Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Train Tourism
The term 'train tourism' is used throughout this topic to describe the fusion
between travelling to a destination by rail and the train
as
the destination. The
latter includes railway stations, some grand and reflecting times past, and
others no more than a platform alongside the tracks in remote countryside.
Railway architecture, features such as tunnels and gradients, systems of oper-
ation, as well as the near environs through which the train passes, are integral
to the travel experience. There is no clear dividing line between the role of the
train as a mover of people over spatial distances and as a provider of a tourist
experience for those who perceive it as such. For some, the journey is the
thing. For others, the train is at least a pleasant enabler, and at best, an inte-
gral part of a holiday which makes it distinctive or partially different from
everyday life.
Thus, in a similar manner to the way in which scholars have identified the
attraction associated with certain places, slow travellers are drawn to railways
in an affective manner (Thrift, 2004). The train, more than other forms of
transport, illustrates the importance of the travel experience coupled with
potential environmental benefits of low-carbon tourism. The green credentials
of the train have been highlighted to good effect by several railway operating
companies. However, as Givoni et al (2008) note, whilst trains are, in general,
less polluting than the car and aeroplane, the generalization depends on the
type of train and the sources used to generate electricity to power the traction.
For example, the Austrian train operator OBB calculates that 86 per cent of
its energy is from hydropower and the Swiss operator SBB estimates that it
uses 40 per cent from nuclear power plants, both of which, it is argued, are
low-carbon or carbon-neutral sources.
The scale of the railway network remains extensive in some countries,
such as Belgium, the Netherlands or UK, whereas in other countries there are
no railways at all, as in Iceland or Yemen. If there is, in the foreseeable future,
a major shift of demand from aircraft to trains, it is conceivable that some of
