Flightmussy/trainrouter-atlas huggingface dataset:
Electric Tilt Train — Brisbane to Rockhampton (classic)
Train: Electric Tilt Train (City of Rockhampton)
Operator: Queensland Rail Travel
Distance: 639 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 8 h 5 min
Opened: 1998
Countries: Australia
The world’s fastest narrow-gauge train — it set Australia’s rail speed record of 210 km/h in 1999 and still tilts through cane country at 160 km/h.
Canberra Xplorer — Sydney to Canberra (classic)
Train: Xplorer DMU
Operator: NSW TrainLink
Distance: 321 km
Top speed: 145 km/h
Duration: 4 h 10 min
Opened: 1914
Countries: Australia
The only passenger train to Australia’s capital — three Xplorer railcars a day take the 1914 branch past the wind farms above Lake George.
Cockle Train — Goolwa to Victor Harbor (scenic)
Train: Rx-class steam & Redhen railcars
Operator: SteamRanger Heritage Railway
Distance: 16 km
Top speed: 50 km/h
Duration: 30 min
Opened: 1854
Countries: Australia
Rides Australia’s oldest steel-railed public route, opened in 1854 with horse haulage to link Murray riverboats to the sea.
Te Huia — Hamilton to Auckland (classic)
Train: DF-class diesel + refurbished SR carriages
Operator: KiwiRail / Waikato Regional Council
Distance: 138 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: 2 h 35 min
Opened: 2021
Passengers per year: 86000
Countries: New Zealand
Restored intercity rail between Waikato and Auckland in 2021 after a 20-year gap — and went seven-days-a-week in 2025.
Southern Line — Cape Town to Simon’s Town (scenic)
Train: X’Trapolis Mega EMU
Operator: Metrorail Western Cape (PRASA)
Distance: 36 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: 1 h 20 min
Opened: 1890
Countries: South Africa
From Muizenberg the rails run on a False Bay sea wall so close to the surf that winter swells spray the carriage windows at Kalk Bay.
Nanyuki Safari Train — Nairobi to Nanyuki (scenic)
Train: Metre-gauge diesel with vintage coaches
Operator: Kenya Railways
Distance: 177 km
Top speed: 65 km/h
Duration: 7 h 30 min
Opened: 1930
Countries: Kenya
Crosses the equator on its final approach to Nanyuki, where Mount Kenya’s 5,199 m massif fills the carriage windows.
Luanda–Malanje Express — Luanda to Malanje (classic)
Train: CFL long-distance express
Operator: Caminho de Ferro de Luanda (CFL)
Distance: 424 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: 11 h
Opened: 1909
Countries: Angola
Angola’s oldest railway, silenced for decades by civil war, reopened end-to-end in 2011 after a Chinese-led rebuild of all 424 km.
Van Gölü Ekspresi — Ankara to Tatvan (night)
Train: TVS2000 sleeper & pullman cars
Operator: TCDD Taşımacılık
Distance: 1267 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 25 h 50 min
Opened: 1964
Countries: Türkiye
Ends 1,267 km from Ankara at a ferry slip on Lake Van, where wagons bound for Iran are floated across Turkey’s largest lake.
HaEmek (Jezreel Valley) Line — Haifa to Beit She’an (classic)
Train: Double-deck push–pull intercity
Operator: Israel Railways
Distance: 60 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 50 min
Opened: 2016
Countries: Israel
Rebuilt on the 1905 Ottoman Hejaz alignment, it ends at Beit She’an — about 120 m below sea level, among the world’s lowest stations.
Tehran–Shiraz Night Train — Tehran to Shiraz (night)
Train: Raja four-berth sleepers
Operator: Raja Rail Transportation
Distance: 935 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 14 h 40 min
Opened: 2009
Countries: Iran
Completed only in 2009, the overnight run leaves Tehran at dusk and descends at dawn past Marvdasht, the plain of Persepolis, into Shiraz.
