Europe 1975: A Throwback Memory

I've been travelling independently for well over half a century. From my earliest trips, I have scattered memories of incidents here and there. This week, I got hit out of left field by a memory from my first independent trip to Europe in 1975, thanks to Instagram's random selection of stories that the software thinks might interest me. That picture so intrigued me that I promptly went digging for more. Here's the photo that IG turned up for my consideration -- a rather unusual sight by anyone's standards.

Let's face it, it isn't every day that you see a passenger train charging across the apron at an airport terminal. The location was the airport at Le Touquet - Paris-Plage in northern France, right on the coast of the English Channel south of the ferry ports at Calais and Boulogne. The scene was the transfer point between two legs of an unusual rail-air hybrid service that used to connect Paris and London three times a day -- "The Silver Arrow."

Since this was 1975, there was of course no Channel Tunnel to speed up rail travel between the two capitals. The available options were using rail at each end to connect with the ferries across the Channel from Calais and Boulogne, or to fly from Paris (Orly or Le Bourget) to London (Heathrow or Gatwick). The all-air option was fearfully expensive, while the traditional ferry crossing would take 5 hours or more (including train times) and laid you open to the notoriously rough seas of the English Channel, one of the most seasick-prone sea crossings on the planet.

I'd just spent four weeks touring on the continent, and would soon be heading back to England for my flight home when I saw an ad (while browsing a bookstore) for the Silver Arrow. I had a vague memory of having heard of it earlier, but wasn't aware of the details. However, the price was right and I booked it with no hesitation, having had my own baptism by rough water when crossing the North Sea from England to Norway several weeks earlier (that ranks as one of the most miserable travel experiences of my entire life).

The journey began at the Gare du Nord, the same station in Paris where Eurostar expresses now depart for London via the tunnel. The train, shown in the first photo at the top, ran express to Le Touquet with only a single stop in the northern city of Amiens. As we approached Le Touquet, the diesel train left the main line on a branch. This ran north-westwards into the airport property, crossed two active taxiways, and then curved around to west and ran right across the apron into a station platform attached to the end of the small airport terminal. The track across the airport has been paved over now, but you can still see traces of the route today on aerial photographs marked here with several "silver" arrows!

As we were rolling into the airport, I was seated on the right-hand side of the train, and so completely missed a grandstand close-up view of the aircraft as we rolled in.

 

Considering that this train would go no further than the airport before returning to Paris, it was far bigger than any possible need. The plane only seated fifty people; the train probably had space for three times that number. And indeed, the train had loaded up with the inbound passengers and departed back to Paris before we'd even boarded the flight.

Check in went very quickly, and so did the security check. And then we walked out to the plane. Ah, the good old days!

The name of the airline was British Island Airways, one of a sizable collection of independent airlines in the British Isles which flew smaller turboprop aircraft like this one in and out of smaller airports at various cities beyond the big metropolitan centres of the United Kingdom. The aircraft was a real rarity, one of a number of aircraft types produced in the 1950s and 1960s by the British civil aviation sector which saw only limited service with non-British airlines. This one is the Handley Page Herald. It was one of several different types built at the same time by various British manufacturers, all seating around 50 passengers, and all powered by the ubiquitous Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engine. The Herald struggled to make sales, and only 50 of these aircraft were completed.

Oddly enough, one Canadian airline operated the Herald around the same time period. Eastern Provincial Airways, the regional airline of the Maritime provinces, operated this type into a number of smaller airports from their main hub at Halifax.   

The two pictures shown so far were of BIA's final colour scheme, so they must have been taken a few years later on, perhaps on one of the final runs of the Silver Arrow. Here's one more picture which dates from an earlier year and shows the colour scheme as it appeared on my flight. 

 

Attribution:

Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding

 

Once we were all aboard and seated (and the plane was not full), the engines were fired up with that memorable plaintive whining tone unique to the Dart engines, and we taxied quickly out to the runway. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the flight to London Gatwick airport took only 35 minutes, a great advance over the 90-minutes-plus that a ferry would take from Calais to Dover. We flew at a fairly low altitude and had a great view.

