at Crewe station surrounded by men in anoraks with notebooks and binoculars (how wide are these platforms at Crewe station?). He finds himself being drawn into a society where trainspotters are a bit like demi-gods, they certainly know their stuff and can trot out all sorts of fascinating information to non-trainspotters. Well I thought it was fascinating, and so does Mr Chesshyre as he then takes himself off trainspotting around the world. Well some of the world.
I really liked his descriptions of the trains and the countries he visits, I take note that the book was written in 2016 and there will be more restrictions on travel in these countries today. I enjoyed his descriptions of his fellow passengers, he doesn't want them to know he is a travel journalist and pretends to be picking up information to self-fund writing a brochure on whatever town/country he is in. Until he gets to Australia and I admit to finding this funny, gets bullied by all the gold class passengers and he hides away in the cheapest class instead, which means he has to run the gauntlet of the gold class to get to the red class restaurant every time he wants a meal! (I probably shouldn't have found it funny. Being bullied. By passengers. Because he was writing a book and not a brochure. They weren't daft).
I did find this book interesting, maybe because I come from a family where all the men on one side of the family worked on the railways, mostly as signalmen as far as I can see with the odd porter thrown in for good measure. Not a bad book, just a tad difficult to read, tons of descriptions of different classes of trains... (well it is a book on trains after all).
Ps he journeyed to Crewe, Kosovo, Macedonia, China, Sri Lanka, India, Turkey, Iran, Finland, Russia, Australia, America, France, North Korea, Poland, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Kaliningrad, Lithuania, Inverness, Kyle of Lochalsh, Mallaig, Glasgow, Kent and East Sussex well Tenterden to Northiam anyway.
April 20, 2024
Tickets, please! This is a 3.5 star for me, but I can't give halves.
First off, the subtitle is slightly misleading. The author lists 49 trains taken as part of these journeys, but these actually make up 9 main journeys and 9 lesser ones.
That said, I enjoyed the vast majority of this travel diary. Rather than just describing the journeys, he looks at what makes a 'train spotter/enthusiast', technical details of some of the trains (but not so much that it gets in the way) and the people he meets on the journeys. He shares carriages and cabins with some really interesting folk, though we only hear snippets about them.
The author also gives historical details where they are relevant, regarding the countries, the politics, or the technical difficulties faced. This, alongside the scenery descriptions, is probably my favourite part.
The main low point for me was the Australia trip where, honestly, he comes across as a bit antagonistic and annoying. He should have taken the same approach as on other trips and denied being a journalist. The people on the trip took against him, and at times, I was on their side. That's only one chapter out of twelve, though.
There are some wonderful, occasionally poetic, turns of phrase in this book. I don't usually annotate, but these got underlined:
"...we are soon passing a glistening lake that leads to a wide plain of emerald field with cotton-wool clouds hanging low and still."
"Great Wall of China red wine is just about the worst wine I have ever tasted, although it gets steadily better after the first glass."
"Cluster-b*mb clouds are scattered in a royal-blue sky" (my edit)
"Light fades in a fusion of peach and people as darkness descends, clouds parking quietly for the night..."
In all, there was a lot to enjoy in this book. I enjoy train travel, but I have little interest in the technical aspects. I love a good journey though, and this book is packed with them.
@hjreadsbooks
First off, the subtitle is slightly misleading. The author lists 49 trains taken as part of these journeys, but these actually make up 9 main journeys and 9 lesser ones.
That said, I enjoyed the vast majority of this travel diary. Rather than just describing the journeys, he looks at what makes a 'train spotter/enthusiast', technical details of some of the trains (but not so much that it gets in the way) and the people he meets on the journeys. He shares carriages and cabins with some really interesting folk, though we only hear snippets about them.
The author also gives historical details where they are relevant, regarding the countries, the politics, or the technical difficulties faced. This, alongside the scenery descriptions, is probably my favourite part.
The main low point for me was the Australia trip where, honestly, he comes across as a bit antagonistic and annoying. He should have taken the same approach as on other trips and denied being a journalist. The people on the trip took against him, and at times, I was on their side. That's only one chapter out of twelve, though.