North Borneo Railway — Kota Kinabalu to Papar (scenic)
Train: Wood-fired 1954 Vulcan 2-6-2 steam locomotive, colonial-green carriages
Operator: Sutera Harbour & Sabah State Railway
Distance: 35 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: 1 h 45 min
Opened: 2000
Countries: Malaysia
A 1954 Vulcan Foundry engine burning jungle firewood retraces the 1896 British North Borneo line — the only passenger railway corridor on Borneo.
Araku Vistadome — Visakhapatnam to Araku Valley (scenic)
Train: Glass-roofed Vistadome coach on the Visakhapatnam–Kirandul train
Operator: Indian Railways (East Coast Railway)
Distance: 115 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: 4 h 10 min
Opened: 2017
Countries: India
India’s first Vistadome coach (2017) climbs the Eastern Ghats to Shimiliguda, long the country’s highest broad-gauge station at 996 m.
Sethu Express (Boat Mail) — Chennai to Rameswaram (night)
Train: ICF sleeper rake behind WAP-4 electric
Operator: Indian Railways (Southern Railway)
Distance: 603 km
Top speed: 110 km/h
Duration: 9 h 40 min
Opened: 1914
Countries: India
Heir to the 1914 Boat Mail that fed the Ceylon ferry, it now reaches Rameswaram island over India’s first vertical-lift sea bridge, opened 2025.
Marine Liner — Okayama to Takamatsu (classic)
Train: JR 5000 series + 223-5000 series EMU with double-deck panorama car
Operator: JR West & JR Shikoku
Distance: 72 km
Top speed: 130 km/h
Duration: 55 min
Opened: 1988
Countries: Japan
Every half hour it rides the lower deck of the 13.1 km Great Seto Bridge — the Seto Inland Sea’s only rail crossing, strung across five islands since 1988.
Sanriku Railway Rias Line — Sakari to Kuji (scenic)
Train: Sanriku 36-700 series railcars
Operator: Sanriku Railway
Distance: 163 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: 4 h 25 min
Opened: 1984
Countries: Japan
Japan’s longest third-sector railway threads 163 km of tsunami-rebuilt coast; the final gap closed in 2019, eight years after the 2011 wave.
Tsugaru Stove Train — Tsugaru-Goshogawara to Tsugaru-Nakasato (scenic)
Train: 1948 Ohafu 33 coaches with coal daruma stoves, DD350 diesel
Operator: Tsugaru Railway
Distance: 21 km
Top speed: 70 km/h
Duration: 45 min
Opened: 1930
Countries: Japan
Aboard Japan’s northernmost private railway, attendants grill squid on pot-belly coal stoves while blizzards bury the Tsugaru plain outside.
Hue–Da Nang Heritage Train — Hue to Da Nang (scenic)
Train: Restyled vintage coaches with saloon car (HD1–HD4)
Operator: Vietnam Railways (DSVN)
Distance: 103 km
Top speed: 80 km/h
Duration: 2 h 50 min
Opened: 2024
Countries: Vietnam
Launched in 2024 on the 1906 colonial mainline, it eases over the Hai Van Pass with clouds above and fishing fleets directly below the rails.
Taksaka — Jakarta to Yogyakarta (classic)
Train: KAI New Generation stainless-steel executive & luxury coaches
Operator: Kereta Api Indonesia
Distance: 512 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 6 h 5 min
Opened: 1999
Countries: Indonesia
Java’s flagship day train links the capital and the sultan’s city in six hours, skirting volcanoes beyond Cirebon and Purwokerto.
Jiayang Steam Train — Shixi to Bagou (scenic)
Train: C2-class 762 mm steam locomotive, wooden open-window coaches
Operator: Jiayang Group
Distance: 20 km
Top speed: 20 km/h
Duration: 1 h 15 min
Opened: 1959
Countries: China
One of the world’s last everyday steam railways: C2 engines built for 1950s coal pits still haul villagers past rapeseed terraces for pocket change.
