Keeping Track of Train Travel

1 YOU MIGHT consider taking the train for your summer getaway. After all, you'll see only clouds at 35,000 feet-if you're lucky. The United States has the world's largest rail network at nearly 140,000 miles of track, with lines that go to many national parks or even cross-country.

- Samantha Rideout

2 EUROPEANS BUILT the earliest rails in mines in the 16th century, with me or horses providing the power. The first steam engine operated in Wales in 1804. Perhaps this is why the Brits are loco for locomotives: In the U.K., at least 20 magazines are published about them.

3 TODAY'S FASTEST trains travel close to 200 mph. Sometimes called bullet trains (most famous among them Japan's Shinkansen lines), many run on electricity. But the fastest of them all, the Shanghai Maglev in China, uses the attraction and repulsion forces of magnets to shoot forward, racing as fast as 285 mph. The fastest American train, the Acela, hits 150 mph in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

4 TRAVELING BY high-speed rail can actually be quicker than taking a plane-if you account for time spent at the airport. Train stations tend to be centrally located, while airports often lie outside of city centers. Another plus: Rail travel is typically greener than going by air. The train ride from London to Madrid, for example, emits 95 pounds of carbon dioxide per passenger, compared to 260 pounds for the same trip by plane.

5 THE ORIENT Express-the setting of the best-selling Agatha Christie mystery-is a real route, and among the most luxurious, featuring marble bathrooms and a live pianist in the bar car. But it'll cost you: The five-night Paris-to-Istanbul trip starts at $23,000.