Train of the Week

So as expected, the train trip from Edmonton to Toronto was absolutely fantastic. What's better is that I am saying it not only from a passenger train nut's point of view. Today I will post a few pictures of something which matters to all travelers - the dinning experience. Please, do not let my paper cup distract you... it does not belong to the dinning car, I have simply brought it along from the cafe in the lounge car There is no better travel experience anywhere on VIA Rail's system than its Train 1/2, The Canadian (well, sort of the Canadian). Dining on this train is no exception. In the 1954's stainless steel dining cars, you will find plentiful of views with beautiful decors above the windows, comfortable seating, ceramic tableware and stainless steel cutlery. Meals are freshly prepared in the kitchen of the dinning car with gorgeous presentation on every dish and served by very friendly staff. Better yet, pricing of the meals in the dinning car is very ...

Merry Christmas and I am off to ride the rails again! Here are a few pictures of the same trip two years ago.   Plus check out all the great work VIA Rail Canada has been doing to improve passenger rail service in Canada. Have a safe holiday!

The HT65000 is the first high-speed train to enter revenue service on Turkish soil. Spanish firm CAF , with her design based on Spain’s own Renfe Class 120 , has built the electric multiple-unit. Each trainset is expanded from 6 cars from 4 found on the Renfe. Since the train operates on standard gage tracks only, she does not inherit the dual gage design found on the Renfe. The HT65000 operates on the 360 mile Istanbul-Ankara high-speed railway with a top speed of 155 mph. Twelve trainsets were ordered by the TCDD (Turkish State Railways) and were in service since the opening of the high-speed line in 2009.

The Bombardier Itino is a light, nimble little diesel-hydraulic multiple units built in the early 2000s at the company’s Hennigsdorf, Germany plant. It was originally developed by ADtranz , a company Bombardier purchased in 2002. Y31 operated by Tåg i Bergslagen (Sweden) The Itino is made up of 2 or 3 cars weighing around 30 tons each and is powered by diesel engines and hydraulic transmissions with mechanical automatic gearboxes found in diesel trucks. This little train pumps out just over 1,700 horsepower and have a top speed of 100 mph. There are a total of 40 sets of the Itino built and they are used in regional services in Sweden and Germany. Krösatågen Y32 (Sweden)

As the name suggests, the Arlanda Express is a train service operated by A-Train linking the busy Arlanda Airport and the City of Stockholm, the second largest Nordic city, a metropolis of 2 million residents. The service runs between Stockholm Central Station and the 3 Arlanda Airport stations over the Arlanda Line every 10 minutes using the X3 Coradia electric multiple units built by Alstom in Birmingham, UK in the late 1990s. The Arlanda Line branches off from the East Coast Line , the mainline railroad linking Stockholm with cities to the North, including Sweden’s 4th largest city, Uppsala, home to over 200,000 people. Other than the Arlanda Express, the line also serves intercity trains to destinations along the East Coast Line with stops at the airport. The East Coast Line and Arlanda Line have a permissible maximum operating speed of 124 mph with the exception of some trains at 127 mph (i.e. SJ's X2 ). Below is a short film showing some of the traffic on ...