Jaffar Express — Quetta to Peshawar (classic)
Train: AC sleeper, business & economy coaches
Operator: Pakistan Railways
Distance: 1632 km
Top speed: 110 km/h
Duration: 35 h 10 min
Opened: 2003
Countries: Pakistan
Pakistan’s longest through service tops the Bolan Pass at Kolpur (1,790 m), then follows the Indus corridor 1,632 km to the gate of the Khyber.
Royal Railway Northern Line — Phnom Penh to Battambang (classic)
Train: Veteran ex-Thai Railways diesel railcar
Operator: Royal Railway
Distance: 273 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: 6 h 50 min
Opened: 1932
Countries: Cambodia
Cambodia’s 1932 French rice line, silenced by war and revived in 2018, ambles past Tonle Sap paddies to Battambang’s art-deco station.
Eurostar — London to Brussels (high-speed)
Train: e320 · Class 374
Operator: Eurostar
Distance: 373 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: 1 h 53 min
Opened: 1994
Countries: United Kingdom|France|Belgium
The original Channel Tunnel service to the EU capital — St Pancras to Bruxelles-Midi in under two hours, city centre to city centre.
Eurostar — London to Amsterdam (high-speed)
Train: e320 · Class 374
Operator: Eurostar
Distance: 540 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: 3 h 55 min
Opened: 2018
Countries: United Kingdom|France|Belgium|Netherlands
A single train from St Pancras to Amsterdam Centraal since 2018 — under the Channel, across Flanders and the Dutch polders in about four hours.
TGV / ICE — Paris to Frankfurt (high-speed)
Train: TGV Euroduplex · ICE 3
Operator: SNCF · Deutsche Bahn
Distance: 573 km
Top speed: 320 km/h
Duration: 3 h 49 min
Opened: 2007
Countries: France|Germany
A Franco-German alliance since 2007: 320 km/h on the LGV Est to Lorraine, then the Saar and Rhine-Main into Frankfurt, TGV and ICE sharing the run.
Alvia — Madrid to Cádiz (high-speed)
Train: Renfe S-130 gauge-changing Talgo
Operator: Renfe
Distance: 664 km
Top speed: 250 km/h
Duration: 4 h 25 min
Opened: 1992
Countries: Spain
Off the 1992 Madrid–Seville high-speed spine, a gauge-changing Talgo carries on through sherry country to the Atlantic at Cádiz.
Borealis — Chicago to Saint Paul (classic)
Train: Amfleet coaches, Siemens Charger diesel
Operator: Amtrak
Distance: 668 km
Top speed: 127 km/h
Duration: 7 h 30 min
Opened: 2024
Countries: United States
Amtrak’s May 2024 daytime run up the Mississippi from Chicago through Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s river bluffs to the Twin Cities.
Aoniyoshi — Osaka to Kyoto (classic)
Train: Kintetsu 19200 series sightseeing limited express
Operator: Kintetsu Railway
Distance: 66 km
Top speed: 110 km/h
Duration: 1 h 20 min
Opened: 2022
Countries: Japan
A 2022 salon train styled on Nara’s Tenpyō court art, linking Osaka, the old capital Nara and Kyoto with a library bar and a sweets counter.
Nightjet — Paris to Berlin (night)
Train: ÖBB Nightjet sleepers, couchettes & seats
Operator: ÖBB · SNCF · DB
Distance: 1104 km
Top speed: 200 km/h
Duration: 13 h 30 min
Opened: 2023
Countries: France|Germany
Relaunched in December 2023 after nine years dark: leave the Gare de l’Est after dinner, cross the Rhine in the night, wake in Berlin.
Snälltåget — Stockholm to Berlin (night)
Train: Refurbished couchette & sleeping cars
Operator: Snälltåget
Distance: 1290 km
Top speed: 200 km/h
Duration: 16 h 30 min
Opened: 2012
Countries: Sweden|Denmark|Germany
A private summer sleeper down through Sweden, over the Öresund bridge past Copenhagen and across Denmark to Berlin — outlasting the state night trains.