Why Gatwick? London Gatwick had a feature that was nearly unique in 1975, although it's now seen as more or less essential in Europe and much of the rest of the world. This airport had direct rail access to the city with a station on the main line from Brighton up to London Victoria. Once we deplaned at Gatwick, it was a quick walk through the terminal, across the footbridge over the tracks, and down to the platforms. Our ticket included travel on the premium-priced Gatwick Express service which ran into London nonstop in a matter of 35 minutes.  

I was saddened a few years later to find out that the Silver Arrow was no more. It wasn't the Channel Tunnel that caused the demise of this unique service -- that still lay years in the future. It was something completely different in the world of ferries.

 

 Photo credit: Andrew Berridge, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons  

 

  

Photo Credit: Bachcell, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

These monsters, the SRN-4 hovercraft, could carry 450 passengers and 100 cars at a time, "flying" across the waters of the English Channel a short distance above the waves, and (most significant) were capable of crossing in wave height conditions up to 3.5 metres (11.5 feet). The hovercraft service was already in existence in 1975, and I admit it was a tough choice, but the unusual aircraft won out over the exotic hovercraft. I never did get a chance to cross the Channel in this way. Pity.

 

European Circle Tour Part 3: Not Just Another Train Trip

For the next leg of the trip, I travelled from Geneva to Florence by train. This is not just your typical train trip. I've been over a large part of the route in Switzerland before (many, many years ago) but had never experienced any of the Italian portion of the route. For sheer variety of scenic experience, from serene lakes to towering mountains and ancient castles, this train ride is hard to beat.

 

Before we get down to the actual trip, there are a few key details you have to know. First, reservations. Advance reservations are mandatory for all international trains, and for all premium-priced high-speed rail lines in Europe (as far as I know). Fortunately, none of these trains were heavily sold on the day I travelled so you could have bought a day-of-travel ticket and gotten seats with no trouble.

 

Second: the train I chose, at 1:25 pm, was the only direct train running all the way from Geneva to Milan. Many other options exist, either by changing trains to the northeast (closer to Zurich), or by riding this route as far as Brig and then changing trains there onto the more frequent Basel>Bern>Milan expresses before crossing the border into Italy.

 

Third: why go first class? The big Number One for vacationers like yours truly is that First Class gets the same amount of luggage storage space (or more) for fewer passengers. Generally, on second class cars, you get less storage space and more people. For once, luggage space was not a problem on these particular trains.

 

Fourth: buy in advance to get the best reserved seats. I started checking a little more than six months ahead. The Italian high-speed train network, called Frecciarossa ("Red Arrow"), goes on sale six months in advance. By diving in right then, I probably got a lower fare, but what really mattered was that I got to choose exactly the type of seat I wanted for the Milan to Florence leg: single seat, airplane style (meaning I'm facing a seat back and not another person), and facing forwards -- in the quiet section. The train out of Geneva to Milan, a "Euro Cities" train operated by the Swiss National Railway, did not allow for me to choose specific seating, but I was assigned to a single face-to-face pair, and luckily had it all to myself with my reservation being for the seat facing forwards. That one went on sale about 75 days out from the date of travel.

 

Fifth: First Class on the Euro Cities train (as on most Swiss trains) does not include any catering service. There is a paid restaurant car right next to the First Class cars, and Swiss restaurant cars are famous for the quality of the offerings. The alternative is to bring your own. The Geneva station has a number of take-out outlets. Italy's Frecciarossa offers a light snack and drink in First Class.

 

One last quirk about Frecciarossa: like some of the other premium high-speed services in Europe, this one has a third class of service. Executive (business) Class is actually the top class -- higher than First Class in price, service, and amenities, which is the opposite of what I and many other North Americans might expect from our air travel experiences. 

Now, the actual trip: the train set which awaited me in Geneva's Cornavin Station was this type:

 

Kabelleger / David Gubler (http://www.bahnbilder.ch) - Own work: http://www.bahnbilder.ch/picture/8949

 

That picture shows the train en route to Italy on the exact line which I travelled. This Swiss train is specifically designed for international service, to fit within the height and width limits of each country's rail network, and to be able to operate with multiple electrical current levels. Here's a map to show our route.