There are some wonderful, occasionally poetic, turns of phrase in this book. I don't usually annotate, but these got underlined:
"...we are soon passing a glistening lake that leads to a wide plain of emerald field with cotton-wool clouds hanging low and still."
"Great Wall of China red wine is just about the worst wine I have ever tasted, although it gets steadily better after the first glass."
"Cluster-b*mb clouds are scattered in a royal-blue sky" (my edit)
"Light fades in a fusion of peach and people as darkness descends, clouds parking quietly for the night..."
In all, there was a lot to enjoy in this book. I enjoy train travel, but I have little interest in the technical aspects. I love a good journey though, and this book is packed with them.
@hjreadsbooks
January 19, 2025
Not at all the book I expected it to be. That's not necessarily bad, but if the subtitle is false advertising, it's definitely not on me. I only got through about a third of it before giving up.
I like travelling, and going by rail, and so the idea of a book offering 49 unusual train journeys sounded intriguing. But let me tell you about the first four of these journeys: except, I can't. The first chapter takes place at Crewe station, and the first four journeys, not mentioned until the list of journeys in the back of the book, are the author's four trains to get there and back. Whether they count as unusual journeys, who could say.
The actual journeys that are detailed give quite a bit of peripheral information, some interesting and useful, some not so. We have a lot of facts and figures about the history of rail in the given countries, and some points of interest about the places visited. All quite justified. But we also have a lot of extraneous stuff about the other passengers on the trains. These might simply be people he's observed (and I can't help feeling he's making fun of them) or people who he's spoken to - at which point he'll often go into digressions about these people, what they do, and what their employer does. All quite irrelevant.
But what we don't have a lot of is actual detail on the train journey itself. The experience of travel that I would like to know - what do we see from the windows as the train rolls by? Is it comfortable? Are tickets cheap and easy to get? What's the food like? And just what makes the journey so unusual? Some of these are given cursory mentions, but very little to excite the would-be traveller. And the journeys are often not that unusual.
Rather than a compendium of interesting journeys, as the cover promises us, all we really get is a tepid travelogue of a bloke who happens to have the means to go around the world trying out a few trains. If that's your thing, fair enough, but it's not mine.
I like travelling, and going by rail, and so the idea of a book offering 49 unusual train journeys sounded intriguing. But let me tell you about the first four of these journeys: except, I can't. The first chapter takes place at Crewe station, and the first four journeys, not mentioned until the list of journeys in the back of the book, are the author's four trains to get there and back. Whether they count as unusual journeys, who could say.
The actual journeys that are detailed give quite a bit of peripheral information, some interesting and useful, some not so. We have a lot of facts and figures about the history of rail in the given countries, and some points of interest about the places visited. All quite justified. But we also have a lot of extraneous stuff about the other passengers on the trains. These might simply be people he's observed (and I can't help feeling he's making fun of them) or people who he's spoken to - at which point he'll often go into digressions about these people, what they do, and what their employer does. All quite irrelevant.
But what we don't have a lot of is actual detail on the train journey itself. The experience of travel that I would like to know - what do we see from the windows as the train rolls by? Is it comfortable? Are tickets cheap and easy to get? What's the food like? And just what makes the journey so unusual? Some of these are given cursory mentions, but very little to excite the would-be traveller. And the journeys are often not that unusual.
Rather than a compendium of interesting journeys, as the cover promises us, all we really get is a tepid travelogue of a bloke who happens to have the means to go around the world trying out a few trains. If that's your thing, fair enough, but it's not mine.
January 13, 2025
This book was bought for me as a gift - mostly because we love playing the board game ‘Ticket to Ride’ and the title sucked us in.
Sadly, it was far less entertaining.
Chesshyre is not a person I would like to meet in real life. His descriptions and judgements of people are unflattering, unkind and often unnecessary. He seems to have a bit of an obsession with describing the weight of overweight people and in Australia seems to rub everyone up the wrong way - which I believe is quite hard to do. His denial of being a train enthusiast whilst writing not one but three books about trains is either an overdone joke or a desperate need to not lump himself in with a group of people that he seems to entirely disdain. It’s hard to be patient with it when he’s rushing to the front of every train to get its details.