Desert Express — Windhoek to Swakopmund (scenic)
Train: TransNamib lounge & sleeper cars, GE diesels
Operator: TransNamib
Distance: 356 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: 19 h
Opened: 1998
Countries: Namibia
A slow luxury run from the highland capital down the escarpment to the Atlantic, with dune walks as the Namib shifts from gold to coastal fog.
Wuppertal Schwebebahn — Oberbarmen to Vohwinkel (scenic)
Train: Generation 15 suspended electric units
Operator: WSW mobil
Distance: 13 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: 30 min
Opened: 1901
Passengers per year: 25000000
Countries: Germany
The world’s oldest electric suspension railway, hanging from a steel frame above the Wupper river since 1901 — a monorail that never stopped commuting.
Odontotos Rack Railway — Diakofto to Kalavryta (scenic)
Train: Stadler metre-gauge rack railcars
Operator: Hellenic Train
Distance: 22 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: 1 h 5 min
Opened: 1896
Countries: Greece
An 1896 rack line claws 700 m up the sheer Vouraikos gorge, threading tunnels and clinging to ledges above the torrent to the town of Kalavryta.
Voralpen-Express — St. Gallen to Lucerne (scenic)
Train: Stadler SOB “Traverso” Flirt
Operator: Südostbahn
Distance: 126 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 2 h 15 min
Opened: 1992
Countries: Switzerland
An hourly cross-country ride through the pre-Alps — the Wattwil moorland, the Rapperswil lake dam and the Rothenthurm high bog — linking two lake cities.
Cremallera de Montserrat — Monistrol de Montserrat to Montserrat (scenic)
Train: GTW rack-and-adhesion railcars
Operator: FGC
Distance: 5 km
Top speed: 25 km/h
Duration: 20 min
Opened: 1892
Countries: Spain
A rack railway climbing the serrated massif to the Benedictine monastery at 720 m — the pilgrims’ way to Catalonia’s black Madonna since 1892.
SL Yamaguchi — Shin-Yamaguchi to Tsuwano (scenic)
Train: D51 steam with retro Series 35 4000 coaches
Operator: JR West
Distance: 63 km
Top speed: 65 km/h
Duration: 2 h
Opened: 1979
Countries: Japan
A pacific steam locomotive has hauled this special up the Yamaguchi line to the little castle town of Tsuwano, the “Kyoto of San-in”, since 1979.
Fairy Queen Express — Delhi to Alwar (scenic)
Train: 1855 Fairy Queen steam locomotive, heritage saloon
Operator: Indian Railways
Distance: 143 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: 5 h
Opened: 1997
Countries: India
Hauled by the 1855 Fairy Queen, the world’s oldest working steam locomotive, on a heritage run from Delhi out to the tiger country around Alwar.
Chemin de fer de La Mure — La Mure to Monteynard (scenic)
Train: Restored electric heritage railcars
Operator: Edeis
Distance: 15 km
Top speed: 30 km/h
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Opened: 1888
Countries: France
Reopened in 2021, this cliffside metre-gauge line hangs on ledges and viaducts high above the turquoise Monteynard reservoir in the Isère.
Petit Train de la Rhune — Col de Saint-Ignace to La Rhune (scenic)
Train: 1924 wooden rack railcars
Operator: Epsa
Distance: 4 km
Top speed: 9 km/h
Duration: 35 min
Opened: 1924
Countries: France
A 1924 wooden cog train grinds up to the 905 m Basque summit of La Rhune — pottok ponies and griffon vultures alongside, the Bay of Biscay below.
Beijing–Tianjin Intercity — Beijing to Tianjin (high-speed)
Train: CR400AF Fuxing
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 120 km
Top speed: 350 km/h
Duration: 30 min
Opened: 2008
Passengers per year: 30000000
Countries: China
China’s first high-speed line, opened for the 2008 Olympics — 350 km/h across the North China Plain, capital to port city in half an hour.
