We’re often hard on our trains in this country. We don’t have smart bars serving pretzels and Pilsners like they do in Germany, or double-decker TGVs like they have in France. But we often forget just how far the UK’s rail system can take us, and with minimal fuss. More than that, how civilised it is to travel by train; to watch Britain slide by over the top of a newspaper or a magazine. Unlike motorways, which feel utterly removed from nature, the train seems to glide through unperturbed cityscapes and landscapes, usually dropping us right in the heart of a place. It’s friendlier to the environment too, which is why the Swedes who coined flygskam (flight-shaming) also coined tagskryt (train-bragging). We wouldn’t recommend bragging, but if you must, here are just some of the finest British destinations reached by train.
