Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(Blum et al, 1992). The obsession of early railway companies to push ahead
for faster journey times between cities has now returned. It is a major dimen-
sion of railway strategies in order to win back markets from airlines and the
private car. However, the use of slower routes and rural branches could suf-
fer from a lack of investment. These routes are equally the province of leisure
and tourism travel, if not more so, as they facilitate slow travel to good effect.
Therein lies an opportunity for train operators to stimulate demand through
targeted marketing activities.
In most parts of the world, railways were built to transport freight; the
carriage of passengers was secondary to this main purpose, at least, in the
early decades of the 19th century. However, the market for passenger travel
soon developed and the railways responded accordingly by the introduction of
passenger (or mixed passenger/freight) trains between major cities, firstly in
Europe, but then in other parts of the world (Vaughan, 1997). By the 20th
century, the railways had improved passenger timetables to offer an extensive
range of destinations and introduced long-distance overnight trains in Europe
and in North America, where, by the 1920s, there were over 10,000 Pullman
sleeping cars in operation. These trains met the needs of the emerging middle
classes who were demanding opportunities to travel for leisure purposes as
well as business traffic. In some countries trains became accessible to the poor,
but conditions of travel, firstly in open wagons and then in very basic car-
riages, were limited in the extreme (Thrift, 1996). In many developing
countries, train travel for the poor still remains uncomfortable at best, and
often cramped to the point of serious discomfort.
Nevertheless, the railways of the world have played an important role in
destination development. In his seminal work of 1885,
The Alpine Journey
,
Simmel argued that the railways stimulated mass tourism in the Alps:
Destinations which were previously only accessible by remote
walks can now be reached by railways, which are appearing at
an ever increasing rate. Railways have been built where gradi-
ents are too steep for roads to be constructed, as in Muerren or
Wanger Alps. The railway line up the Eiger appears to have been
finalized, and the same number of climbers who have scaled the
difficult peak can now be brought up in a single day by rail.
(Simmel et al, 1997, p219)
It was not, as some scholars have intimated, a rapid development of mass
tourism, but rather an incremental approach. Nor was it simply about trans-
port to a destination; railway companies were proactive in encouraging access
from their railheads to town centres using horse carriage, buses, rickshaws and
eventually motorized taxis. They also built large-scale hotels, or worked in
partnership with other entrepreneurs to provide accommodation near to rail-
way terminals. Elsewhere, smaller hotels and hostels grew up around almost
every railway station in the world, as this new form of transport replaced the
horse-drawn transport that had operated between town squares and inns
across Europe and North America. Railways were also important in the