Shanghai–Chengdu HSR — Shanghai to Chengdu (high-speed)
Train: CR400 & CRH380 Fuxing
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 1920 km
Top speed: 350 km/h
Duration: 11 h
Opened: 2014
Countries: China
The great east–west artery, threading Nanjing, Wuhan and the Three Gorges country to reach Sichuan’s capital from the coast in a single day.
Hangzhou–Huangshan HSR — Hangzhou to Huangshan (high-speed)
Train: CRH380D
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 265 km
Top speed: 250 km/h
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Opened: 2018
Countries: China
Dubbed China’s most beautiful high-speed line, it slips through tea hills and water towns from West Lake to the granite of Yellow Mountain.
Guiyang–Chongqing HSR — Guiyang to Chongqing (high-speed)
Train: CRH380A
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 345 km
Top speed: 250 km/h
Duration: 2 h
Opened: 2018
Countries: China
Almost entirely bridge and tunnel, this 2018 line vaults the karst gorges of Guizhou to join two of the mountain south-west’s biggest cities.
Lanzhou–Chongqing Railway — Lanzhou to Chongqing (classic)
Train: CR200J Fuxing & sleeper coaches
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 886 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 6 h 30 min
Opened: 2017
Countries: China
Twenty years in the building through the folded Qinling ranges — hundreds of tunnels that finally gave Gansu a fast way down to the Yangtze.
Talgo Sarajevo–Banja Luka — Sarajevo to Banja Luka (classic)
Train: Talgo 8 tilting trainset
Operator: ŽFBH · ŽRS
Distance: 235 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 5 h
Opened: 2007
Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina
A Spanish Talgo leans through the Bosna gorge between Bosnia’s two capitals, past Zenica’s steelworks and down the green Vrbas valley.
Athens–Kalambaka — Athens to Kalambaka (scenic)
Train: Stadler & MAN intercity railcars
Operator: Hellenic Train
Distance: 375 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 4 h 20 min
Opened: 1935
Countries: Greece
The line to the monasteries in the sky — up from Athens across the Thessalian plain to Kalambaka, beneath the sandstone pillars of Meteora.
Shosholoza Meyl Trans-Karoo — Johannesburg to Cape Town (classic)
Train: Class 6E electric & diesel with sleeper cars
Operator: Shosholoza Meyl (PRASA)
Distance: 1530 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: 27 h
Opened: 1892
Countries: South Africa
The classic Trans-Karoo run — a night and a day across the semi-desert heart of South Africa from the Highveld gold city down to Table Bay.
BR Express — Gaborone to Francistown (night)
Train: Botswana Railways sleeper & sitter coaches
Operator: Botswana Railways
Distance: 500 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: 9 h
Opened: 2016
Countries: Botswana
Botswana’s overnight sleeper, reborn in 2016, trundles up the eastern rim of the Kalahari between Gaborone and the mining town of Francistown.
Central Line — Dar es Salaam to Kigoma (classic)
Train: TRC metre-gauge coaches, diesel-hauled
Operator: Tanzania Railways (TRC)
Distance: 1254 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: 38 h
Opened: 1914
Countries: Tanzania
The German-built Central Line of 1914, a metre-gauge marathon from the Indian Ocean across the plateau to Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika.
Baku–Tbilisi–Kars — Baku to Kars (classic)
Train: Stadler sleeper cars
Operator: ADY · Georgian Railway · TCDD
Distance: 826 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: 18 h
Opened: 2017
Countries: Azerbaijan|Georgia|Türkiye
The Silk Road revived: opened in 2017, it closes the last gap from the Caspian across the Caucasus to Turkey — a rail bridge between Asia and Europe.
