New Blog - Ten reasons for writers to travel by train…

Sam, one of our members of staff here at International Rail was asked to write a blog just recently on the top ten reasons for writers to travel by train and this is what she had to say...

I've worked at International Rail for almost 10 years and I'm also a writer so both subjects are important to me. A quick survey among my writer friends revealed the unanimous answer "It's hard to hold a pen whilst driving!" but seriously there are many good reasons:

Experiences: It's far easier to recreate something in a believable way if you've experienced it first-hand. Just imagine what the epic journeys London-Istanbul, the Silk Route or coast to coast USA could bring you. You'd be in good company, the great Agatha Christie loved trains and her autobiography describes her "fascination with looking out at an entirely different world."

Characters: Writers are people watchers. There's just no getting away from it to create believable characters we have to observe real people. In Europe an average 93% of passengers on trains are locals just doing everyday stuff. These are fertile fields for eagle-eyed authors!

Plots: Conversations are great ways to get plot ideas and what better place for them than on a train? At every stop a fresh set of people with new ideas and unlike buses and planes you aren't confined to your seat so you can wander at leisure over-hearing interesting snippets or taking a seat and being social.

Setting: Really get a feel for your setting by travelling through it and in many cases though areas not accessible by car or on foot. Looking for a particular type of landscape? Try renowned scenic trains such as the Glacier Express, the Tranz-Alpine, the California Zephyr and many more.

Tradition: Follow in the footsteps of literary legends. Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was written after travelling on the Simplon Orient Express and there is little doubt that Leo Tolstoy used routes now travelled by the Trans-Siberian when writing Anna Karenina.

Technology: As a publicity piece, author Julia Crouch recently wrote a short story entitled Strangeness on a Train while travelling on East Coast Rail. She's a fan of writing on trains and most trains are more than suited to the task with table seats, WIFI access, power points, carriages for mobile use or quiet carriages so what's stopping you?

Flexibility: With a wide range of ticket and trains types you can travel quickly direct to your destination or slowly wander hoping on and off when the fancy takes you. Europe alone has over 250,000km of track so travelling by train means you can really follow your muse.

City to City: Unlike airplanes trains travel from city centre to city centre so all you need to do is walk straight to your platform. Once on-board just sit back and relax as you are whisked straight to the heart of the action.

Budget: Trains needn't be expensive booking in advance and using rail passes can give great savings and once you start there will be no taxes, tolls, parking or transfer charges. Travelling by train allows the impoverished writer to know the costs before heading off!

Time: Its true long journeys aren't quicker by train but there's no lengthy check-ins and no queuing for security so you can go straight to your seat and get started on that all important bestseller.

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