Why Luxury Trains Are The Smartest Way To Travel In 2024

Forget high-speed rail. Steve King applauds the revival of sumptuous - and soporific - trains, from the Royal Scotsman to the relaunched Orient Express

- STEVE KING

Scientists have found that slow rhythmical oscillations of 4-12 Hertz per second are ideal for triggering the “emptiness mechanism” in the human brain. Which is why we tend to drift off during activities with a rhythmical element, whether that’s a meditation, with its measured breathing and mantras, or a journey by train.

Some trains are better than others for achieving this agreeable state, the Royal Scotsman being one. It is an Edwardian style affair with tartan everywhere, on sofas and soft furnishings, on staff—and potentially on you too, should you wish to pay a visit before setting off to the outfitters Kinloch Anderson, who designed the train’s tartan and will tailor your own bespoke ensemble.

But my favourite thing about the Royal Scotsman is its veranda at the end of the observation car, where I gaze at the landscape sliding by, my brain’s emptiness mechanism fully engaged. In fact, so leisurely is the pace that I wonder whether, if I were to walk alongside the train, I might fairly soon overtake it.

If the slowness itself is one element of the appeal to luxury travellers who can afford the time, another is the fact that a train emits about 80 times less carbon dioxide than a plane. In Europe the pro-trains trend has been given impetus not only via investment in rail inventory and infrastructure but also through legislation. France, for example, has banned short-haul domestic flights that could be undertaken by train in less than two and a half hours.

ALL SET TO BE ROLLED OUT