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• Only cross to another platform at designated crossings.

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Kids on planes: What you should know before booking a flight for unaccompanied minors

In many families, parents or grandparents occasionally have to send kids from one family group to another , creating situations in which kids fly alone. Airline standards about the minimum travel age for children flying alone vary, though, and policies for unaccompanied minors on flights is one area where the big U.S. airlines do not march in lockstep.

How old do you have to be to fly alone?

The minimum age for children to travel alone as adults paying adult fares varies: Kids have to be 12 years old to fly alone on domestic flights with Hawaiian, Southwest, Air Canada, and WestJet; 13 years old on Alaska; 14 years old to fly as an adult on JetBlue; and 15 years old on Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Spirit and United. 

International age limits also vary by airline, and some airlines don’t allow unaccompanied minors on international flights.

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Can kids younger than 5 years old fly as unaccompanied minors?

For a variety of reasons, including the fact that flying with kids can be difficult even under the best conditions, children younger than 5 years old cannot travel as unaccompanied minors under any circumstances. For children between 5 years old and whatever the minimum adult age is on their chosen airline, most airlines provide special unaccompanied minor service for a fee. 

Of the 12 large North American airlines, only Allegiant and Frontier do not offer unaccompanied minors the option to fly. Many airlines also offer unaccompanied minor service for children a few years over the minimum adult age, which can be a good fit for families nervous about teenagers traveling alone.

Unaccompanied minor services and fees

Unaccompanied minors are carefully controlled and monitored by airline personnel throughout the boarding, flight, and arrival phases of the trip. Airlines require that unaccompanied minors be delivered to the airline by adults with the proper documentation and retrieved at their destination by other documented adults.

Typically, airlines avoid booking unaccompanied minors on the last flight of the day or on flights likely to be disrupted by weather or other factors . Also, bookings on code-shared flights are not allowed. Most airlines limit unaccompanied minor service to nonstop or direct flights. Alaska, American, and Delta allow unaccompanied minor bookings on some connecting flights for kids ages eight and older, with various schedule and route limitations. 

The big U.S. airlines charge a base fee of $150 each way (though sometimes the fee covers multiple children traveling together) plus the applicable adult fare; other airlines charge the same or less. On the airlines that allow unaccompanied minors on international bookings, conditions around children flying alone on those flights are even more stringent. Most big international airlines offer similar services, though specifics vary by airline and country.

Parents of responsible tweens and young teens would do well to compare flights and airlines , since the minimum age at which children can travel unaccompanied ranges so widely. Also, with unaccompanied minor fees in the range of $150 each way, having a family member buy a round-trip ticket to accompany kids one way on a short trip may actually be less expensive.

Minimum age to travel alone: Taking the train

Thinking about sending your child on the train instead? The minimum age to travel on Amtrak without an adult is 16 on most routes. However, Amtrak offers unaccompanied minor service between staffed stations on some trains for children between the ages of 13 and 15.

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Babies & infants go free

TGV-Lyria trains from Paris to Switzerland offer an inexpensive baby pass for around €12 which gives your wriggly 2 or 3 year old their own seat.  A brilliant idea!

Children travel at a reduced fare

But watch out for these pitfalls, tips & advice for travel with kids.

I take a backpack-sized Eagle Creek roll-along for my clothes and a matching Eagle Creek daypack for my reading books, travel documents, camera, phone, and so on.  My wife also takes an Eagle Creek roll-along for her clothes and a daypack for her own camera, reading book and so on. 

We then take two small holdalls, one for each of our two kids, a pink one for madam and a blue one for sir.  These holdalls can either sit on top of the Eagle Creeks and be pulled along or can be slung over our shoulders whilst the Eagle Creek is pulled.  The daypacks are worn on our backs.  We don't generally bother with a buggy, the children walk.  If I need to carry one of the children, Nicolette can pull both Eagle Creek roll-alongs - however we've generally found that the kids manage to stay awake (and excited) even for relatively late train arrivals, even the 21:45 arrival in Milan of the TGV from Paris. 

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Child age limits on European trains

Within the UK , children under 5 go free, children from 5 to 15 (inclusive) travel at half the adult fare.

On Eurostar , children under 4 go free, and a special child fare (currently £25 single, £50 return to Paris or Brussels in standard class) applies to children from 4 to 11 inclusive.  Children 12 & over travel at the youth fare (for ages 12-26).  All children under 12 must travel accompanied by an adult, and unaccompanied children from 12 to 16 require a consent form signed by their parent or guardian.  See www.eurostar.com for details.

On other European trains , age limits for children vary from country to country, so here's a summary.  Just make sure you tell your booking agency how old your children are, and they will do the rest.  Online booking systems will ask you the ages and will work out the fares for you.  The child fare is normally 50% of the adult fare, although on international trains where special 'global fares' are charged, a special child fare applies.  Note that these age limits are for the main national train operator, private open access operators may have different child age limits.

* Alleo is the consortium of French/German national railways running the Paris-Frankfurt/Stuttgart/Munich high-speed daytime trains.  The French show child age limits as 4-12, the Germans apply their own 6-14 age limits, so even the operators can't agree which child limits apply!  I suggest you book with the Germans if you have children aged 5, 13 or 14!

Watch the video :  Why k ids love train travel

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Travelling by train with children

Discounts, facilities and conditions, click to go to inforamtion per train operator.

• Eurostar: Belgium, France London

Intercity Brussels: Belgium

Ice international: germany, austria and switzerland, öbb nightjet: austria and switzerland, intercity berlin: germany, tgv: france, european sleeper, general rules on travelling with children and unaccompanied children.

Every train journey is a new adventure, especially for our youngest travellers. To ensure that the journey goes smoothly and comfortably, there are a few important conditions to keep in mind.

• Travelling at a discount: The age applies on the day of travel, not the day of booking, and the discount is valid only when accompanied by an adult.
• Travel with proper documents: All children must carry a valid passport, identity card and/or other required visas or immigration documents for the countries they are travelling in.
• Travel with permission: Minor children (up to the age of 17) travelling alone always need written permission from a parent or guardian. A sample form can be found on the Rijksoverheid website . Train managers may request to view it.
• Travelling unaccompanied: The child’s parents are always responsible for travelling for the child and there is no supervision on the train or at stations during the journey.
• Maximum of 4 children per adult: An adult may bring a maximum of 4 children. There are three exceptions: 1. Are you travelling to Germany with the Sparpreis group fare? Then there is no maximum number of children. 2. In Norway and Sweden, adults are only allowed to accompany one child. 3. In Denmark and the Czech Republic, two children.

In each country, the minimum ages for children travelling unaccompanied varies as well as the corresponding rules:

Child discounts and facilities on the train

Children often travel at a discount. How much discount you get varies by train and/or country. Also, some trains have facilities especially for children on board. We have listed them below for you for each train carrier.

Eurostar: Belgium, France and London

Belgium & france.

• Children 0 t/m 3 years:  Travel for free on the lap or at child rate with their own seat. Must be accompanied by a parent/guardian or adult with written permission.
• Children 4 to 11 years  Travel at child fare and always travel accompanied by an adult. Children must be accompanied by a parent/guardian or an adult with written permission from the parent/guardian. Ticket price depends on class.
• Children 12 and up: Travel at youth fare, if available. If the youth fare is sold out, the adult fare applies.
• Ticket prices will change from 4 November 2024. The child fare will no longer apply for travel on Eurostar Premier.
• Baby care: In carriages 7, 17 and 27, you can use a changing mat, washbasin and bottle heater.
• Stroller: You may take the pram or stroller on board for free, when travelling with a child. You can store your stroller in the carriage you are sitting in, provided you fold it.
• Children 3 years and younger: Children up to 3 years of age travel for free and do not need a reserved seat if they sit on your lap during the journey. Are you travelling alone with several children up to 3 years old? You can keep one on your lap, for the other child(ren), you will need to buy a child ticket. Every adult may bring one child 3 years or younger free of charge .
• Children 4 to 11 years: Children aged 4 to 11 travel at child fare .
• Children 12 years and over: There is no discounted fare for young people aged 12 and over, they travel at the regular fares.
• Children's compartment: In carriages 1 and 18 you will find several family tables where children can colour and play .
• Baby care: Facilities for baby care can be found in carriages 1, 2, 17 and 18. You cannot buy baby food on the train. However, the staff in the bar carriage will be happy to warm up any baby food you have with you .
• Stroller: In carriages 1, 3, 16 and 18, there is extra space to store your buggy or stroller .
• Specifically for children: For toddlers, a special 'mealbox' is on sale in bar carriage 6 and 13, containing a sandwich, drink, piece of fruit and a colouring book .
• Children 3 years and younger: Travel for free when accompanied by an adult provided they do not have their own seat .
• Children 4 and 5 years: Travel for free when accompanied by an adult and if the ticket is bought online. At an NS ticket machines and NS service counters, the ticket costs €2.50

Children 6 to 11 years:

