Ultimate Train Journeys: World

Environmental concerns are prompting travelers to consider the surface route – and the best means of transport at ground level is undoubtedly rail. Ultimate Train Journeys: World profiles 30 great train trips from every inhabited continent, selected by long-time rail fan and travel writer Tim Richards. Tim's curated selection covers the full range of rail options, from the humble commuter train to long-distance night trains with sleeper berths and dining cars, and all journeys are blessed with great scenery. There's the Coast Starlight (Los Angeles to Seattle), the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling) and The Orient Express (London via Paris to Venice), just to name a few. Each chapter includes a detailed itinerary, fast facts, photos and maps. With space to move and no road traffic to get snarled up in, the real draw of train adventures is that you'll be immersed within your shifting environment, yet not entirely of it. You can witness your surrounds at a steady pace, and properly get to know your travel companions. The old-school ways of travel are fast becoming new again.

Tim Richards is an award-winning travel writer, specializing in rail travel, who will hop aboard any train at a moment's notice. His work has appeared in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world, and in Lonely Planet's guidebooks. He's the author of Heading South (2021, Fremantle Press), an Australian rail-travel narrative; self-published travel memoir The Kick of Stalin's Cow (2016), about post-communist Poland; and fantasy novel Mind the Gap (2014, HarperCollins). He's a regular contributor to the "Traveller" lift-out of Australian national newspapers, and of travel articles for Lonely Planet's website. You can see his published work at iwriter.com.au, and he writes regularly about travel at patreon.com/timrichards.