So he seems to dislike people, trains and people who like trains.
He does seem to enjoy the travel and alcohol, and that comes across in his chapter about France where he spends two thirds of the chapter talking about the visit and the alcohol he drunk, and barely any time focussing on the trains.
Was this travel writing? - maybe. There are some beautiful and thorough descriptions but to get to them you must wade through a lot of specific train information.
Was this a train book? - maybe. But don’t read it if you’re a train enthusiast because you will probably be offended at how he thinks of you.
Was this an interesting book? - in parts, yes, but my dislike for the author and the persona he adopted means I won’t go out of my way to read it or anything by the author again
Sadly, it was far less entertaining.
Chesshyre is not a person I would like to meet in real life. His descriptions and judgements of people are unflattering, unkind and often unnecessary. He seems to have a bit of an obsession with describing the weight of overweight people and in Australia seems to rub everyone up the wrong way - which I believe is quite hard to do. His denial of being a train enthusiast whilst writing not one but three books about trains is either an overdone joke or a desperate need to not lump himself in with a group of people that he seems to entirely disdain. It’s hard to be patient with it when he’s rushing to the front of every train to get its details.
So he seems to dislike people, trains and people who like trains.
He does seem to enjoy the travel and alcohol, and that comes across in his chapter about France where he spends two thirds of the chapter talking about the visit and the alcohol he drunk, and barely any time focussing on the trains.
Was this travel writing? - maybe. There are some beautiful and thorough descriptions but to get to them you must wade through a lot of specific train information.
Was this a train book? - maybe. But don’t read it if you’re a train enthusiast because you will probably be offended at how he thinks of you.
Was this an interesting book? - in parts, yes, but my dislike for the author and the persona he adopted means I won’t go out of my way to read it or anything by the author again
November 27, 2024
This was an enjoyable read, though not my favorite from Chesshyre. What stands out is how it captures the calming, reflective nature of train travel - something especially appealing in today’s hectic world. A quote from the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh chapter sums it up well: life may be stressful, but trains (when running smoothly) offer a rare escape. That sentiment keeps me returning to Tom’s books, even as someone with no particular interest in trains.
However, the book promises 49 journeys, though only about ten get the depth they deserve. Chapters eleven and twelve are the worst offenders, cramming ten trips into just 36 pages. One, about a ride from Barcelona to Zaragoza, is almost entirely about a minor interaction with a security guard over some knives. It felt like filler.
On the plus side, Tom excels at blending history, scenery, and personal anecdotes. The chapter on Sri Lanka’s Reunification Express is a standout, perfectly balancing travel insights with local history. Unfortunately, just as I got hooked on one story, I was rushed to the next, leaving me wanting more. At times, the book reads like a collection of newspaper articles, not a cohesive narrative. The shorter chapters make it a quick read (I finished in two days) but they sacrifice depth.
While it doesn’t quite match 'Slow Trains Around Spain', this is still a charming book with beautiful descriptions and interesting encounters. Just don’t expect every journey to stay on track.
However, the book promises 49 journeys, though only about ten get the depth they deserve. Chapters eleven and twelve are the worst offenders, cramming ten trips into just 36 pages. One, about a ride from Barcelona to Zaragoza, is almost entirely about a minor interaction with a security guard over some knives. It felt like filler.
On the plus side, Tom excels at blending history, scenery, and personal anecdotes. The chapter on Sri Lanka’s Reunification Express is a standout, perfectly balancing travel insights with local history. Unfortunately, just as I got hooked on one story, I was rushed to the next, leaving me wanting more. At times, the book reads like a collection of newspaper articles, not a cohesive narrative. The shorter chapters make it a quick read (I finished in two days) but they sacrifice depth.
While it doesn’t quite match 'Slow Trains Around Spain', this is still a charming book with beautiful descriptions and interesting encounters. Just don’t expect every journey to stay on track.