Grand Trunk Express — Delhi to Chennai (classic)
Train: LHB sleeper & AC coaches, WAP-7 electric
Operator: Indian Railways
Distance: 2180 km
Top speed: 110 km/h
Duration: 33 h
Opened: 1929
Countries: India
Running since 1929, the “GT” hauls down the spine of India through Bhopal and Nagpur to Chennai — 2,180 km in a day and a half.
Mandalay–Lashio — Mandalay to Lashio (scenic)
Train: Myanmar Railways diesel with upper-class coaches
Operator: Myanmar Railways
Distance: 280 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: 12 h
Opened: 1900
Countries: Myanmar
The Shan hill line crawls up from Mandalay to inch across the Gokteik viaduct — a 1900 American-built steel trestle 100 m above the gorge.
Gotthard Panorama Express — Lucerne to Lugano (scenic)
Train: SBB panorama coaches & lake paddle steamer
Operator: SBB
Distance: 180 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: 5 h 30 min
Opened: 1882
Countries: Switzerland
A paddle steamer up Lake Lucerne, then the 1882 Gotthard mountain line’s spiral tunnels and the Wassen church glimpsed three times on the climb south.
AVE Madrid–Oviedo — Madrid to Oviedo (high-speed)
Train: Renfe S-106 Avril
Operator: Renfe
Distance: 480 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: 3 h
Opened: 2023
Countries: Spain
The 2023 Variante de Pajares pierced the Cantabrian wall with a 25 km base tunnel, cutting Asturias’ link to Madrid to about three hours.
Alvia Madrid–Badajoz — Madrid to Badajoz (high-speed)
Train: Renfe S-730 dual-mode Talgo
Operator: Renfe
Distance: 440 km
Top speed: 200 km/h
Duration: 4 h
Opened: 2022
Countries: Spain
High speed reached long-isolated Extremadura in 2022, sweeping past the Roman city of Mérida to the Portuguese border at Badajoz.
Tren de la Muerte — Santa Cruz to Puerto Quijarro (classic)
Train: Ferroviaria Oriental railcars & coaches
Operator: Ferroviaria Oriental
Distance: 650 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: 16 h
Opened: 1955
Countries: Bolivia
Bolivia’s notorious “Death Train” rattles east from Santa Cruz through Jesuit mission country and the Chiquitano dry forest to the Brazilian frontier.
Bosfor Express — Istanbul to Sofia (night)
Train: TCDD & BDŽ sleeping cars
Operator: TCDD · BDŽ
Distance: 585 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: 12 h
Opened: 1888
Countries: Türkiye|Bulgaria
The overnight heir to the Orient Express, crossing the Thracian plain from Istanbul over the Bulgarian border to Sofia as the berths are made up.
Albula Railway — Chur to St. Moritz (scenic)
Train: RhB Allegra & panorama cars
Operator: Rhaetian Railway (RhB)
Distance: 62 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: 2 h
Opened: 1903
Countries: Switzerland
The UNESCO Albula line spirals through helical tunnels and sweeps over the six-arch Landwasser Viaduct — a curved stone bridge running straight into a cliff — on its climb to St. Moritz.
Montenvers Railway — Chamonix to Montenvers (scenic)
Train: Rack railcars
Operator: Compagnie du Mont-Blanc
Distance: 5 km
Top speed: 20 km/h
Duration: 20 min
Opened: 1908
Countries: France
A rack railway since 1908, climbing from Chamonix to a balcony above the Mer de Glace — France’s largest glacier — beneath the Drus and the Grandes Jorasses.
Mont-Blanc Tramway — Saint-Gervais to Nid d’Aigle (scenic)
Train: Rack railcars
Operator: Compagnie du Mont-Blanc
Distance: 12 km
Top speed: 20 km/h
Duration: 1 h 10 min
Opened: 1913
Countries: France
France’s highest railway grinds up to the Nid d’Aigle at 2,372 m on the flank of Mont Blanc — the start of the climbers’ route to the summit.