• Accompanied: Travel for free when accompanied by an adult and if the ticket is bought online our website. At an NS ticket machines and NS service counters, the ticket costs €2.50 .
• Unaccompanied: Children aged 6 years or over may travel unaccompanied with written permission from a parent or guardian. Unaccompanied children receive a 50% discount on the standard adult fare.
• Children 12 years and over: No special child or youth discount on Intercity Brussels.
• Baby care: There are no baby facilities available.
• Children 3 years and younger : Travel for free when accompanied by an adult. They do not need a ticket.
• Children 4 to 14 years : Children from 4 to 14 years also travel for free when accompanied by a person aged 15 and over. However, they will need a ticket. You can specify this while making a booking and then the children will travel with you on your ticket. Please mention children immediately when booking, adding a child afterwards is not possible. An accompanying person under 18 does need a parental consent form. Children aged 12 to 14 travelling unaccompanied receive a 50% discount in Germany. Children up to 14 years do not travel free with Sparpreis Europa Gruppe and Supersparpreis Europa Gruppe fares.
• Children 15 years and over: No age discounts in ICE International. They travel at regular fares.
• Exception in Swizerland : Here, children up to 15 years of age travel free when accompanied by a (grand/step) parent, or at 50% discount if travelling with another adult.
• Baby care: Especially for travellers with babies and/or children up to 3 years old, there is a children's compartment. In most children's compartments, you will find a table to draw or play on, a power socket and fold-out baby changing table. In 2nd class in carriage 25 (ICE Frankfurt) and carriage 35 (ICE Basel). You will also find a baby changing area near the children's compartment .
• Stroller: Feel free to bring your stroller. You pay nothing extra for this and there is plenty of space to store your stroller. This can be done in the children's compartment or nearby. Folded strollers fit in the train's regular luggage rack. On Intercity Berlin you can also put your stroller in the bicycle carriage.
• Specifically for children: 'Little ICE' is a child-friendly train character to make train travel more fun for children. Together with his friends Benni IC Bus and Ida IC, 'Little ICE' provides entertainment during and after the journey. These figures are available free of charge on board ICE International in Germany at the Bord Bistro. Bistro staff are happy to hand them out to children. In addition, the little ones will receive a magazine, LeseLok, with colouring pencils for the journey .
• Family zones in ICE International: The Kindercoupé (Kleinkindabteil) and Family Zone on ICE International trains are designed for families travelling with children. The Kindercoupé is specifically for families with babies and children 3 years and younger, while the Family Zone is suitable for families with older children, up to 14 years old. Both zones offer proximity to facilities such as exits, baggage areas and toilets, and reservations can be made online. You can indicate this preference when booking online .
• Children 4 to 14 years: Children from 4 to 14 years also travel for free when accompanied by a person from 15 years. However, they will need a ticket. You can specify this while making a booking and then the children will travel with you on your ticket. Please mention children immediately when booking, adding a child afterwards is not possible. An accompanying person under 18 does need a parental consent form. Children aged 12 to 14 travelling unaccompanied receive a 50% discount in Germany. Children up to 14 years do not travel free with Sparpreis Europa Gruppe and Supersparpreis Europa Gruppe fares.
• Children 15 years and over : No age discounts on Intercity Berlin. Children aged 15 and above travel at the regular fare.
• Children's compartment: Especially for travellers with babies and/or children up to 3 years, there is a children's compartment. In most children's compartments, you will find a table to draw or play on, a socket and fold-out baby changing table. The train also has a Familienbereich in 2nd class, carriage 10 (seats 25 to 34), with 12 seats, suitable for families with (young) children, next to the Children's compartment.
• Stroller: Feel free to bring your stroller. You pay nothing extra for this and there is plenty of space to store your stroller. This can be done in the children's compartment or nearby. Folded prams fit in the train's regular luggage rack. On Intercity Berlin, you may also put your pram in the bicycle carriage. However, a foldable buggy is recommended.
• Children 3 years and younger: Travel for free on the lap or at child rate with their own seat.
• Children 4 to 11 years: Discounted travel with the Child fare.
• Youth aged 12 to 25 years: TGV has a youth fare, but it is not always available. If the youth fare is unavailable for that particular route, the regular fare applies to them.
• Baby care: A changing room with changing table is available in carriage 7 or 17 and in 1st class. Want to warm up a bottle or baby's meal? The catering staff will be happy to do this for you.
• Children 5 years and younger: Travel free without their own seat or berth, accompanied by an adult. It is not compulsory to reserve their own seat or berth, they may also share it with a paying, adult traveller. Otherwise, children up to 5 years of age travel at the child fare.
• Children 6 to 14 years: Travel at the child fare accompanied by an adult and must reserve their own seat or berth.
• Familienabteil: A compartment with 6 berths intended for up to 3 adults and 3 children up to 14 years.
• Ladies only compartments: Exclusively for women and girls, with 4 berths. Boys travelling with their mothers are not allowed in this section; they must book their own compartment or space in a mixed compartment.
• No pass needed for children 3 years and younger: Children younger than 4 do not need an Interrail Pass. Children must sit on their parent’s lap when train is crowded, as children are not guaranteed their own seat.
• Free children pass 4 to 11 years: Travel at a child fare and always travel accompanied by an adult. Ticket price depends on class.
• Youth discount 12 to 17 years: Passengers aged 12 to 27 receive discounts on Interrail Passes .
• Reservations: Note that reservations are required for all travellers, including children, for certain train types, such as night and high-speed trains.

Facilities & Conditions

More information on Interrail Passes and facilities for children and young people can be found on the Interrail website .

• Children to 3 years: Travel free when sharing a seat with a paying traveller. For a separate seat, book a ticket at the child fare.
• Discount for children 4 and 11 years: Children of this age travel with European Sleeper at a child rate.
• Accompanied travel up to 17 years: Children may travel with one adult, maximum four children per adult, with written permission from parents or guardian.

On thier support page , you can find more information on child facilities on European Sleeper's trains.

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By travelling by train, your weekend getaway will be a party for the while family from start to finish. On the way you can play a game or read a book.

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On holiday to the South of France with the kids. Very enjoyable and super-fast with Thalys.

Tips to get the best rates

Do you want to make sure you get the best price possible? Read all our tips to get the best rates.

Book your train ticket

Strike action may affect your journey on 7-9 May. Click here for more information.

What’s the minimum age to travel on a train alone.

The simple answer is that there’s no minimum age to travel on a train alone. However, your child should be mature enough to travel by themselves or with their friends. They should also understand the risks and dangers (as well as the benefits!) of travelling by train.

Can my child be accompanied if they’re travelling alone?

While there’s no minimum age to travel on a train alone, you should also know that rail operators don’t offer a chaperone service. Unless your child otherwise meets the criteria for Passenger Assist , staff cannot be pre-booked to accompany them on and off trains.

Is there any guidance for children travelling alone?

The British Transport Police have prepared some useful guidance for when your child travels by train without an adult. This advice includes:

• Texting or writing down details of the trains they’ll be catching
• Making sure their mobile or other device is fully charged
• Let them know the ‘61016’ number, which is the number to text for non-emergency situations
• Tell them to always call 999 in an emergency
• Teach them how to use a help point on a station.

There are also some basic safety rules that children should follow when travelling alone or with friends:

• Keep well away from the platform edge, moving trains and closing doors
• Stay together and look out for each other if in a group
• Stay away from the tracks and don’t ever use them as a shortcut
• Follow any instructions from railway staff
• Always find a member of staff or a police officer if in doubt or in need of help.

If railway staff think that a child might be in danger, or that they’re vulnerable, then they’ll contact the British Transport Police.

To make sure that your child has the right ticket before they travel, you can use the Railsmartr website. You can either choose to buy an eTicket to email them or print out for them. You could also collect it from the station so they have a physical ticket. You’ll receive a detailed itinerary with every ticket, so that your child knows where to go and when.

Tips For Traveling By Train With Kids In Europe

Peaceful and enjoyable. Two words you rarely hear parents using when telling their holiday travel stories with kids. So, we’ve decided to give you the most important tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe.

There is just something about trains that calms children in a way that air or car travel does not. (We wrote a whole blog on why train travel is better Quickest and Better than Driving if you need more convincing). The same goes for adults too! Family tables, passing landscapes, room to walk around, cafe facilities , time to chat and catch up and, the joy of joys, no luggage restrictions. Going by rail is safe, comfortable, and affordable when planned in advance . Teach your children the joys of train travel from an early age and they will be lifetime converts. In the meantime, here are Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe.

• This article was written to educate about Train Travel and was made by Save A Train, The Cheapest Train Tickets Website In The World .

Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe: Bring Activities to Occupy the Kids

While riding a train is fun in itself and looking outside can keep kids entertained for hours , we also suggest bringing some activities too. Book in advance and secure a window seat with a table that allows you to spread the coloring books and snacks!

Some recommended train activities include:

• Tablets: Similar to an airplane, a tablet can be a great way to pass the time . A lot of trains in Europe offer free Wi-Fi , but the service is not always guaranteed, so make sure you download movies and games at home. On most trains, almost every single seat has an outlet to keep your electronics charged, but charge them at home regardless – and bring headphones! 
• Coloring books: Coloring books and crayons are a favorite no matter what age.
• Games: If you can grab seats with a table, there is plenty of space to play cards or any other travel game. Unlike air travel, you will not have to worry about turbulence, so pick your family’s favorite game and go play. This could be the perfect opportunity to actually finish a game of Monopoly!
• Play toys: Depending on your child’s age and interest, bring some Matchbox cars or other figurines (think Polly Pockets). My son pretends the table is a racetrack while my daughter sets up her little dolls to cheer them on.

Paris to Lille Trains

Rome to Milan Trains

Hamburg to Berlin Trains

Geneva to Paris Trains

Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe: Be considerate to other passengers

The vast majority of people will be very understanding if you have a crying baby or an upset toddler that takes time to calm down. Not planning ahead and letting your little one delve into boredom due to lack of planning may not get as much sympathy. Plan entertainment that isn’t intrusive or likely to spark arguments. We don’t want to have to write Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe, that don’t belong to you…just joking!

Florence to Levanto Trains

Florence to La Spezia Trains

Rome to La Spezia Trains

Rome to Levanto Trains

Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe: Traveling overnight? 

Always try to book a compartment on a sleeper train . Taking overnight trains is awesome, and the sleep is usually great due to the natural rocking of the train. It’s also so exciting going to sleep and waking up in another country. Sleeping compartments vary by country but if you are only three and don’t want a stranger sharing with you then you’ll probably need to budget to buy an extra bed to keep your sleeping compartment private.

Salzburg to Vienna Trains

Munich to Vienna Trains

Graz to Vienna Trains

Prague to Vienna Trains

Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe: Allow yourselves plenty of time when getting off

Most trains will only stop for a couple of minutes maximum at each station, so around five minutes before you arrive you should be packing things up , rousing sleeping kids, putting on coats, and bringing bags off the overhead shelf. This level of organization gives a lot of peace of mind especially if you have a lot of kids or a lot of baggage . If the platform is busy, ensure your bags go off first out of the way of the doors, then bring the kids down afterward to prevent anyone from getting lost.