August 25, 2025
A whistle-stop travelogue that rides the rails through a handful of countries without ever fully settling into any of them. The chapters vary in spark some skim by, others hint at something richer, but all feel rushed. The Iran train chapter is the standout for setting, yet even there the author moves on just as the texture and cultural detail start to gather.
What I missed most was immersion: the sights/sounds/smells, the slow accumulation of moments that make a place feel lived-in. The voice leans toward basic recounting rather than reflection, so the inner journey stays faint.
And yet, the book did nudge me to think about why trains are beloved; the simple joy of staring out the window as the landscape keeps changing; that quiet, meditative peace of being carried forward, moving but somehow still, toward a new destination. Those flashes are lovely, and I wished the author lingered there longer.
If you want an easy sampler of rail journeys, this is a pleasant weekend read. If you’re chasing the full evocation of travel and the ache of wanderlust, you may come away wanting more depth, more time, and more reflection. Bottom line: enjoyable, light, occasionally thoughtful, just not the immersive ride I was hoping for.
What I missed most was immersion: the sights/sounds/smells, the slow accumulation of moments that make a place feel lived-in. The voice leans toward basic recounting rather than reflection, so the inner journey stays faint.
And yet, the book did nudge me to think about why trains are beloved; the simple joy of staring out the window as the landscape keeps changing; that quiet, meditative peace of being carried forward, moving but somehow still, toward a new destination. Those flashes are lovely, and I wished the author lingered there longer.
If you want an easy sampler of rail journeys, this is a pleasant weekend read. If you’re chasing the full evocation of travel and the ache of wanderlust, you may come away wanting more depth, more time, and more reflection. Bottom line: enjoyable, light, occasionally thoughtful, just not the immersive ride I was hoping for.
April 13, 2020
Since we can't go anywhere, might as well read about travel, right? Ticket to Ride is an interesting account of various train travels all over the globe. Of course, it's given me major locomotive wanderlust, but one thing I didn't expect was for this book to remind me of how little I actually know about the world. This is especially true of the idiosyncrasies of train travel or the [recent and tumultuous] history of young countries such as Kosovo.
I have traveled by train a few times (short trips in France, the Chunnel from Paris to London, and an overnight from Paris to Berlin), and I agree with the author that there is a certain romance to train travel - the relaxed pace, the countryside steaming past. After finishing this read (book 17 for the year), I'm adding a few more trains to my bucket list.
I have traveled by train a few times (short trips in France, the Chunnel from Paris to London, and an overnight from Paris to Berlin), and I agree with the author that there is a certain romance to train travel - the relaxed pace, the countryside steaming past. After finishing this read (book 17 for the year), I'm adding a few more trains to my bucket list.
March 10, 2021
As someone who spent three weeks in 2019 travelling Europe by train, this was a brilliant book. I can totally relate to Tom’s identification of trains as such a satisfying and enjoyable mode of transport because of their more calm and sedentary nature, how they expose you to the beauties of the areas which you travel through, and how they can be so much more sociable than air travel. This book was particularly enjoyable for me because of their focus on the more abstract nature of rail travel, rather than any too specific detail on railways and trains. A lovely and relaxed travelogue, well-written and well-described, that is perfect for anyone who has enjoyed rail travel and understands its advantages and the unique perspective it offers on the world. Probably not for someone looking for a trainspotter’s bible, but very good for someone who likes to take the train.
February 19, 2024
Took this book with me as a travel companies across a few train trips in Italy.
I was very excited at first, but then became increasingly disappointed with the book and the author. The book doesn't really have a strong point or purpose to exist, it's filled with unnecessary anecdotes lacking value and with limited cultural context outside trains. It seems like the author was just jet setting around the world with a single goal (riding trains) than actually taking in a full travelling experience. For example, after being on the trans siberian for 9 nights, he ended up in China, which he proceeded to fly out of just 2 days later, as he had other trains to catch. All that effort for such an incomplete experience?
