The World's Most Scenic Railways

 

STEP BACK IN TIME ON SOUTH AFRICA’S LUXURY DURBAN SAFARI

Rovos Rail’s lovingly restored vintage carriages have gleaming wood-panelled interiors and its private sleepers come with double or twin beds and en-suite bathrooms. This luxury operator does a range of three-day tours and The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys takes us on its “Durban Safari”: Pretoria to Durban via the grasslands of KwaZulu-Natal and past the brooding peaks of the Drakensberg Mountains.  You meander along at an average speed of just 25mph, and the itinerary includes excursions: a game drive at a private reserve where you can spot elephants, lions and rhinos, and a visit to Spionkop battlefield, one of the bloodiest spots in the Anglo-Boer War. In January 1900, British troops were left exposed on a mountain due to a tactical blunder and were massacred by Boer snipers. Among the survivors were Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi, who was a stretcher-bearer for the Red Cross.The train also stops at a tiny village where Nelson Mandela stopped for a drink in 1962, shortly before he was arrested and imprisoned. 

 

How much? Rovos Rail’s Durban Safari starts at around £1,000 per person for a Pullman suite, including meals, beverages and excursions.  For more information go to rovos.com . The alternative South Africa’s Blue Train is just as swish and rolls from Pretoria to Cape Town through vineyards, the peaks of the Western Cape and the Karoo desert, stopping at the diamond-mining town of Kimberley.  For more information go to bluetrain.co.za

 

 

TAKE A ROLLERCOASTER RIDE ON MEXICO’S COPPER CANYON RAILROAD

Snaking through high peaks and plunging into North America’s deepest canyon, northern Mexico’s Chihuahua Pacifico Express – El Chepe for short – winds through the Tarahumara mountains and cavernous Copper Canyon, a series of six ravines that, combined, are four times longer than the Grand Canyon. The name Copper derives from the verdigris hue of its lichen-covered rock. The 653km line runs from near Chihuahua to Los Mochis on the Pacific coast, taking 16 hours.

 

Delayed by revolution, the challenges of the terrain and financial problems, the railway took a century to build and finally opened in 1961. Its engineering marvels include a vertiginous 180° loop inside a mountain and a 335ft-high bridge.  There is a choice of two trains: the ordinary commuter train that chugs all the way from Chihuahua; or, for 357km, taking nine hours and embarking at Creel, the Chepe Express, which has an open-air carriage and a restaurant car with domed windows. Its panoramic first stop, Divisadero, has a cable car that soars over two canyons and the world’s longest zipline.

 

How much? A standard single on the Chepe Express is about £70, with first class £120.  For more information go to chepe.com.mx

 

The alternative For a different North American adventure, Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer meanders past peaks, ravines, turquoise lakes and the occasional grizzly bear, with excursions ranging from helicopter rides to a glacier tour.  For information go to rockymountaineer.com

 

EXPLORE SRI LANKA’S HIGH TEA COUNTRY BY RAIL

Sri Lanka’s blue trains may not be as lavishly furnished as the trains in South Africa, but the views from the windows are second to none. Built by the Victorians to move the tea and coffee crops, the island’s vertiginous railway wends from Colombo into the hills, stopping at the lakeside city of Kandy and climbing more than 6,000ft as it pootles through tea terraces and along misty ridges to the hill resort of Ella. From there, it’s a short train ride to a viaduct so striking that it’s become a tourist attraction – the towering Nine Arch Bridge.  As well as comfortable Chinese-built trains with air-conditioned first-class carriages, battered vintage trains with an observation car still run, too.

 

How much? A second-class seat is £2. First-class is £5 (which must be reserved through a travel agency). The alternative India’s Unesco-listed Kalka to Shimla line also offers glorious scenery at a sedate pace. Its “toy train” creaks along narrow-gauge tracks up to the hilltop station Shimla in the foothills of the Himalayas – the old summer capital of the British Raj.