Jaunted

Travel Writing

Post-Brûlé Brief: Rahul Jacob's Ode to Train Travel

July 24, 2006 at 9:25 AM | 0 Comments

In this weekend's FT, Tyler Brûlé tells us the story of how he came to purchase his Swedish summer idyll. It's a circuitous story, with several twists and turns. Quick summary: it's on an island north of Stockholm; it has a detached outhouse; and it's less than an hour from Arlanda. If we're impatient with Tyler this week it's because love Baltic summers and wouldn't mind having an island hut of our own.

The real treat FT Weekend section treat this past weekend, however, is Rahul Jacob's guest "Slow Lane" column. Jacob, who is currently filling in for Harry Eyres, wrote a meditation on the value of train travel this past weekend.

Jacob's column is basically a dossier of all the ways that train travel is superior to air travel. He pays particular attention to the ways that train travel allows its passengers to gradually track physical and cultural shifts. Rather remarkably, Jacob then writes about a number of richly sensory personal experiences, all of which took place on train journeys or were enabled by them. Along the way, he lauds DC's Union Station and crafts an enticing picture of Kerala.

More! We can't get enough of this kind of concept-driven travel writing.

[Image via avmaler/Flickr]