 

 Base map:  Google Maps

 

The first leg of the journey follows the curving northern shore of Lac Léman. As the map shows clearly, the south shore is almost entirely in France. At first you pass through suburban communities linked to Geneva, then farm country appears. (by the way, many of these pictures have ghost reflections from the window glass on them)

 

 

If you're seated on the right side, occasional views of the lake and the Alps on the south shore appear.

 

 

After Lausanne, as the mountains on the north side crowd down to the lake, field crops give way to terraced vineyards, set at an angle which suggests the vineyard workers might actually be mountain goats.

 

 

Keep your eyes open if you're seated on the right side. After the train leaves Montreux there's a chance for a momentary glimpse of the famous Chateau de Chillon down on the lake shore.

 

Beyond the end of the lake, the train follows the valley of the Rhone River southwards. Mountains are now rising on either side, the higher summits still very much snow-capped in May.

 

 

At  Martigny, the valley, the river, the highway, and the railway all execute an almost exact ninety degree turn to the east.

 

 

The train stops at the city of Sion where you can spot this castle on the left side for a few brief moments (between the industrial buildings along the tracks). It's called Place Maurice-Zermatten. Above and behind it to the left is the even higher hilltop holding the ruins of the Chateau de Tourbillon.

 

 

As the valley gradually gets narrower, the train passes Visp, where the connecting narrow-gauge train to Zermatt departs. Visp is also the south end of the 34.5-kilometre Lötschberg Basis Tunnel, which brings high speed trains from Basel and Bern through the Bernese Alps and into the Rhône Valley. Above Visp, and all along the valley from here to Brig, up on the mountainside you can see the parallel rail line descending from the original Lötschberg Tunnel, which is much shorter but involves a long and difficult climb for trains from either direction to reach the tunnel entrances. 

 

 

Why did the railways come here at all? The answer is at the next stop, Brig, where you get a final glimpse of the Rhône River, now a brawling mountain stream, laden with glacial silt.

 

 Final glimpse? Indeed. As soon as the train leaves Brig, it veers to the right and plunges into the Simplon Tunnel. This internet photo shows the dual North Portal entrances to the twin tunnels. 

 

Photographer: Armin Kübelbeck, CC-BY-SA, Wikimedia Commons

 

This passage beneath the Lepontine Alps was the first railroad link between Switzerland and Italy. From its opening in 1906 until 1982, it was by a good margin the longest tunnel in the world. It's just shy of 20 kilometres long (about 12.3 miles) and this train whips through it in a mere 8 minutes. As soon as we emerge out of the southern portal, at Iselle di Trasquera, we immediately slow down -- and run through two more tunnels. The valley of the Torrente Diveria (Diveria Stream), which we are now following downhill, is both narrow and steep.

 

The railway builders had to construct a total of nine additional tunnels, including a two-kilometre long spiral, to descend this valley at a manageable grade. By the way, I had no idea we were going through a spiral tunnel -- just that we were in the dark for a while because, of course, we were no longer going at top speed. What I was conscious of  was that we were going downhill very steeply for a conventional railway train. Finally the valley broadens out, the Diveria joins the River Toce, and we arrive at Domodossola. 

 

 

This is the border station, and I got a bit of a surprise here. Remember the Schengen Agreement which is supposed to make it possible to travel between all member countries without any customs checks? Guess again. We were told that there would be a crew change (to an Italian crew from Trenitalia), but the train was also boarded by Italian customs agents. We all had to show our passports and some of us had to answer questions. I was not expecting that. 

 

 From Domodossola, the train continues nonstop to Milan. A fair stretch of this line runs through woods and small towns all along the western shore of 64-kilometre long Lago Maggiore (Greater Lake). Even on a cloudy day with spitting rain showers, it's easy to see why this is such a popular vacation area for Italians and tourists from abroad. I'd welcome the chance to spend some time there myself.