I was very excited at first, but then became increasingly disappointed with the book and the author. The book doesn't really have a strong point or purpose to exist, it's filled with unnecessary anecdotes lacking value and with limited cultural context outside trains. It seems like the author was just jet setting around the world with a single goal (riding trains) than actually taking in a full travelling experience. For example, after being on the trans siberian for 9 nights, he ended up in China, which he proceeded to fly out of just 2 days later, as he had other trains to catch. All that effort for such an incomplete experience?
June 12, 2020
The author has made a series of unusual rail journeys on foreign soil, so the book takes the form of his travel diaries of these journeys so we hear of the fellow travellers he bumps into sometimes in considerable detail such John who happened to be sharing his cabin on the Trans-Siberian, various officials especially on his Istanbul to Tehran trip and guides. This book was a gift from my sister as she knows I am fond of train journeys, it is very light reading and certainly not boring but I guess it is a very challenging project attempting in narrative form (there are no pictures) to give a description of what after all is a very visual experience.
November 11, 2017
Ticket To Ride is a pleasant diversion, certainly for people (like me) who enjoy reading about rail travel.
The author pitches it as an exploration of the 'passion for trains' around the world. I'm not sure it really lives up to that framework (to a certain extent it reads as at least a partial repurposing of freelance travel articles), but it's usually an interesting ride nonetheless, whether the author is running into unexpected senior citizen social tension in the lounge car of Australia's Indian Pacific, or on a train crossing the former boundaries of the Sri Lanka civil war.
The author pitches it as an exploration of the 'passion for trains' around the world. I'm not sure it really lives up to that framework (to a certain extent it reads as at least a partial repurposing of freelance travel articles), but it's usually an interesting ride nonetheless, whether the author is running into unexpected senior citizen social tension in the lounge car of Australia's Indian Pacific, or on a train crossing the former boundaries of the Sri Lanka civil war.
did-not-finish
May 20, 2021I couldn't get into this right now. It turned out to be really heavy on trains themselves (like train models and mechanics and stuff). It probably would have gotten more interesting as it went, but I picked it up more for the travel aspect and don't really care anything about trains in and of themselves. He starts the book by talking about meeting up with people who are major train aficionados and are in train groups or clubs or something. Just not my cup of tea. I may come back to it at some point.
July 19, 2024
Ideal reading for a long train journey of my own. This is a lovely set of travel narratives in which trains and their passengers and crew play the leading role, but the destinations are not overlooked. As the author says, this is a celebration of both trains and train enthusiasm/enthusiasts. There is plenty of rail history along the way and political commentary too which highlights both the significance of trains in the past and present/future, as well as the democratic deficits and human rights abuses present in some of the countries visited.
May 13, 2019
A delightful travel log about train travel around the world The author takes and describes adventures, specific trains on different train routes. He covers 49 unusual train journeys. He discusses everything from the people he met, the places he visited, and the food he ate.
I felt as if I was a companion of his on his travels. It has encouraged me to look into several different train trips for future vacations.
I felt as if I was a companion of his on his travels. It has encouraged me to look into several different train trips for future vacations.
April 7, 2020
Well written, but it helps to like trains. I began reading and realizing I have not been that interested, but I finished wanting to take a few train rides in my remaining years. I realize, on the few trips I have taken, I didn't appreciate the relaxed atmosphere of slowly gliding by nature as well as communities; these were missed opportunities. Never again, as I often tell myself, "Next time will be different."
January 21, 2025
A travelogue from a different perspective — seeing the world and meeting people one train journey at a time. The book is divided into 49 different train journeys so it is easy to read at your leisure and when you are in the mood. Chesshrye may not be the most insightful analyst of other cultures and societies but he does a wonderful job of describing the wonders of train travel. I can’t wait to ride!
November 10, 2023
Enjoyable snapshots of train journeys. Particular enjoyed the more mundane moments. And the Trans Siberian journey. Only the concept let it down - I wouldn’t really call it 49 train journeys (random metros included; many journeys of life excluded) and the 49 didn’t have any meaning! Some more meaningful thread could have been nice - or just stating “nice stories from my travels”!
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