Trains

Having read of the purchase of a 240-dollar rail ticket from London to Glasgow with Virgin Trains (Sept. ’10, pg. 46), I thought readers would like to know how to purchase tickets at a more reasonable rate.

I travel between London and Glasgow or Edinburgh more than eight times each year. I am in standard class sometimes but in first class frequently and always with a reserved seat. At the end of August 2010, I paid £34 (about $55) for first class on Virgin between London and Glasgow.

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.

This month’s winner is IRVING E. DAYTON of Corvallis, Oregon:

My wife, Vera, and I were in France, Sept. 27-Oct. 13, 2010. We had a week in Paris, a leisurely drive south to tour medieval towns and a few days with friends in Nimes. We had intended to take the high-speed TGV train back to Paris, but our return date coincided with the second day of what became a crippling nationwide strike over pension reform.

A suggestion for those of you coming to London for a repeat visit — why not stay just outside of central London (viz., outside of the West End), where there is good train service into the city centre?

Staying outside of the shopping and entertainment areas (Westminster, Kensington, Chelsea, etc.), you are much more likely to meet local people if you head back there from central London for dinner or even spend some time in your chosen location. As locals, my wife, Vivien, and I always seem to be in the minority when we go “up west” within London, where it’s mostly visitors.

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.

This month’s winner is THOMAS M. JOHANNECK of McLean, Virginia:

In August, in response to women passengers’ complaints of sexual harassment and groping on the public rail system, Indonesia became the latest country to offer women-only passenger cars. Two coaches on each of 10 eight-coach Jakarta-Bogor commuter trains are designated women-only, with female conductresses and security officers.

Currently, 12 countries have women-only train cars. The others are Belarus, Brazil, Egypt, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

by Randy Keck (2 of 2 on the UK)

“The Legendary Silk Road by Private Train,” offered by Lernidee Erlebnisreisen GmbH (Eisenacher Str. 11, D-10777 Berlin, Germany; phone+49 [30] 786 00 00, www.lernidee.com), was the first group tour my wife and I took that had no other native-born English speakers.

We traveled Oct. 13-26, 2009, and chose that departure because Lernidee promised an English-speaking guide. Only four of us on the 45-person tour spoke no German, but, as advertised, Lernidee flew in a guide, a delightful Russian woman, who spoke excellent English and German and, of course, Russian.

by Jay Brunhouse (Third of three parts)

From the editor — ITN subscribers Darrell Booth and his wife, Debra, of Houston, Texas, got a little more adventure than they bargained for.