Brussels to Rotterdam Trains

Antwerp to Rotterdam Trains

Berlin to Rotterdam Trains

Paris to Rotterdam Trains

Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe: Bring Your Stroller On Board

Another reason to use trains instead of air travel  is that you can strap your kids right into the stroller and roll them right onto the train, without the headache of having to dismantle and then reassemble the stroller.  You can sometimes even park your stroller in the snack area or other open places on the train (such as the accessible area as long as it is not occupied by someone in a wheelchair), which is helpful for young kids who will sleep in their stroller. This is a huge advantage over airplane travel as I find getting a kid to sleep on a train much easier.

Bremen to Nuremberg Trains

Leipzig to Nuremberg Trains

Hanover to Nuremberg Trains

Hamburg to Nuremberg Trains

Tips for traveling by train with kids in Europe: Arrive About 30 Minutes Early

One of the main benefits of traveling by train with kids in Europe or anywhere else in the world for that matter. Is to give yourself time to arrive! Unlike air travel, you do not need to arrive at the train station too far ahead of time. When traveling with kids, we suggest arriving about 30 minutes early to get yourself situated, maybe a little earlier if bathroom stops and snack breaks are on the agenda. Typically, the boarding process will not start until 10 minutes before departure at most, but you do not want to scramble and find yourself running through a busy station . 

Munich to Basel Trains

Zurich to Basel Trains

Bern to Basel Trains

Geneva to Basel Trains

Pack snacks!

Possibly the most important tip of all. SNACKS ! A lot of the long-distance routes feature full-service dining cars with plenty of kid-friendly food – think French toast, grilled cheese, meatballs with penne. On shorter routes, trains have snack bars offering sandwiches, bagels, chips, and other snacks. You may want to pack some of your kid’s favorite snacks regardless though! Traveling with an infant? Bring baby food or formula and ask the food-service staff to warm it for you. You can make reservations for the dining car shortly after boarding. As always when traveling with kids, you should always bring snacks and beverages, in case you can’t get a reservation or the snack bar decides to shut down just when your kids announce that they are starving.

Ready to brave a train trip with the kids now that you’re armed with our Tips for traveling by train with kids? Great! Book your tickets with Save A Train , hassle-free! 

Do you want to embed our blog post onto your site? you can either take our photos and text or just give us credit with a link to this blog post. Or click here: https://iframely.com/embed/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saveatrain.com%2Fblog%2Ftips-travelingy-train-kids-europe%2F%3Flang%3Den – (Scroll down a little to see the Embed Code)

• If you want to be kind to your users, you can guide them directly into our search pages. In this link, you will find our most popular train routes – https://www.saveatrain.com/routes_sitemap.xml . Inside you have our links for English landing pages, but we also have https://www.saveatrain.com/pl_routes_sitemap.xml and you can change the /pl to /de or /it and more languages.

Laura Thomas

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I'm a high school senior who commutes an hour by train to school every day. It's helped prepare me for the real world.

• Four years ago, I started commuting to my high school — which is an hour away — by train. 
• Sometimes the commute got difficult, especially when trains were delayed or canceled. 
• But I learned how to be independent; I'm taking this real-life experience with me to college.

I hadn't thought about how cushy life was in grade school when my father drove me 10 minutes to school every morning.

But that ended when I started high school at The Hudson School, which is 25 miles away from my home in Madison, New Jersey.

Unlike the schools around me, The Hudson School offers an urban campus and an extremely small class size — only 26 people in my grade. When I learned it also offers courses not found in a traditional high school curriculum, such as Ancient Greek and military history, I knew it was right for me.

But with it being so far from my home, I have to travel every day to and from school via New Jersey Transit . It takes me a little under an hour to get to school and up to 75 minutes to get home.

Now that I'm a high school senior , I look back fondly on my four-year commute. I learned a lot on those trains — but not all of it was great.

When I first started commuting to school, it was nerve-racking

I thought I knew what I was getting myself into on that first day of freshman year — but after waking up at 6 a.m. and planning to make a 6:45 train, I realized that I would have to make some changes. I started to adjust my routine: I packed my backpack the night before so it was ready to go in the morning, and I ate my breakfast on the train.

Right off the bat, my parents were concerned about me getting on and getting off the train in the dark — not to mention the discomfort of being surrounded by strangers every time I rode the train because this was the fall of 2020, and COVID was still very much a concern.

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Meanwhile, I realized I was on my own for the first time. I had to make sure to have my tickets ready and deal with difficult conductors. In the beginning, I was nervous.

But I quickly got into the swing of things that first year and learned to enjoy my commute . Four years later, those commute jitters are long gone.

I learned real-life experiences from a young age

It didn't take long before I developed a routine and became familiar with the ins and outs of navigating trains , and I found that I could even sit with some friends from school who also commuted.

At first, I felt I was wasting valuable time just sitting on the train, so I soon started using my time productively by completing my homework . Because of this, I have learned to work in almost any environment.

I also learned a whole new set of skills. I have to ensure I have my tickets ready every morning and that I am on the right track for my train — little things that I hadn't really had to worry about before.

Additionally, I had to think on my feet and learned how to handle the unexpected. I know which stations offer transfers, so if I missed my connection, I knew where I can catch a different train. I also have learned to read a timetable, which came in handy when I was in Europe last summer .

But commuting every day isn't always easy

Commuting did take a toll on my social life . Some of my classmates didn't live so far from the school, so they didn't have to worry about a long commute. They were able to stay in Hoboken and hang out. Whenever I joined them, I had to keep the train schedules in my mind. The longer I hung out, the later I would get home, cutting into my homework and study time.

Commuting by train also means inherent mechanical issues. There have been days when it has taken me hours to get to school. It can get exhausting and draining; there are some days when I wish I could just get home as quickly as my peers who live in Hoboken and not have to deal with mass transit .

Plus, there have been times when I needed to get to school on time — for a big project or test — and then my train would suddenly get canceled or experience a delay. On those days, I struggled the most and had to get creative. Sometimes, I had to rent a bike to finish the commute. Other times, I had to get to another station to catch a faster train.

I imagined how much easier it would be if I were a regular high school student who took the bus to school.

Still, I'm glad I got to commute 25 miles every day before heading off to college

Looking back at the past four years, I realize commuting has helped prepare me for the real world — outside high school.

Now that I am about to head off to college, I feel that these experiences have helped me learn lessons about time management and problem-solving that I might otherwise not have learned.

It may have been a struggle at times, but I know that it was all worth it for the education I got in the end.

Watch: The true cost of turning America's school buses electric

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April 16, 2024

The Golden Age of Rail Travel

A century ago, America had a passenger railroad system that was the envy of the world — but after World War II, rail travel would never be quite the same.

Jordan Green

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The red-brick Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway depot looked out of place near the end of the rail line in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Evan Stair, a student at Oklahoma State University, wondered why such a sturdy, elaborate structure was situated beside a railroad to nowhere.

He inquired of a friend who knew a thing or two about railroad history. His friend replied: “Evan, there was a time in this country when you could walk down the street to your local town depot and travel anywhere in the country.”

The railroad line used to extend farther south. Passengers took a train from Stillwater to larger cities, hopping aboard long-distance passenger trains that would whisk them off to destinations far, far away.

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In their heyday, passenger trains glided through small towns and thriving cities in the western United States at all hours of the day and night. Riders were practically countless, and the trains carried high volumes of mail and express shipments. But with the advent of the automobile, Americans took to the highways. Passenger rail’s end was beginning, seemingly.

Today, a handful of long-distance passenger trains still traverse the American West, carrying passengers over rolling prairies, across arid deserts, and through lush forests as they barrel toward the Pacific Ocean and back. Most, however, are gone, and those that remain serve fewer communities.

As some passenger trains were forever sidetracked, so were many of the features that made rail travel romantic. Not everything, however, was relegated to the scrapyards of railroad history.

THE LINE BEGINS

The origins of American passenger rail travel date back to the 1820s, when horses and primitive steam engines pulled crudely constructed wooden cars resembling stagecoaches. Locomotives and passenger cars slowly evolved, but riding the rails was still a rough experience. Passenger George Pullman thought he could make it better.

Pullman developed sleeping cars with folding beds, cushioned seats, bathrooms, and plush carpeting, among other amenities. In 1866, The Saturday Evening Post caught on to the public attention toward the cars, reporting in one issue: “Mr. Pullman, the projector of the sleeping-car improvement in railroad traveling, has just placed on some of the western roads new cars, with conveniences, luxuries, and ornamentation quite in advance of anything yet produced.”

Pullman was one of the first to revolutionize passenger rail and make comfort a priority, especially on the long-distance trains that were becoming one of the country’s leading modes of transportation. As the West grew, so did the railroads that hauled freight and passengers there. Still, early passenger rail travel left much to be desired.

“Based on our later standards, the early railroad travel was pretty crude,” says Jim Ehernberger, a railroad historian, author, and retired Union Pacific employee. “The straight coach cars were crammed with smokers and screaming kids that made train trips unpleasant. There were no dining cars, and the railroads provided meal stops. Many of these were inferior operations. The times were limited, and when you had a rush on those places, many had to ‘eat and run,’ and some ‘grabbed and ran’ back to their train in order to avoid getting left.”

Passenger rail boomed until the 1920s; the advent of Henry Ford’s Model T and the modern highway system took its toll, Ehernberger says. By 1927, ridership was down, and railroads wanted it back.

THE STREAMLINER ERA

In the early 1930s, a new kind of train was zipping across the country. It was the art deco architectural design era, and railroads and railcar manufacturers put the contemporary style on rails in a bid to make rail travel exciting once again. These new trains were sleek and futuristic, unlike the bland wooden and metal cars that came before them. The streamliner had been born.

The Union Pacific, one of the largest railroads in the West, was one of the first onto the streamliner scene. The railroad’s M-10000, with a rounded nose and smooth exterior body design, was a brown-and-yellow three-car train unlike anything the nation had seen. Popular Mechanics magazine compared the train to “an elongated, aluminum bullet on wheels.” Its top speed was 110 miles per hour. Inside, a relatively new creature comfort greeted passengers: air conditioning.

The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad developed its own set of streamliners: the Zephyrs, all-stainless-steel passenger trains built by the Budd Company. The railroad placed several Zephyr trainsets into service across its network, setting new speed records.

