Tag Archives: Rail Travel
Cracking Down
It was almost three years before someone asked my to show a ticket on my local commuter train. I was so surprised, I fumbled to produce it – I just wasn’t expecting the request. The train runs from Basel, Switzerland, to Freiburg, Germany, and is used by thousands daily. There are no turnstiles. At many […]
The Missing Station
Sometimes I get easily confused – but it isn’t always my fault. In those cases I blame the system. Figuring out a new transit system is a challenge, wherever you are living. If you don’t speak the language that’s an additional challenge. If the language is loaded against you, what are you supposed to do? […]
Memories of Yesteryear
I remember steam engines, though only in a hazy way. They were on the way out when I was born, replaced by the more efficient (and I presume cheaper to operate) diesel locomotives. Newer trains though don’t have the majesty of a steam engine. There was something special about that technology, something that captured your […]
Boisterous
There was a party going on, though I never did figure out what the occasion was. It did show me the difference between Canadian and German liquor laws. Actually, I’m not sure if there are German liquor laws. We took the train to Freiburg Sunday morning at 10;30. You would think that at that time […]
If The Train’s On Time…
According to government propaganda in fascist Italy of the 1920s and 1930s, the unstated message was that, while you might not care for the man, at least under Mussolini the trains ran on time. They didn’t of course, and still don’t. Given the propensity for dictators to kill their critics, it probably wasn’t healthy to […]
Commuter Etiquette
When I was young the British had a reputation: they knew how to queue. When a line formed in the UK, for whatever reason, it was always orderly. That fact would usually be mentioned as people were trying to find their way through a chaotic situation where an orderly line would have made things so […]
Railway Remembrances
I am old enough to remember the big coal-fired train engines. They were just being phased out in favour of diesel when I was a young boy. Every boy my age wanted to grow up to be an engineer (or a policeman or a fireman). I remember standing at the railway crossings down the street […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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