 

  

 

From there on it was fast and level running through farm lands and suburbs until we arrived in Milan at Milano Centrale. I was impressed, to say the least, that we had completed the journey of 4 hours and 25 minutes within one minute of our scheduled arrival time. That left me just 19 minutes to find my connecting train to Florence, which was not as daunting as it sounds. I found it, four platforms over from the one where I arrived, and was all aboard and settled with 10 minutes to spare.

 

Here's a photo of a Frecciarossa R1000 train set on the Milano-Venezia service. I think this was the same type I rode in, although I can't be sure.

 

Photo by Moliva on Wikimedia Commons.

 

I didn't take any more pictures on this second train, partly because it was moving so quickly (blurring the scenery) and partly because there isn't any scenery. This is a genuine high-speed line, and much of the track is enclosed by walls or embankments to avoid excess noise in surrounding areas. After Bologna, when we turned south towards Florence, the train spent most of the next 40 minutes in tunnels. The Frecciarossa avoids the physical challenges of the central Italian ountains by simply drilling under them.

 

The bad news? This flagship train arrived in Florence 9 minutes late! Naughty, naughty.

 

The good news? The first class on Frecciarossa, unlike the Euro Cities train from Switzerland, included a light snack and choice of drink, plus a bottle of water. The snack was a small ham and cheese on a bun. The attendant gave me two. I did not object. For a drink, I had a good dose of a strong Italian red wine. Together those two held me over for a late dinner in Florence at 9 pm.

 

 

At Last! New Trains at VIA Rail!

My regular readers know that I travel a great deal on VIA Rail Canada's "Corridor" services which run from Windsor and Sarnia through London ON to Toronto, then on to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec.

For years, the Corridor service has had to make do with endlessly repairing and patching a mixed bag of stainless steel American-built cars from the Budd car company, built in the 1950s and Montreal-built LRC cars from the 1970s. Now, at last, VIA Rail is getting an entire fleet of brand-new trains to serve these busy routes, with all the most modern features, not least of which is full accessibility throughout all cars.

The new trains have been coming into service steadily -- but, as always, between Montreal and Ottawa or Quebec first, then Ottawa or Montreal and Toronto. As always, the London and Windsor route, which is the one I travel most often, got last dibs. Recently, though, I have finally had my first experiences at riding on these new trains.

As the new train sets enter into service, the older equipment is slowly being put out to pasture. While I salute the builders of those historic vehicles for the durability and longevity of their work, I would never willingly go back to one of those older cars once they are gone. This post will help to explain why.

First of all, the new trains are being delivered to run on diesel power. However, it's hoped that in the not-too-distant future the lines for the Corridor may be converted to electric power, and the new train sets have been built to be readily converted too.

To start with, then, here's an exterior view of the train when I had just gotten off at my destination in Woodstock, Ontario. And right away, here's the first big difference. This is the back end of the train set.

The train was just leaving town for London and Windsor by rolling out the left edge of the frame when I snapped the picture. For the first time since the old self-propelled diesel Dayliner cars, VIA Rail has purchased fully reversible train sets. The coach at the opposite end from the locomotive also has a driving cab, so the train can be driven from either end. This eliminates the need to turn the entire train around at the end of each trip, thereby allowing more efficient scheduling. In this case, it meant that the locomotive pushed the train all the way from Toronto to Windsor, and would pull it for the return trip to Toronto.

Now, what about the interior?

As usual, I was travelling in Business Class. This is not showing off on my part. It's more a matter of necessity, since the trains always run across meal hours and the food selection for purchase in Economy Class still ranges somewhere between unspeakable and execrable, at least to a diabetic such as yours truly.

Business Class seating is again in a 2x1 configuration. But the similarity ends there. Here's a view of the single Business Class seat from the old car:

Now, the newer version, obviously in two different cars:

 

The red hashed lines along some of the window frames indicate emergency exit windows. Now, some views of the paired seats on the opposite side of the car.

Notable differences: the vastly improved headrest (adjustable!), the solid back on the chair-side table (your things can't slide off the back of the table), the dual power outlets on both front and back of that chair-side table, and the improved design which now allows for an airline-size luggage space under the seat in front of you. Seat comfort, width, and legroom remain much the same. I've read that the seats in Economy are a bit narrower than they used to be, to accommodate an aisle wide enough for wheelchair access. I have not checked that detail myself.