The public was receptive. In its July 28, 1934, edition, the Post reported that crowds along the Burlington line leaped for joy as they watched the new Zephyr race across the Midwest. “The enthusiasm was astonishing, even a little bewildering,” Garet Garrett wrote. “And it was not for anything they could see with their eyes, for that, after all, was very little. A silver streak, a noisy blur, a technical apparition.”

The excitement was justifiable. “You have to think what trains were like before [the streamliners] started,” Ehernberger says. “A lot of people had an attitude that trains were dirty and kind of slow.”

The streamliner played a role in sustaining passenger rail travel for years, including during World War II, when automotive fuel supplies were rationed. Roughly 74 percent of the nation’s intercity passenger travel was done by rail, railroad journalist Fred Frailey reports in his book Twilight of the Great Trains , which chronicles the passenger rail industry’s 20th-century decline.

When the war was over, railroads spent hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase new passenger cars and equipment, Frailey told me in a phone interview. Railroads invested in luxurious dome cars, allowing passengers to gaze up at the night sky and across sweeping plains, and sleeper cars that made multi-day travel relaxing. Railroads were ready to carry passengers and mail for another generation.

By 1949, however, railroads were handling less than half of all intercity travel, Frailey writes, and that share would only decline. Automakers who had been producing war machines were putting cars on the road again, and the public was buying. Airline travel also soared after the war, according to the National Air and Space Museum.

“The capital that they spent, they didn’t get back, and no railroad did,” says Frailey.

Despite the competition, long-distance trains kept charging across the West. The Atchison, Topeka, and  Santa Fe Railway — one of the largest railroads in the West — was operating several in 1949. Among them were its famed Super Chief, a luxury train dubbed the “Train of the Stars” because of the number of celebrities who rode it, and the El Capitan extra-fare chair car train.

Similarly, in 1953, the Union Pacific was running its series of streamliners named in honor of cities such as Portland, Denver, and San Francisco. Eleven trains were crossing the state of Wyoming, a major state for the railroad’s operations, Ehernberger says.

Though rail travel was in decline in the 1950s and early 1960s, some customers might not have noticed.

TRAVELIN’ MEN

The year was 1959, and a boy from Corsicana, Texas, was about to take a trip he’d never forget.

For Kelly Martin’s birthday, his aunt took him to Dallas via the Sam Houston Zephyr, one of the Burlington’s streamliners. As the train pulled into the Corsicana station that day, Martin was in awe.

“It was late morning, and it was sunny, and the train came in, and it was all stainless steel and shiny,” Martin remembers. “Oh, it shone in the Texas sunlight. It just almost glittered, it was so beautiful.”

Onboard the train, Martin and his aunt walked to the observation parlor and dining car, where some of the passenger rail service’s most glamorous facets were displayed. Fine Irish linen cloths covered the tables, and real silverware and China plates were neatly arranged on top. The air in the car was cool, and condensation had built up around the outside of the silver ice water pitcher. The coffee carafe was silver, too.

Such dining car experiences were the standard on many 20th-century passenger trains, when waiters donned white suits, and guests wore formal clothing, too.

“When you rode those trains, it was such an uplifting experience. There was so much service, so much attention to the passenger’s comfort and their safety,” says Martin. “It was just a beautiful experience, a beautiful traveling experience.”

The Santa Fe, which Frailey unequivocally refers to as the standard-bearer for passenger rail service, paid special attention to its dining cars. They were operated by the Fred Harvey Company, best known for its restaurants along rail lines. “The Santa Fe had a 95-page set of instructions for how to run a dining car,” Frailey notes. “It was run like a military operation.”

Those standards extended beyond the walls of the dining cars — and beyond the bounds of time and money. Emporia, Kansas, native Scott Thomas still has a cardboard model of a Santa Fe diesel engine, which conductors gave to children onboard their trains. Another Santa Fe keepsake in his railroad memorabilia collection reminds him of a bittersweet day: his ticket for one of the last runs of the Santa Fe Chief on May 14, 1968.

The year prior, the federal government took away the lifeblood that had sustained passenger trains through years of unprofitability: mail contracts. Payments for carrying mail had covered the costs of passenger rail operations for years, and, according to Frailey, the U.S. Postal Service opted to give those contracts to the airline industry. Money-losing passenger trains were shut down in relatively short order, and the Chief was not spared.

Even in the Chief’s waning years, everything about it — from the cleanliness of the coach cars to the sweet taste of the French toast in the dining car — remained unchanged, Thomas says.

“I remember being really sad. I probably had tears in my eyes. I grew up as a Santa Fe kid — Santa Fe all the way,” Thomas says. “I’m grateful that I was able to experience Santa Fe as the Santa Fe. They kept it spit-polished until the very end. Some other railroads were letting their passenger service decline and just become real nasty, and the Santa Fe carried on.”

THE AMTRAK ONSET

Some passenger trains didn’t look much different from April 30 to May 1, 1971. But the latter day marked a new chapter for American passenger rail travel. The Amtrak era had begun.

The National Rail Passenger Corporation, nicknamed “Amtrak,” was formed to take the money-losing passenger trains off railroads’ books, keep some trains going, and do the job with the help of federal subsidies. Although passenger ridership was down, government leaders thought some passenger routes were still important parts of the national transportation puzzle, Frailey reports. On its first day, Amtrak operated about half the trains that had been roaming the nation’s rails from coast to coast.

The financial suffering of Western railroads and long-distance trains weren’t the only reasons — or even the main reasons — behind Amtrak’s formation. The failed merger of the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads threatened to derail passenger transit in the heavily populated northeast, where commuter trains long have been essential to travel.

“Amtrak, it got off to a very, very hopeful start, but it got off to a really rocky start,” says Bob LaPrelle, president of the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas. “I think Amtrak was created out of the mess from the Penn Central bankruptcy, and they had to do something with the northeast. They had to maintain service there, but they couldn’t carry such an endeavor without national support. I think that Amtrak was created as a national system to get the political support to do anything at all.”

That support was necessary. President Richard Nixon was among those who didn’t believe the national system would make it, as Wired magazine writer Nick Stockton reported in 2018. Some say Amtrak was designed to fail. But a few historic events — such as the Arab oil embargo, which temporarily boosted ridership — kept it going.

“Here we are, 50-some-odd years later,” LaPrelle says.

Although Amtrak is responsible for keeping passenger rail alive, much about the service has changed. The most noticeable difference: The frequency of trains is greatly reduced. During passenger rail’s golden era, multiple trains would have stopped in towns like Newton, Kansas, allowing passengers to board and disembark throughout the day. Now, the Amtrak Southwest Chief is the only one. The eastbound and westbound Chiefs both arrive in Newton around 2 or 3 a.m., if they’re on time.

As for standards of service in the dining cars, Frailey compares Amtrak to “the tides of the ocean.”

“It’s so unlike what it used to be,” Frailey says. “They either have white table cloths or they have wax paper. It depends on the mood in Washington. They either have nice forks and spoons — real stuff — or they have plastic. They either have real plates or paper.”

Thomas has ridden the Southwest Chief a few times, and although he sees the differences in service, he’s optimistic about Amtrak operations. Amtrak has its critics, but his experiences have been generally pleasant, he says. Still, Amtrak “has a long way to go to equal Santa Fe.”

LaPrelle, who rode the Texas Eagle as a boy, says he believes Amtrak is a rolling miracle. It’s survived years of political bickering over funding, the ebbs and flows of the traveling public’s interest, and more.

“Amtrak is still a necessary conveyance,” he says. “I don’t think it’s frivolous. I don’t think it’s a waste of money. I think it plays a role, a very important role, in maintaining a balanced transportation system, particularly with smaller communities.”

AMTRAK COMEBACK?

Nearly 30 years ago, Oklahoma native Evan Stair fell in love with passenger rail travel when he and his wife took an Amtrak trip on their honeymoon. Amtrak service had ended in his home state years earlier, so when Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer took to the rails there in 1999, he saw an opportunity.

The Flyer had more than 71,000 riders in its first year on its run from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas. If it could just run north to Newton, Kansas — allowing for a connection with the long-distance Southwest Chief — ridership and economic development could increase, Stair thought. Ever since, he’s been a passenger rail advocate, urging elected officials and Amtrak leaders to support the expansion of passenger rail operations.

There’s more hope for that connection today than there has been for some time. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated $66 billion in funding for railroad improvements, and it required the Federal Railroad Administration to study the viability of restoring some long-defunct passenger rail routes. In late 2023, the agency selected 69 passenger rail service proposals to receive grant funding for future study as part of its Corridor Identification and Development Program, the first step toward potential expansion. The projects could create new Amtrak routes, expand or upgrade service along existing routes, or create high-speed rail service, though it will likely take years to get rolling.

“It is an opportunity to, at a minimum, market and expose the people of this country to passenger rail, and it’s a positive story,” Stair says.

Marc Magliari, Amtrak’s senior public relations manager, believes restoring those routes will require significant investments.

“Having interest in these last 50 years is one thing, but having funding to make those interests real, or at least study what’s practical, has never been available. So, it’s a new time,” he says. “There already is a revival. We can’t add trains fast enough to some of these markets today.”

In part, that is perhaps because some travelers know what train travel has to offer: precisely what other modes of travel don’t.

Magliari has seen strangers strike up conversations during a meal, play card games, and even have guitar jam sessions while traveling on Amtrak trains. There’s a lot more space on a train than a bus or plane — and there are no middle seats.

“It just feels different, and it’s part of the unique nature of it, I believe, that people are basically a bit more social,” Magliari says. “You’re certainly not cooped up in a car, and you have the choice to be staying in your sleeping car [or] private room. You have the choice to be sitting in your coach seat or to get up and walk around and encounter people and meet people from other places in the U.S. or other places internationally who are with you on the train, sharing the experience.”

Train travel is always slower than a flight and gives the traveler less control than a car does. Amtrak’s own data shows that many of its long-distance trains in 2022 were late more than they were on time, a quandary the company blames on host railroads. If speed is a customer’s primary reason for traveling, Amtrak may not be the answer. A train trip, by its nature, gives the passenger a slower way to travel and takes the passenger back to an era when transportation was enjoyed, not endured.

