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Everyone loves a good train ride, and the world did rail fans proud in 2022 with new routes, new operators, and a new need for speed all over the world.
Here are some of our favourite moments from the world of train travel, including a night train from Austria to the Italian Riviera, a new semi-high-speed line across Laos, a luxurious trip across Africa, a new Swiss train that can “jump” rail tracks, and the United States finally getting the thrill of the tracks.
Switzerland’s Golden Pass Express, or GPX, didn’t start running until December 2022. It links Montreux, Gstaad, and Interlaken with special panoramic trains that change their height and wheel gauge to move between the different lines. The nearly four-hour trip goes by beautiful lakes and mountains that are typical of Switzerland. Before, you had to change trains twice to get to your destination.
This year, the big news in Laos was the semi-high-speed train that went from the capital, Vientiane, to Boten, which is near the Yunnan province of China. It goes through popular tourist spots like Vang Vieng’s karsts; Luang Namtha, which is a hub for ecotourism; and Luang Prabang, which is a beautiful city that used to be the royal capital. It’s part of a bigger plan to connect Beijing to Bangkok and even Singapore over the next few decades.
For a long time, the only ways to get from Heathrow Airport to central London were to take the Tube for an hour, pay a lot for a taxi, or take the Heathrow Express train.
No longer. The Elizabeth Line, which opened in May after $25 billion and a four-year delay, connects Reading and Heathrow in the west to Abbey Wood in southeast London and Shenfield in Essex, which is east of the capital.
It goes faster and smoother, and it stops several times in London. The last station, Bond Street, and through routes from the west opened in November (initially passengers changed at Paddington). By May 2023, the final plan will be made public.
What’s better than one high-speed rail network for the whole country? There are three. In November, Spain got (sort of) a fourth when iryo, a new high-speed competitor owned by big European companies like Trenitalia, which brought its popular Frecciarossa trains to the line, began service.
It’s the third company to operate in the country and the fourth high-speed brand. Iryo is starting with Madrid to Barcelona through Zaragoza and Madrid to Valencia through Cuenca. Seville, Malaga, Cordoba, and Antequera will be linked in March 2023. Alicante and Albacete will be linked in June.
Not a new train line, but a new way to ride the rails: in August, Germany opened the world’s first line where all of the trains are powered by hydrogen. In Bremervorde, Lower Saxony, 14 hydrogen trains that are powered by fuel cells run on this line. The Coradia iLint model hydrogen trains were supposed to be fully in use by the end of the year. They would be added gradually to the diesel rolling stock that was already in use.
This year, Italy’s world-class trains have really spread all over Europe. After the Frecciarossa service from Milan to Paris started in December 2021, Trenitalia, the company in charge of the passenger hub of Gruppo FS, which is owned by the Italian government, started a service between Paris and Lyon in April 2022.
Then, before setting up Iryo, it went to Greece and opened Hellenic Train, a new passenger and freight rail company in Greece. It has put electric trains on the busy route between Athens and Thessaloniki, which takes just under four hours. It also runs urban and suburban lines in and around the capital.
In November, a “floating” train took Thai passengers across one of the country’s largest reservoirs. This was made possible by rising water levels.
When the train leaves Bangkok, it goes to Lop Buri province, where the water level in the Pasak Jolasid dam has reached the very top. When the train gets to the middle, it stops so that people can jump out and take selfies in this unexpected waterworld. The train runs until February, but by November, tickets through the end of the year were already gone.
A late addition to the list, OBB’s new night train started running on December 11. It can take you from the snowy cities of Austria and Germany to the warm Italian Riviera, or the other way around.
Maybe it’s more fun to go north. From La Spezia, which is the starting point for the Cinque Terre, the train goes up the coast of Liguria, stops in Genoa and Milan, then goes past Lake Garda to Verona, says goodbye to Italy at Padova, and enters Austria at Villach. Here, it splits in two. Half of it goes through Austria and Germany, stopping in Salzburg at 6:49 a.m. and arriving in Munich at 9:20 a.m. The other half stays in Austria and goes to Vienna.
There used to be a night train between Vienna and Milan, but the new route goes further than the Italian fashion capital.
Sweden is the home of the “flight shame” movement in Europe, and Swedish operator SJ has taken advantage of this with its EuroNight night train from Stockholm to Hamburg, which started running in September. When it leaves the Swedish capital at 5:30 p.m., it stops for a long time in Malmo before going through Denmark and getting to Hamburg before 7 a.m.
Let’s be honest: when it comes to train travel, the US is way behind most of the rest of the world. That’s why it’s big news that a popular stretch of track is getting faster.
Amtrak made improvements to its infrastructure in June. As a result, its Acela trains can now go up to 150 miles per hour in the New Jersey part of the Northeast Corridor. Even though that part between New Brunswick and South Brunswick is only 16 miles long, it’s a good start.
Amtrak will replace older rolling stock on the Northeast Corridor in 2023 with new Acela trains that can go up to 160 mph and are from the next generation.
One for people with time and money to spare: in July, Rovos Rail started its new route, the Copper Trail, which goes through four sub-Saharan African countries and covers nearly 2,000 miles on a super-luxury train.
The 15-day luxury trip starts at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and goes north through Zambia and then west through the DRC to Lobito on the Atlantic coast of Angola.
In between, you can take day trips to national parks, an elephant sanctuary, and towns and cities, like Huambo, which is Angola’s second-largest city. Prices for 2023 start at $13,600, which is shockingly expensive for something so beautiful.
The TGV M, the next generation of high-speed trains, was shown off by the French railway company SNCF in September. This was more of a sneak peek into the future than a real debut.
Alstom will make the double-decker train with a longer, more aerodynamic nose. It will make its debut in Paris in 2024, and then it will be used all over the country. The trains are bigger and easier for people with disabilities to get on and off of.
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