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The circular building is the historic “signal box” for the tramway junction in Hakodate.

Day 4. Day 4 was a bit of a trainfest - Google Maps tells me that it Kushiro (where I started the day) is 335 miles and over seven hours drive away by car. I started the day on the 0819 Super Ozura Express from Kushiro - a six car set similar to the one I took yesterday. There seems to be a...

Day 3 I love a good geographical extremity, and my main aim on Day 3 was to get to Japan’s most easterly rail station. I would have liked to have gone out to Cape Nosappu, the most easterly point in Japan, but it was still umpteen kilometres off the railway, it is freezing cold, and I don’t...

Trying to attach them as thumbnails this time!

Hokkaido Mid January, and I find myself picking the most inopportune part of the year to take a trip to the frozen north of Japan. Several years ago, during the height of the protests in my current home of Hong Kong, I’d made a spur of the moment decision following travel disruption to fly...

As a long term IoM resident, I’d often wondered a Britrail Pass was possible but in the days when the only option was risking someone in a booking office saying no, I was never brave enough to plan it!!

Hong Kong’s East Rail Line also retains a first class carriage, including the new trains introduced earlier this decade. It’s basically the difference between a metro-style interior with metal seats and a more traditional regional carriage layout. The full run up to the border isn’t much short...

As a former long term resident of the island, I’m hugely pleased to see the positive response from this report - it’s quite unusual for the island, where the lack of any system of political parties means issues such as the value of rail infrastructure is continually revisited by an unfocused...

Shortly before Christmas, my partner and I found some cheap flights to the city of Taichung in Taiwan. Taiwan is a fascinating place both as a place to visit and from a railway perspective. I was enormously surprised when I just googled to discover it’s about 1.75 times the size of Wales -...

Thanks very much for your detailed response - much appreciated, thanks! This trip includes a long weekend in Apollo Bay with friends, and the XPT journey down from Sydney, and I’ve been up to Bendigo and Kyneton couple of times previously, so I’ll take a look through the other options you’ve...

Hi all, I have seen reference to only 10 loco-hauled services remaining out of Melbourne daily. I’m in Melbourne at the end of the month - would like to give one a go. I cannot find any reference online to what specific services there are. Does anyone here have the info? Thanks in advance!

It’s a bit of an unnecessary assumption to say that people travelling without seat reservations are disorganised. Most of my travel links with air journeys which are commonly late and occasionally diverted. I’ve learned the hard way that advance tickets with their accompanying seat reservations...

I live in Hong Kong and travel into China by train on a semi-regular basis. I would recommend pre-booking rail travel and sticking to high speed lines unless you read Mandarin or are travelling with someone who does. The High Speed Lines tend to be just about manageable alone - most information...

Goodness, what a write-up! Thanks for the entertainment over many years.

It’s sad to see that the number of daily trains has dropped - I think Vietnam had some fairly stringent Covid rules, and, like where I’m based in Hong Kong, I think it takes time to get everything moving properly when you hit ‘pause’ for two years. Very, very tempted to do Hanoi - HCMC although...

Thanks Iskra - it’s also been a pleasure covering your various travels!

Basically, everything north of the Pennines that isn’t WCML or ECML. If I end up with some time in the UK in March, I might think about a Scottish Rover.

Thanks Techniquest - I’ve been enjoying reading your reports for years, keep up the good work. I’m currently weighing up whether to spend a week filling in some gaps in my coverage the UK early in the year which will bring me back into more familiar territory!