“On a passenger train, you’re eye-level with the country-side. You’re actually looking out the window. I’m staring into the piñon pines or across the canyons or the deserts or across the farmlands of Kansas or the Midwest,” Thomas says. “Part of the experience was not only the destination, but the journey. Going somewhere was a part of significance as well as just getting there.”

Regularly scheduled passenger trains haven’t passed by the Stillwater depot for decades. There’s talk that some of the remaining rusty rails in town may be ripped up. But across the nation, hope for passenger rail travel’s future glows like the windows of a passenger car sailing across the Western prairies at night. Stair and other passenger rail advocates still dream of a day when passenger trains connect more of the country — like they used to.

“I believe in the economic promise of a wider passenger rail network,” Stair says. “I believe it’s important for the people.”

Jordan Green is a reporter at the Longview (Texas) News-Journal . A 2023 graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma State University, he has been in the newspaper business since 2017 and served as editor-in-chief of the Northwestern News . He was an intern at The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 2022.

This article is featured in the May/June 2024 issue of The Saturday Evening Post . Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.

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Thank you, Jordan! I love trains though I’ve never had the chance to travel by rail in the US. I read a report somewhere that explains one reason that trains have fallen out of favor in the US is that the stations are no longer centrally located within cities so that when you arrive at your destination, you cannot simply walk to where you want to be. You need to take a taxi or Uber to your next destination. Airports often have shuttles to hotels and other venues, but I’ve never seen a train station with a shuttle.

Amtrak runs an auto train from Orlando, FL to Lorton VA and vice versa, once each day. You can choose, as a passenger – coach, roomette, or a handicap accessible room. The trip is 16 hours and meals and snack bar are available. I’ve taken it many times until recently when the prices for air travel outdid train fare. But with air fare you did not have your vehicle as you do with the train.

In the summer of 1955, our family rode the Chicago and Northwestern and Union Pacific “City of Portland” from Cedar Rapids, IA to Portland, OR. I was 9 years old at the time. I was overwhelmed to say the least. I recall everyone was dressed up, the employees went beyond the call of duty to serve you, the dining car had real china, tablecloths, and flowers and the waiters waited on you hand on foot. Then there was the dome car, which provided unbelievable vistas of the West. The experience was a class act. I am so thankful that I was able experience the tail end of the golden age of train travel.

When I migrated to Australia, I fired and drove steam trains. It was an adventure I shall never forget.

Thanks for this aricle re: the glories of train travel. I still take a room from Florida to Philly or NYC and have the best time en route. There’s no more of an enjoyable, hassle-free way to cover the miles. Now, if we could only have high speed trains from NY to FLA; it would be a bit of heaven. Imagine a trip between the two lasting eight hours, including major stops, and seeing parts of the country you would never witness by car or plane. Better for people and better for the environment. We don’t need all this benzopyrene at our airports and travel hassles just to reach the airports instead of boarding in urban centers and arriving in media res, too.

I love trains, hope they continue to expand, We took a train from Boston to Seattle Wa. in the 90’s near Chicago they have the Lake Shore Line, we renamed it The Late for sure Line. It was always late, we had to run to catch the Empire Builder to Seattle.

I suppose I got my love of trains from my father, who went to work for the Denver & Rio Grande somewhere around 1920, when he was still a teenager. He moved on years later, to California, and raised a family of seven kids. When my mother died in 1967, the first thing Dad did was board a train to Colorado. just to visit and take the train trip. He always loved the trains.

A Big “THANK YOU” to Mr. Jordan Green for his fascinating, detailed story regarding the progression of train travel in America. I don’t know of any, or many, young boys who have grown up without having any interest in these magnificent machines and the mystery that initially surrounds them in the eyes of a young boy watching them pass through his neighborhood.

As a young boy, I used to hop the slower moving freight trains, despite the dangers I had been warned came with such an act, and it always gave me a sense of exhilarating freedom. This article brought back so many of my own childhood memories, such as the one time I actually rode in a passenger train from Columbia, S.C to Summersville, W.VA. by myself to visit my Grandparents.

Great article, Mr. Green. Thank You Again!

I’m old enough to have experienced Southern Pacific passenger trains in the 1950s, and everything the author says about the glamor of rail experience back then is true.

A child of the 1940s, I grew up on the South Shore Railroad line between South Bend, Indiana, and Chicago. And, after moving to Fort Wayne, I became familar with the Pennsylvania Railroad Baker Street Station in that city. My stepfather was a fireman on the PRR. Rides on the PRR to visit my grandmother (Nana) in Chicago were the most exciting. And continue to hold cherished memories. A railroad pass was a golden ticket to not-so-far-off destinations for my family, which seldom owned a car; the station a cavern of comforting and familiar sounds and sights: Ticket windows where clerks mysteriously appeared to serve travelers. Luggage-laden carts pulled up and down ramps. Closer to the Windy City, Gary, Hammond, East Chicago and Whiting signaled their presence, industrial smokestacks belching out smoke and transforming the sky into an aerial display: a palette of blues, yellows, gray, black and white. In retrospect, not a healthy environment for area denizens, but a Technicolor marvel to young travelers’ eyes. And always, on the return ride, we’d holler out when we spied the gigantic General Electric sign, a welcoming beacon in the night sky, signaling we were nearly home. (The former GE plant now houses Electric Works, which draws visitors from far beyond FW borders.) Nana and I climbed aboard the PRR when I was eight years old, enroute to New York City and Washington, D.C. A few years later, the entire family embarked from Baker Street for Mobile, Alabama, where Uncle Carl was stationed with the Air Force. The PRR, indeed, was the railroad of my brother’s and my little worlds, along with thousands of other kids of that era who recall no words more exciting than the conductor’s welcoming cry: “All aboooooard!!”

CJ Woodring

I love trains, so, of course, really enjoyed this article. The picture of people eating on the train caught my attention. I was very interesteed in the picture because the woman who is facing the camera looks like she could be my twin sister! I don’t suppose you have any information about who they were or where they were from, do you?

I love trains! Having grown up in Switzerland, trains always were and still are an essential part of the daily transportation experience! The Swiss now have series of “special trains” for exclusive travel experiences! They are great!

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IRCTCPORTAL

Search Engine For Indian Railway

Revised Child Fare Rule becomes applicable for train journey from 21st April, 2022 onwards.

Advance booking of reserved tickets under this revised child fare rule has already started in December 2015 for journey date 21st April, 2013 onwards.

Ministry of Railways has decided to revise the child fare rule. Under the revised provision, full adult fare will be charged for children of age 5 years and under 12 years of age if for whom  full separate berth / seat  (in  reserved class)  is sought at the time of reservation. However, in case  full separate berth / seat  is not sought for the children of age 5 years and under 12 years of age at the time of reservation, then half of the adult fare shall continue to be charged subject to the minimum distance for charging.

This revised child fare rule has been made applicable for travel from 21st April, 2016 onwards. Advance booking of reserved tickets for children under this revised rule has already started in December 2015 for journey date of 21st April, 2016 onwards.

While filling up reservation form, the passenger can indicate their option for requirement of  full berth / seat for child or not.

There is no change in the rule for child fare of  unreserved tickets  i.e.  fare for children of 5-12 years for unreserved tickets  shall continue to be half of the adult fare subject to the minimum distance for charging.

Children  under five years of age  will continue to be carried  free (without berth)  in case of both reserved and unreserved classes.

Source: PIB

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Benefits and Entitlements

If you're 60 or over or you have a disability, you might be eligible for public transport concessions – from discounts on your rail journeys to a free bus pass.

What transport concessions are available?

Can i get a free bus pass, can i get a discount on train travel, can i get a london freedom pass, what if i have difficulty using public transport, what if i'm unable to use public transport, more travel concessions questions.

There are several national public transport concessions available to older and disabled people. Some entitle you to discounts on your fares, while others allow you to travel for free.

Eligibility for these concessions depends on whether you have a disability or your age. 

Depending on your age and your circumstances, you might be able to get one of the following free bus passes, which allow you to travel free on local buses:

• an older person's bus pass
• a disabled person's bus pass

What age do I have to be to get an older person's bus pass?

You can get an older person's bus pass when you reach State Pension age, which is currently 66 for both women and men.

Apply for your older person's bus pass on GOV.UK

If you're 60 or over and live in London, then you can get free travel on buses, trains and other modes of transport in and around London with a 60+ London Oyster photocard.

Apply for your 60+ London Oyster photocard on the TFL website

How can I get a disabled person's bus pass?

There's no central provider of the disabled person's bus pass – to find out if you're eligible and how to apply, you need to get in touch with your local council.

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Are there any other discounts if I'm an older person or I'm disabled?

It's a good idea to contact individual transport operators to see if they offer discounts.

For instance, National Express offers Coachcards. These are discount cards for older or disabled customers. You buy them for a set fee of £15.00 and they get you a third off the cost of your travel across the year.

Find out more and order a Coachcard on the National Express website

Depending on your age and circumstances, you might be entitled to one of the below railcards:

• a Senior Railcard
• a Disabled Person's Railcard

Both railcards are discount cards. You buy them for a set fee to last either 1 or 3 years and they get you a third off the cost of your train travel.

Can I get a Senior Railcard?

The Senior Railcard is available for anyone aged 60 or over to buy.

You can apply on the Senior Railcard website using a valid passport or UK driving licence as ID. Or, you can apply in person at most staffed railway stations.

Find out more about the Senior Railcard and apply online

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The Disabled Person's Railcard is available to you if you meet one of the following criteria:

• you're registered as deaf or use a hearing aid
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Freedom Passes give London residents free travel in the city – including National Rail services, the Underground, buses, river services and trams – and free local bus journeys nationally.

If you live in London, you can apply for a Freedom Pass if one of the following applies to you:

• you've reached State Pension age
• you have a disability.

Find out more about Freedom Passes and apply on the London Councils website

National Rail has an interactive tool called Stations Made Easy, designed to help people find their way around stations and find more accessible routes, avoiding potential difficulties like stairs. This may be helpful if you have difficulty using public transport because of your health. 

Find out more and use the tool on the National Rail website

If you're disabled, you can't use public transport, or you don't have access to a car, you might also be able to use a community transport scheme – such as a social car, dial-a-ride, or taxicard scheme.

Shopmobility schemes help people shop in town centres by lending out wheelchairs and scooters. Some local councils also offer concessions on local public transport.

