Ready for some improved train options across London? Well, you'll probably have to postpone your visit until around 2017, but the new Crossrail project could make life easier for Londoners and travelers alike.

The new rail route will run from west to east through London, going underground in the middle, including what we hope will be a very handy connection between Heathrow airport and the center of the city. It will take in some existing stations, and trains will run every two and a half minutes, so waiting around should definitely be minimized.

Of course, we'll all be ten years older when Crossrail gets going, so who can be sure if we'll really care or not; it's also a pity it won't be ready for the 2012 Olympics. A name change might also be a good idea, as we're imagining the headlines now: "Crossrail makes people cross."

Related Stories:
· Crossrail [Official Site]
· London: Huge New Train System [Budget Travel]
· London Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: ohskylab]]]> amandak 2008-08-13T09:20:09-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/23/162549/133

For most people in New York, the Long Island Railroad is either the bane of their commuter existence or the one thing standing between Manhattan and partying on the beach. But writer Emily Meg Weinstein decided she'd ride the train just for the hell of it--and think about her upbringing in the suburbia it serves.

Her essay today in The Morning News gives a blow-by-blow account of a ride from Port Washington into Manhattan, as seen from her seat on the 11:11. Not far into her trip:

There is a bay--the bay across which Jay Gatsby gazed longingly at Daisy Buchanan, I'm always quick to point out.

Later Weinstein passes through Great Neck:

The kind of town where an enormous banner proclaiming "BOTOX IS HERE" is not considered to be in poor taste.

After the jump, we've Google Mapped all of her stops, and linked to Jaunted contributor Ben Hancock's guide to surviving the suburbs for you LIRR warriors.]]> pbb 2008-07-23T16:30:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/22/1359/99307

It's hardly shocking that as gas prices rise, more commuters are looking to public transit options they may not have considered earlier. But the Amtrak train leading in gains may surprise you: It's not the soup-to-nuts Northeast Regional or the posh Acela trains, but the Downeaster, the Portland-to-Boston route which picked up 947 extra passengers a day over last year.

We're pleased that we may have reached the tipping point for new public transportation options to be developed nationwide, although the initial result will just be more crowding. (A Midwestern friend of Jaunted says the Milwaukee-Chicago "Hiawatha" service is in dire need of another car per trip, as workers used to driving the 90 miles kick back on the train instead.)

Related Stories:
· Amtrak's Downeaster Ridership up 28 Percent [AP, via Yahoo]
· The Downeaster [Official Site]
· Amtrak coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: herzogbr]]]> egw 2008-07-22T13:50:21-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/16/161840/515

Given the effectiveness of its government, Italy seems like an ideal candidate for private enterprise. But when it comes to the rail service there, we've honestly never been less than impressed. So we're a little surprised to learn that a new private company, Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, will start running daily trips around Italy by 2011.

NTV plans to use so-called AGV trains developed in France, which are basically next-generation TGVs. In other words, they're fast. A trip from Rome to Milan--which today takes four-and-a-half hours--will be cut to just over three hours. The long haul from Rome to Venice will be shortened by 15 minutes.

Interestingly, the trains will run on existing tracks, which leaves us wondering which service will have priority, the private or the public. Two things the new NTV trains will offer that's certainly new? Internet connections and on-demand TV.

Related Stories:
· NTV [Official Site]
· Private Rail Service Starting in Italy [AP, via]
· Train Travel coverage [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-07-16T16:30:18-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/7/15/15914/3205

Moscow might be a blossoming tourist destination with pricier hotels than nearly anywhere else, but until now getting into the city from any of the airports has been a bit of a nightmare. But things are looking up.

With a tongue-twister of a name, the Savyolovsky Station--Sheremetyevo Airport Rail Link has just opened, whizzing travelers from Sheremetyevo into downtown Moscow in just 35 minutes--half the time it used to take on the bus.

Of course, now you miss out on sitting on that smoggy gray traffic jam known as Leningradskoye Highway, but don't worry, it'll still probably take you ages to get through the immigration line.

Related Stories:
· Moscow Sheremetyevo Gains New Rail Link [Business Traveller]
· Moscow Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jystewart]]]> amandak 2008-07-16T09:11:30-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/24/31440/5153

England doesn't seem that big when you look at it on a map, but a journey from London down to the pretty southwest areas of Cornwall and Devin does take a while. Now that rail company First Great Western has revamped the London to Penzance sleeper train route, however, you don't have to waste time getting there.

This route's been there a while, but now that it's had a £2 million ($3.9 million) upgrade, Great Western is hoping to get a whole heap more passengers. A designer who's worked for Porsche has done new interiors for the trains and all fixtures, fittings and even the toilets have been completely upgraded.

The last time we traveled this route, it was neat and clean enough and very practical for saving a night's accommodation cost--now we're keen to try it again and do it in style instead. With a romantic name like the Night Riviera Sleeper, how can we go wrong?

Related Stories:
· First Great Western Night Riviera Sleeper [Official Site]
· Night Riviera Sleeper Train to Cornwall [Travelbite]
· Train Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: JZjr]]]> amandak 2008-06-24T10:05:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/21/144029/928

We're big fans of American rail travel, even though it breaks our hearts sometimes, so we greet the news of Amtrak's surging ticket revenues and passenger miles with cautious optimism. As the New York Times points out, skyrocketing prices for gasoline and jet fuel are encouraging more people to travel by rail, leaving the beleaguered national train company scrambling to keep up with the record-breaking ridership.

While decades of quasi-socialist neglect, financial constraints and an atrophying infrastructure have made the legacy carrier less nimble than it ought to be, here's hoping that they can hold it together long enough for passengers to appreciate the many sublime pleasures of riding the rails. Spacious seats, plenty of room for luggage, no need to remove shoes or dump liquids before boarding and the ability to be just about as drunk as you feel like just might make riders demand the much-needed improvements necessary to bring Amtrak up to the level of, say, European trains in the 1970's.

Still, travelers on Amtrak's most popular routes are in for crowded conditions this summer. Tickets for the daily New York-to-New Orleans Crescent Train are already sold out from July 5-8, and the Seattle-to-Vancouver line is filling up fast. So make your reservations soon, lest you be forced to stay home, or *gulp* take the bus.

Related Stories:
· Travelers Shift to Rail as Cost of Fuel Rises [NYT]
· Amtrak Gets More Money, Continues to Suck [Jaunted]
· Buses coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: NYT]]]> Victor Ozols 2008-06-21T15:00:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/