Off the rails with a romantic vagabond

RAIL Columnist

The resurgence of the sleeper train in Europe heralds a return to the romance and adventure of travel — whether you want to journey into the Arctic Circle on a snowy night or sip champagne between damask sheets on a trip through Italy.

PAUL CLIFTON picks ten of the best (and worst), declaring: “There are numerous poetry anthologies on the subject of travel. I have an entire shelf of them. Choosing just ten about railways is highly subjective. Here is my flawed selection: some familiar to everyone and one you might rather forget…”

In the first of two columns, Vitali Vitaliev recalls his life’s most important train journey

In 1974, I hitchhiked with my girlfriend Lesley from John o’Groats to Land’s End in 10 days. After 46 years of happy marriage, Lesley died from breast cancer in October 2022. Losing the love of my lif

Train Landscape , 1940, watercolour on paper, 17¼in ...