To find out what's available in your area, you can contact your local council or your local Age UK.

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No, you can't use a free bus pass on National Express buses. To get senior concessions on National Express you need to buy a senior coachcard, which costs £15 a year.

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Yes, your bus pass will give you free travel on buses across England, including London. However, there may be specific rules about when you can travel for free, so check your local council's free bus pass guidance before travelling.

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Free and discounted travel for over 60s 

Apply for a concessionary travel pass  for free bus and free train travel on certain routes. You can also get train tickets at reduced prices. 

With a Senior Railcard you can get 1/3 off rail fares to travel across Britain. Visit senior-railcard.co.uk to see how you can apply and how much you could save. 

You're entitled to a Concessionary Travel Card if you're at least 60 years old and your primary residence is in Wales.

You're entitled to a Concessionary Travel Card if you are an eligible disabled person and your primary residence is in Wales.

Two nights, three provinces, and 1,600 miles. A sleeper train through Maritime Canada is slow travel at its best.

Via rail’s sleepy eastern route brings travelers through rural villages and towns in quebec, new brunswick, and nova scotia..

C HARLO, New Brunswick — I woke up with the sun peeking through the curtains of my sleeper car, and I couldn’t wait to see what was happening on the other side. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, a kid with noticeable flecks of gray hair in his bedhead, but a kid just the same. I sat up, wrapped myself in the bed’s comforter like a burrito, and yanked back the drapes.

I was suddenly looking at a sunny snowscape in northern New Brunswick. This was a thrill because when I boarded the Via Rail train at Montreal Central Station the day before, there was no snow, and the sky was the color of dishwater. Having experienced little to no winter in Boston, seeing this Bing Crosby landscape was a refreshing change of pace.

While I slowly woke up, the train rumbled along the tracks, and I watched the broad blue expanse of Chaleur Bay slowly pass by. Across the water, the hills and cliffs of the Gaspé and Acadian peninsulas were visible. It was as if the entire scene had been timed perfectly for the morning entertainment of the train’s passengers.

I was traveling Via Rail Canada’s Ocean route from Montreal to Halifax. The train wasn’t as glamorous as the Rocky Mountaineer, nor was the scenery as grand as the Winnipeg to Churchill trip. But Via Rail’s 22-hour route is a lovely travel throwback with gorgeous scenery. Thanks to the strength of the US dollar against the Canadian dollar, I was able to score a sleeper car with a private bathroom (complete with a shower) for $400 a night. It also helped that I was traveling during mud season. Rates go up during the summer and into foliage season.

The fare included all meals, which were served in the dining car on actual plates with actual flatware. I reasoned that I was getting a room, all meals, and the constant entertainment of the ever-changing landscape for $400 a night. That seemed like a decent deal. I decided to book my return to Montreal on the train as well. That would give me a solid 44 hours on board.

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The train departed Montreal at 7 p.m. on Friday and was scheduled to arrive in Halifax at 5:51 p.m on Saturday. I was curious to see how Via Rail, Canada’s national rail company, compared with Amtrak, particularly its sleeper cars. As I cased out my room, I watched the Farine Five Roses sign and the rest of the Montreal skyline disappear behind us. My cabin was designed for two people, but I wanted a room with an en suite bath and shower. The cabin was about 30 square feet (not including the bathroom). It had a sofa that folded down to a bed, with a bunk bed that folded down above it. There was a narrow closet, and in the bathroom, there were towels, a bottle of shampoo, and a bar of soap.

It wasn’t the Ritz, but it was clean and cozy. These cars were built for the canceled European Nightstar train service in the late 1990s. The trains would have used the Chunnel to take passengers from London to cities in mainland Europe. When the project failed to materialize, Via Rail bought the cars and shipped them to Canada in 2000. Despite being in service for nearly 25 years, the train was in good shape.

After inspecting and unpacking, it was dinner time. We were well on our way to Quebec City by the time I sat down and perused the menu. I opted for leek-crusted chicken with wild rice pilaf and roasted butternut squash. This was better than any meal I had ever consumed on an Amtrak train . I was seated with a retired sports editor (pure coincidence) from New York. He had taken most of the Amtrak overnight trains in the United States and now wanted to sample Canada’s offerings.

He agreed with me that the food was better than Amtrak, and the train cars were generally in better condition, but he pointed out something I hadn’t noticed: The staff was much friendlier than the staff on Amtrak, and it made a huge difference. One of my chief complaints, particularly on Amtrak’s Silver Meteor, is that the staff often seemed surly.

By the time I finished dinner and returned to my room, the attendant had made up the bed. I decided I would try sleeping in the bunk, but I quickly soured on the idea when I realized the only way in and out was a narrow ladder. The bunk seemed a bit high for my liking. I folded it back and slept on the lower bed. The bed is 6 feet long and about 2½ feet wide, so it may not be ideal for taller passengers. The mattress was comfortable, and the comforter was wonderfully thick. Each cabin has individual temperature controls, so even though the temperature was in the single digits outside, I was tucked away comfortably for the night. I’m a light sleeper, but I dozed off quickly.

The next morning, it was time to test the shower. To my shock and delight, the water was hot enough, and the pressure wasn’t bad. I went to the dining car and tried the breakfast poutine. I concluded that poutine is a perfect all-day meal. I wrote “open 24-hour poutine restaurant” in my notebook and watched as the train gradually made its way inland. My breakfast companion was a retired teacher from Montreal who was going to visit her grandchildren in Halifax.

“Don’t you dare write anything bad about this train,” she sternly warned me as only a teacher could. “It’s my favorite way to get to Nova Scotia. If it shuts down I’ll blame you.”

The scenery out the window was always changing. When I left Montreal, it was gray. Coastal New Brunswick was snowy and bright, and as the train descended south, the snow disappeared, and the sky darkened. By the time we neared the Bay of Fundy, it was snowing, and then it was raining, and then the sun started peaking out.

The biggest frustration was that the train was running two hours behind schedule. I had made dinner reservations in Halifax for Saturday night but missed them because of the delay. I had one night in the city before getting back on the train the next day and lost precious time.

Another frustration I faced was that the train’s observation car was no longer used. One of the best parts of taking a scenic train is, well, watching the scenery. I could still see the countryside from my room, the lounge, or the restaurant, but the glass-domed observation car on the Ocean route was removed two years ago because of a track change in Halifax. Having that car would have made the experience even more special.

I got back on the train Sunday afternoon, settled into my new room, which was identical to the previous one, and headed back to the cafe car for lunch. All of this investigative reporting was really adding inches to my waistline. I tried the gnocchi pomodoro and decided to treat myself to a glass of local wine. Unlike Amtrak, alcohol is not free in Via Rail’s sleeper class. Again, I was impressed with the menu options, service, and food.

I watched the small towns blur past from the lounge car, one of the few places on the train where the internet was available. Even so, it was usually empty. The pace of train travel, devoid of the internet, is a rare treat. Eventually, a pair of sisters came into the lounge car and asked me if I wanted to play cards with them. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I played cards, so I put down my camera and began a game of rummy. I can imagine that this was what travel was like before planes or even cars. Without screens, I was actually looking up, talking to people, and playing a game that wasn’t on my phone.

That night, before I went to bed, I opened my laptop and started scrolling through the photos I’d taken throughout the trip. I frantically scrolled up and down, looking for a big “wow” photo. I needed a picture with pizazz. Then I stopped scrolling and looked at the pictures together. This trip wasn’t about flashy sites or Instagrammable moments. It was a long weekend of fluffy waffles, snow banks, blue rivers, and expansive brown fields.

Mostly, however, it was about taking a moment to slow down and breathe.

Christopher Muther can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.

Construction starting on $12 billion high-speed rail between SoCal, Las Vegas

The project is touted as the first true high-speed passenger rail line in the nation, designed to reach speeds of 186 mph.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (KABC) -- Construction is expected to begin Monday on a $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Southern California and Las Vegas.

Brightline West aims to lay 218 miles of new track between a terminal to be built just south of the Las Vegas Strip and another new facility in Rancho Cucamonga. That trip usually takes well over three hours by car.

The company says its fully-electric train will take just over two hours each way.

Almost the full distance is to be built in the median of Interstate 15, with a station stop in the Victorville area.

Forecasts are for 11 million one-way passengers per year, or some 30,000 per day, with fares well below airline travel costs. The trains will offer rest rooms, Wi-Fi, food and beverage sales and the option to check luggage.

In a statement, Brightline Holdings founder and Chairperson Wes Edens called the moment "the foundation for a new industry."

Brightline aims to link other U.S. cities that are too near to each other for flying between them to make sense and too far for people to drive the distance, Edens said.

The project is scheduled to be complete by the time Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics in 2028.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday will join Brightline leaders at the start of the construction in Vegas. Brightline received $6.5 billion in backing from the Biden administration, including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The company won federal authorization in 2020 to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.

The construction is expected to create jobs for many in Southern California.

"We're looking at thousands of jobs as a result of this and hundreds of millions of dollars of investments, and that impact is going to be felt for years to come," said Rancho Cucamonga City Manager John Gillison. "This project will have a big impact on California, and especially Southern California."

Other fast trains

The project is touted as the first true high-speed passenger rail line in the nation, designed to reach speeds of 186 mph (300 kph), comparable to Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains.

Florida-based Brightline Holdings already operates the Miami-to-Orlando line with trains reaching speeds up to 125 mph (200 kph). It launched service in 2018 and expanded service to Orlando International Airport last September. It offers 16 round-trips per day, with one-way tickets for the 235-mile (378-kilometer) distance costing about $80.

Other fast trains in the U.S. include Amtrak's Acela, which can top 150 mph (241 kph) while sharing tracks with freight and commuter service between Boston and Washington, D.C.

Ideas for connecting other U.S. cities with high-speed passenger trains have been floated in recent years, including Dallas to Houston; Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina; and Chicago to St. Louis. Most have faced delays.