 

Note especially the outlets: each outlet bank has two standard power outlets and two USB-A power connectors. That's a huge leap forward from the under-the-table power outlets on the older cars which offered two standard outlets, with perhaps one of them actually working. Perhaps.

The old tray table, a decent size but rather flimsy and sometimes tilting towards you from overuse:

The new table, much bigger and far, far sturdier. This one won't quiver ominously if you unfold your laptop on it -- a frequent use for VIA Rail tray tables. Also, and for the first time on VIA Rail, you can adjust the position of this table to suit by sliding it towards you.

This larger table in turn makes possible the new meal tray, much bigger than the old trays -- but still leaving ample room to park a glass or cup alongside the tray, which was impossible with the old version.

Not only that, but the new trains come with a special stock of bigger logo glassware, bringing an end to the disposable plastic cups so often used through the years. The service crews have gotten brand-new and more versatile service trolleys as well as all the other changes.

Looking at the car as a whole, the most noticeable change sees the old enclosed luggage bins replaced by open glass shelves with a slight lip on the outer edge to hold bags in place. The more modern and brighter overhead lighting eliminates the dull, dingy feeling which you got at times in the older cars. Next we have to thank VIA for the overhead electronic display signs which display train number, car number, station details, and other information, alternately in French and English, continually updated as the trip progresses. There are several signs spaced throughout each car.

 

This view gives you a better impression of the improved space under the seats, and of the width of the aisle. You can also see here the grab handles on the aisle side of every seat to help people moving up and down the train.

Another great improvement: there are no more barriers to passage between cars. The entire train is linked into a single unit, with touch-free automatic doors which slide open as you approach, guaranteeing easy access between all cars at all times. Best of all, there's no longer a roar of outside noise when someone does pass from one car to another, due to the accordion joining of the cars in the train set. Here's what the connection looks like, between Car 1 and Car 2.

Speaking of no barriers, another major new feature is the all-automatic and extra large handicapped washroom. These are found in multiple locations throughout the train, with pairs of standard washrooms in cars that are not equipped with the larger single washroom. The passenger in the photo above is about to walk around the accessible washroom to reach the seating in Car 1.

One other brand-new feature sees a group of four seats facing each other over a table at one end of the Business Class car, now surrounded by a partition to create, in effect, a small conference room -- a frequent feature on the more deluxe trains in Europe.

The most important change of all is the one you can't see in a picture. These new trains not only run more smoothly over the sometimes-bumpy track work, but they also move far more quietly. Noise from passing trains is also greatly diminished. Canadians have never had access to such a quiet rail experience on VIA Rail. The attendant on my first trip in the new cars showed me how the service trolley was sitting rock-solid on the floor as we swerved through a switch to change tracks. It's this difference more than any other which makes me so sure that I would never want to go back to the older trains once they've all finally left VIA service.

Sadly, we are still stuck with one problem: the need to climb up and down steps to board or leave the train -- although the steps are not as steep, due to a two-step extension which reaches outside the body of the car when the door is opened. The stairs force VIA to continue using special lifts to help mobility challenged passengers, such as wheelchair users, to get aboard or to leave. But this problem is not a fault of the train set. It's an infrastructure issue. It's mainly due to the need for freight trains to have more elbow room when running along the same tracks. The raised platforms which are needed for level boarding would be incompatible with freight operations. Only at Gare Centrale in Montreal and on one track in Ottawa can you simply walk across from the platform into the train without climbing steps. Unless and until VIA Rail can have tracks of its own, all to itself, we'll most likely have to keep climbing.

Aside from that one issue, these new train sets are (for my money) a spectacular success. Improved designs of seats, washrooms, baggage storage, and lighting go hand in hand with digital display signs, improved power outlets and USB connectors, full handicapped access, and improved underseat stowage space -- with the quieter, smoother ride providing the icing on the cake. I'm already looking forward to my next trip.

I'm also looking forward to the results of VIA Rail's next huge procurement project, the acquisition of new rolling stock with sleeping and dining facilities for its long distance trains across Canada. The first steps of preparation for this project are now under way.