In California, voters in 2008 approved a proposed 500-mile (805-kilometer) rail line linking Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the plan has been beset by rising costs and routing disputes. A 2022 business plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority projected the cost had more than tripled to $105 billion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related Topics

• RANCHO CUCAMONGA
• SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
• HIGH SPEED RAIL

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Train drivers across rail companies to stage fresh strikes in May, Aslef announces

The uk has seen almost two years of industrial action on its railways, with hundreds of millions of journeys cancelled, article bookmarked.

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Fresh travel disruption will impact rail passengers in May as train drivers at rail companies across England will stage a new series of strikes in a bitter, long-running dispute.

Members of the Aslef union will walk out on 7–9 May over pay, and ban overtime for six days from 6 May – the early May bank holiday Monday.

Drivers at c2c, Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express and South Western Railway will strike on 7 May.

On 8 May there will be strikes affecting Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.

Most operators will not run any trains on strike days.

Although the strikes affect train companies in England, cross-border services to Wales and Scotland are likely to see some knock-on effects.

The union said that after its members voted overwhelmingly in February to continue taking industrial action, it asked the train operating companies to hold talks. Aslef said train drivers have not had an increase in salary for five years, since their last pay deals expired in 2019.

General secretary Mick Whelan said: “It is now a year since we sat in a room with the train companies and a year since we rejected the risible offer they made and which they admitted, privately, was designed to be rejected.

“We first balloted for industrial action in June 2022, after three years without a pay rise. It took eight one-day strikes to persuade the train operating companies [Tocs] to come to the table and talk. Our negotiating team met the Rail Delivery Group [RDG] on eight occasions – the last being on Wednesday April 26 last year.

“That was followed by the Tocs’ ‘land grab’ for all our terms and conditions on Thursday April 27 – which was immediately rejected. Since then train drivers have voted, again and again, to take action to get a pay rise.

“That’s why Mark Harper, the transport secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members. Drivers would not vote to strike if they thought an offer was acceptable.”

Mr Whelan said the year-old offer of a 4 per cent pay rise followed by a second 4 per cent increase was “dead in the water”.

The Independent has contacted the Department for Transport for comment.

A spokesperson for the RDG, which represents the train operators, said: “This wholly unnecessary strike action called by the Aself leadership will sadly disrupt customers and businesses once again, while further damaging the railway at a time when taxpayers are continuing to contribute an extra £54m a week just to keep services running.

“We continue to seek a fair agreement with the Aslef leadership which both rewards our people, gives our customers more reliable services and makes sure the railway isn’t taking more than its fair share from taxpayers.”

The latest industrial action comes after thousands of trains were halted during a string of rolling strikes in early April .

Before that, an overtime ban and rolling regional walk-outs hit for nine days from 29 January to 6 February .

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Construction begins on high-speed rail between Vegas and California

Brightline west will make the trip between las vegas and rancho cucamonga in a little over two hours.

Privately owned train company Brightline held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for a $12 billion high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas and Southern California.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg joined company leaders and other officials for the start of construction in Las Vegas.

Brightline West benefits from $3 billion in federal funds from President Biden ’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Trains could be running as soon as early 2028, in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Travelers have a lot to look forward to. Electric trains will depart every 45 minutes from a Las Vegas station south of the city’s storied Strip and a Southern California station in Rancho Cucamonga, a Los Angeles suburb about 40 miles east of downtown.

Traveling at up to 186 mph — faster than any other train in the United States — Brightline West trains will make the 218-mile trip in about 2 hours and 10 minutes.

“At long last, we’re building the first high-speed rail project in our nation’s history,” President Biden said of Brightline West in December. “We’ve been talking about this project for decades. Now we’re really getting it done.”

Other high-speed railroads that would carry passengers at 200 mph and faster are in the works in California, Texas and the Pacific Northwest.

“The bottom line here is we changed the trajectory,” Buttigieg said in an interview Monday. More than $30 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has been awarded to date and more is on the way, he added.

The success of the Brightline West project could influence how future rail projects receive funding.

“It won’t be easy but I think they have all of the right things in place to get this done,” Buttigieg said.

Speed is Brightline West’s main selling point. Driving between Rancho Cucamonga and Las Vegas takes at least three hours without traffic, according to Google Maps.

“You’ll be sitting there flying by on Brightline looking at all these brake lights on the highway and thinking, ‘It sucks to be you,’” said Jim Mathews, CEO of the Rail Passengers Association , said on Friday. “That’s what it’s going to be like for all those people trying to get from greater Los Angeles to Las Vegas.”

Brightline West trains will run along Interstate 15 for nearly their entire journey. They will make two intermediate stops in California: one in Hesperia and one in Apple Valley.

Travelers coming from Los Angeles will have the option of riding Metrolink , Southern California’s regional rail system, to the Rancho Cucamonga station located near the junction of Interstates 10 and 15. The trip between downtown Los Angeles and Rancho Cucamonga takes at least 50 minutes by car without traffic, or 1 hour and 15 minutes on the train.

“Getting it to a juncture where pretty much everybody who passes into the I-15 corridor goes through is a massive benefit from a climate perspective, a congestion perspective, and an economic perspective,” Buttigieg said.

Future plans include a direct connection for Brightline West to Los Angeles Union Station as part of the separate California High-Speed Rail project.

Speed won’t be the only reason to ride Brightline West.

Brightline’s Florida operation connecting Miami to Orlando opened in September , giving future customers out West an idea of what to expect. Before Brightline’s debut, Amtrak held a monopoly on intercity passenger rail travel for decades.

Stations are spacious with comfortable areas to sit, bars selling craft cocktails and a lounge for premium passengers. Onboard, travelers enjoy assigned seats and fast WiFi. Attendants come down the aisle serving snacks and drinks throughout the trip.

Brightline told investors that it carried a record 258,307 passengers in March, and that one in three of its trains were nearly full.

Brightline’s strong ridership, though slower than initially promised to investors, makes a strong case for building fast and frequent trains between major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Brightline West estimates that 6 million people will ride its trains during the first full year of operation, according to a federal environmental assessment . That number is projected to grow to as many as 9.2 million people within a decade.

The company estimates that, without the train, three-quarters of its riders would drive between Southern California and Las Vegas. Another 15 percent would fly, and the balance would not make the trip at all.

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How we travel now: More people are taking booze-free trips — and airlines and hotels are taking note. Some couples are ditching the traditional honeymoon for a “buddymoon” with their pals. Interested? Here are the best tools for making a group trip work.

Bad behavior: Entitled tourists are running amok, defacing the Colosseum , getting rowdy in Bali and messing with wild animals in national parks. Some destinations are fighting back with public awareness campaigns — or just by telling out-of-control visitors to stay away .

Safety concerns: A door blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet, leaving passengers traumatized — but without serious injuries. The ordeal led to widespread flight cancellations after the jet was grounded, and some travelers have taken steps to avoid the plane in the future. The incident has also sparked a fresh discussion about whether it’s safe to fly with a baby on your lap .

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The Maya Train Will Get You to All of Yucatán’s Best Spots. But Not Yet.

In December, the train began running on its first route through Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. On a five-day journey a few months later, the author encountered enthusiasm, and scheduling hiccups.

By Elisabeth Malkin

Elisabeth Malkin has been visiting the Yucatán Peninsula for three decades.

I stepped off the platform at the gleaming new Maxcanú train station, eager to see the magnificent Maya archaeological site of Uxmal. All I needed was a taxi to take me there, a trip of about 30 miles away.

There are no taxis, said the stationmaster, as we stood on the polished limestone floors of the high-ceilinged station, which was cool and breezy despite the brilliant late-morning sun outside. And I was the third person in two weeks to get off at Maxcanú expecting to reach Uxmal, he said.

I was midway through a five-day trip to explore the brand-new Maya Train and several of its destinations in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico . Designed to run 965 miles (1,554 kilometers) around a loop of 34 stations when completed, the train will whisk passengers in cool comfort through colonial cities, archaeological sites, splashy resorts and tropical forests.

Now I was stunned. Wrangling a taxi has never been a problem in Mexico. But the drivers gathered in the main square of Maxcanú offered only beat-up vans that hopscotch through small towns, where I might or might not find a taxi to Uxmal. The next van was leaving in 45 minutes.

Yucatán’s layers of history have long held me spellbound. During earlier car trips, I have clambered up deserted Maya temples and palaces, stepped into the cool naves of massive 16th-century churches and visited restored haciendas, testaments of the ostentation — and hardship — of the peninsula’s 19th-century plantation economy. Traveling by train, I thought, would allow me to steep myself in more of that history.

But as I found in Maxcanú, a train won’t necessarily get you to where you want to go.

During my February trip, I traveled on the only route then available, an east-west leg that opened in December and runs from Cancún to Mérida, and then south through the port city of Campeche to the Maya site of Palenque (a short route between Cancún and Playa del Carmen opened last month, with three trains a day). I encountered scheduling confusion, unfinished stations and a dearth of trains — just two operating daily each way between Cancún and Campeche, and only one to Palenque. Overnight sleepers and special dining trains seem years away.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador considers the Maya Train his showcase development project, and wants to inaugurate the rest of the train before he leaves office on October 1. Based on my experience, that goal seems elusive.

A $29-billion route through the jungle

I started my journey in Cancún, where in the pre-dawn gloom the station hovered like a glowing spaceship. An attendant scanned the ticket I had bought online and a half-dozen more pointed me toward my tourist-class car, which was about a quarter full. I planned to go to Campeche, about 300 miles away, stopping once each day. At 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) an hour, the train covers the route in about six hours, the same as a car. (When construction is complete, the train’s speed should increase to 160 kilometers an hour.)

The car’s wide windows looked out at a wall of low jungle. The blue-green seats were comfortable and there was ample space between the rows. I bought a very good cappuccino at the snack bar, but declined the plastic-wrapped sandwiches. The rest of the merchandise was fruit cups, milk boxes and junk food.

The train will ultimately cost much more than the $29 billion budgeted so far, and it’s not the first time ambitious planners have alighted on the region. Cancún was once a tiny fishing village, selected half a century ago as a tourist hub. Last year 10 million international tourists flew into its airport, more than the airports of Mexico City, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta combined.

But uncontrolled growth has stressed the Caribbean coast’s fragile environment. The Maya Train, scientists warn , will push those problems south, threatening the area’s water supply, its unique system of underground limestone caves and its vast nature reserves.

Mr. López Obrador has charged ahead, handing the train over to the military , and arguing that it will spread Cancún’s wealth and attract new visitors. Mexico received more than 42 million overseas tourists last year and they spent almost $31 billion .

Local governments see an opportunity. “The train will allow people to disperse throughout the peninsula,” said Michelle Fridman, the tourism secretary for Yucatán state, which promotes dozens of attractions far beyond highlights like Mérida and Chichén Itzá .

Now that the train is operating, transport companies will begin to connect stations with lesser-known sites nearby, she said.

It’s fair to ask whether the train is the most effective way to develop the peninsula’s tourism. Tour companies already run trips to many sites from major cities, which are well served by buses. Driving a rental car through most of the area is considered safe , according to U.S. State Department travel guidance .

Route of Mexico’s Maya Train

Canceled trip.

It took two hours (and one time-zone change) to reach Valladolid, a colonial city of handsome streets and ancient churches, where I bought the rest of my tickets at the station. A tourist-class ticket from Cancún to Valladolid costs 472 pesos (around $28) for foreigners and 355 pesos (around $21) for Mexicans. First class, with wider seats, costs 755.50 pesos and 566.50 pesos, and discounts are available for older travelers and residents of the five states along the train’s route. (A first-class bus from downtown Cancún to Valladolid costs between 222 and 344 pesos, depending on the time of day, and takes half an hour longer.)

It was impossible to run the new Maya Train tracks into dense city centers and the Valladolid station, like the rest, was outside the urban core. A waiting bus took disembarking passengers downtown, a 15-minute ride for 35 pesos.

That day I toured Ek Balam , the site of a ninth-century Maya kingdom that is dominated by a 100-foot palace distinguished by a facade of carvings depicting winged warriors, stylized animal features and geometric patterns bordered by giant fangs. Admission to the site includes entry to the X-Canché cenote, one of thousands of limestone sinkholes that were sacred to the Maya.

Later that afternoon, I was wandering through the Museum of Ethnic Clothing, a private collection of traditional dress, embroidery and hats, when a WhatsApp message from the ticket office blinked on my phone. My train scheduled for the following day was canceled.

I decided to deal with the problem in the morning and enjoy the city. As I wandered past the antique shops and boutique hotels of the elegant Calzada de los Frailes, it was clear that Valladolid’s tourism, and the infrastructure to handle it, was well established. The Maya Train is simply an alternative way to reach a city that tourists discovered years ago.

‘We’re on the Tren Maya!’

In the morning, I found that my train had not been canceled, but the station for which I had a ticket, Tixkokob, was closed. I got off instead one stop earlier at Izamal, known for its ocher streets and the giant Franciscan convent of San Antonio de Padua, built atop the ruins of a pyramid.

During the 90-minute ride, I heard widespread enthusiasm among fellow travelers who expressed a willingness to give the train time to work out the kinks. “We’re an experiment,” said Oliva Escobedo Ochoa, 64, who was vacationing from her home in central Mexico.

Leticia Iliassich, 57, who is Mexican, was traveling with her Croatian husband along with relatives from Mexico and Croatia. They had initially been scheduled on an earlier train to Mérida that had been canceled. “We knew that it was a new project,” she said. “We don’t mind.”

The group had already sent a video to friends declaring, “We’re on the Tren Maya!”

At the Izamal station I hitched a 15-minute ride into the town center with a man who had asked me to take his photo alongside the train and his father. From there I negotiated a taxi to Hacienda San Lorenzo Aké, a working hacienda that still turns the fiber from an agave plant called henequén into coarse rope. Global demand for henequén, known as Yucatán’s “green gold,” brought fantastic wealth to the region in the mid-19th century, speckling the peninsula with more than 1,000 haciendas. ( Many are now sumptuous hotels.)

Where geometry, nature and the divine merge

It was during my third day that I found myself stuck in Maxcanú, after a 90-minute train ride from Izamal. The stationmaster, an army captain, offered me a ride to Uxmal, just as he had to the stranded tourists before me.

Eying Uxmal’s 4 p.m. final ticket sale, I accepted.

My situation made it clear just how distant the Maya Train’s promises are for tourists seeking to explore more of Yucatán. In time, that will change, said Ms. Fridman, the tourism secretary. “The idea is to have more hotels along the train line,” she said. “That will happen little by little.”

But Uxmal , among the most stunning of the Maya sites, made up for the inconvenience. Uxmal’s grand buildings are faced with intricate decorative masks as well as friezes in which geometry, nature and the divine merge. New plaques at each structure offer detailed information in English and Spanish, part of the government’s investment in improving displays at Maya sites for the train project.

Most tourists either take day trips by car or bus to Uxmal from Mérida or stay at one of three nearby hotels. As I finished dinner at my hotel, the dining room began to fill up: 47 Polish tourists had arrived.

Panama hats and a cramped van

My plan for the day was to go by taxi to Bécal, a town where Panama hats are woven in limestone caves to keep the fibers soft, and then pick up the afternoon train in nearby Calkiní for the port city of Campeche.

But I spent so much time watching the hat-making demonstration and then fitting my new hat and buying gifts that we set off with little time to reach the station. To my chagrin, I missed the train, the last one of the day.

On Calkiní’s central square, I found a van that was leaving for Campeche. Cost: 65 pesos. Time: about 1 hour and 20 minutes, similar to what I would have spent on the train. Of course, I was trapped in a cramped seat and had to listen to the driver’s choice of sentimental ballads, but I was dropped off in downtown Campeche, close to my hotel.

The next day, I toured the Museum of Maya Archaeology , an expertly curated collection that included haunting jade funeral masks, glyphs and delicate ceramic figures.

José Madrigal, 45, an engineer from Fremont, Calif., was trying to make Maya pottery interesting for his twin sons. The boys had just turned 5 and their birthday present had been a ride on the Maya Train. “They love trains,” Mr. Madrigal said. Then the family moved on, keeping up a brisk clip through the museum. They had another train to catch.

Should you take the train?

Yes, if you are traveling between larger stations. The train also offers a way to get to Palenque, which is harder to reach and has roads with security concerns. Travelers can stow bicycles on board.

To see train times, check the destinations on the website . You cannot buy tickets online more than a week in advance. But when you finally board, the ride is smooth — and the coffee is excellent.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .

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Tributes paid to Frank Field, former Labour minister, who has died aged 81

Long-serving MP dedicated Westminster career to tackling social issues including child poverty and modern slavery

Tributes from across the political spectrum have been paid to the former Labour minister and welfare campaigner Frank Field , who has died at the age of 81.

Lord Field, who dedicated his career in Westminster to tackling social issues, including child poverty and modern slavery, served as an MP for 40 years.

Messages of support came from across the political divide, with praise for “a man of often uncomfortable principle” with an “unwavering moral compass”.

In 2021, he revealed he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer when his speech was read out in the House of Lords to support a change in the law on assisted dying.

Field was one of the longest-serving MPs in the Commons, only losing his seat in the 2019 general election after forming his own party.

Tony Blair, under whose government Field served as welfare reform minister, said: “Frank had integrity, intelligence and deep commitment to the causes he believed in. He was an independent thinker never constrained by conventional wisdom, but always pushing at the frontier of new ideas.

“Even when we disagreed, I had the utmost respect for him as a colleague and a character. Whether in his work on child poverty or in his time devoted to the reform of our welfare system, he stood up and stood out for the passion and insight he brought to any subject.”

The former home secretary Priti Patel wrote on X: “Frank was a kind and compassionate man and a great parliamentarian. His unwavering moral compass, commitment to working cross-party and unshakable principles defined him and will be greatly missed.”

Chris Bryant MP, the shadow minister for creative industries and digital, said Field was “a man of often uncomfortable principle [who] made our politics better”.

The Conservative MP Tracey Crouch wrote: “I am genuinely devastated to hear that Frank Field has died. He was one of parliament’s nicest people. Kind, softly spoken & generous in praise. He has been v poorly so there is comfort knowing he is now at peace but he will be hugely missed.”

The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, described Field as “a great parliamentarian, crusader for social justice and source of wise counsel”. He wrote: “What a blessing to have known him and benefited from his advice and kindness, even as his illness gripped him.”

The former justice secretary and Conservative MP Robert Buckland, wrote: “Very sad to hear of the death of Frank Field. He made a unique contribution to public life. His blend of compassion, thoughtfulness, decency, shot through with steel, will be greatly missed.”

A family statement, issued by his parliamentary office, said: “Frank Field (Rt Hon Lord Field of Birkenhead, CH) has died at the age of 81 following a period of illness.

“Frank was director of the Child Poverty Action Group between 1969 and 1979, and the member of parliament for Birkenhead between 1979 and 2019.

“During that time, he served as a minister for welfare reform and led the independent review on poverty and life chances. He also chaired the Commons work and pensions select committee (and its predecessor committee on social services and social security) as well as the joint committee on the draft modern slavery bill.

Field was first elected as the Labour MP for Birkenhead in Merseyside in 1979. He was made a cross-bench peer in 2020, where he became Lord Field of Birkenhead, and two years later was made a member of the order of the companions of honour.

He continued to serve on the boards of Cool Earth, Feeding Britain and the Frank Field Education Trust.

Field was welfare reform minister in Tony Blair’s first government in 1997 and went on to chair the work and pensions select committee.

He later resigned the Labour whip over antisemitism and “nastiness” in the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. He stood in the 2019 general election for his newly formed Birkenhead Social Justice party but lost the seat to Mick Whitley for Labour.

Field died on Tuesday in a London care home. He gave his support to the assisted dying bill in 2021, which would make it legal for terminally ill adults in England and Wales to seek support to end their lives.

In a statement read by Molly Meacher, who had tabled the bill, Field said: “I’ve just spent a period in a hospice and I’m not well enough to participate in today’s debate. If I had been, I would have spoken strongly in favour of the second reading [of the bill].

“I changed my mind on assisted dying when an MP friend was dying of cancer and wanted to die early, before the full horror effects set in, but was denied this opportunity.”

His family said in their statement: “Frank is survived by two brothers. He will be mourned by admirers across politics but above all he will be greatly missed by those lucky enough to have enjoyed his laughter and friendship.”

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