Schynige Platte Railway — Wilderswil to Schynige Platte (scenic)
Train: 1914 electric rack railcars
Operator: Jungfrau Railways
Distance: 7 km
Top speed: 12 km/h
Duration: 52 min
Opened: 1893
Countries: Switzerland
Vintage 1914 cars grind up an Abt rack to a 2,000 m ridge with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up across the valley — and an alpine garden at the top.
Genoa–Casella Railway — Genoa to Casella (scenic)
Train: Narrow-gauge electric railcars
Operator: AMT Genova
Distance: 25 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: 55 min
Opened: 1929
Countries: Italy
A metre-gauge mountain tram that climbs straight out of central Genoa over three Apennine valleys to the village of Casella, sea views at its back.
Nevada Northern Railway — Ely to Ruth (scenic)
Train: 1910 Baldwin & Alco steam, wooden coaches
Operator: Nevada Northern Railway Museum
Distance: 22 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Opened: 1906
Countries: United States
The best-preserved steam-era short line in America — the “Ghost Train of Old Ely” still runs its 1910 locomotives out of a National Historic Landmark copper-country yard.
Campos do Jordão Railway — Pindamonhangaba to Campos do Jordão (scenic)
Train: Historic electric railcars
Operator: EFCJ
Distance: 47 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: 4 h
Opened: 1914
Countries: Brazil
Brazil’s highest railway climbs the Serra da Mantiqueira to the mountain resort of Campos do Jordão at 1,743 m, a metre-gauge line electrified since the 1920s.
Zig Zag Railway — Clarence to Bottom Points (scenic)
Train: 1950s heritage diesel & steam
Operator: Zig Zag Railway Co-op
Distance: 8 km
Top speed: 30 km/h
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Opened: 1869
Countries: Australia
A 19th-century engineering marvel in the Blue Mountains: trains reverse down a rock-cut Z of sandstone viaducts that once carried the main western line off the plateau.
Silver Star — New York to Miami (classic)
Train: Amtrak Viewliner & Amfleet, P42 diesel
Operator: Amtrak
Distance: 2410 km
Top speed: 201 km/h
Duration: 31 h
Opened: 1947
Countries: United States
Amtrak’s daily New York–Miami run via the Carolinas and a loop through Tampa — the East Coast’s classic snowbird train down to the Florida sun.
AVE Madrid–Murcia — Madrid to Murcia (high-speed)
Train: Renfe S-112 & S-106
Operator: Renfe
Distance: 480 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: 2 h 55 min
Opened: 2022
Countries: Spain
High speed reached the Segura in December 2022, running Madrid to Murcia via Cuenca and Albacete on a new elevated approach into the palm-country capital.
Le Mastrou (Vivarais) — Tournon-sur-Rhône to Lamastre (scenic)
Train: 1903 Mallet steam, metre-gauge coaches
Operator: Chemin de fer du Vivarais
Distance: 33 km
Top speed: 30 km/h
Duration: 2 h
Opened: 1891
Countries: France
A metre-gauge steam survivor climbing the granite gorge of the Doux from the Rhône at Tournon to the chestnut country of Lamastre, hauled by 1903 Mallet engines.
Chiemsee-Bahn — Prien to Prien-Stock (scenic)
Train: 1887 Krauss steam tram
Operator: Chiemsee-Bahn
Distance: 2 km
Top speed: 20 km/h
Duration: 10 min
Opened: 1887
Countries: Germany
The world’s oldest steam tram still in service, an 1887 green Krauss engine that shuttles down to the Chiemsee jetty for the boat to Ludwig II’s island palace.
Monte Generoso Railway — Capolago to Monte Generoso (scenic)
Train: Stadler rack railcars
Operator: Ferrovia Monte Generoso
Distance: 9 km
Top speed: 14 km/h
Duration: 40 min
Opened: 1890
Countries: Switzerland
A rack line from the shore of Lake Lugano to a 1,704 m summit whose Mario Botta “Fiore di pietra” lookout takes in the Alps from Monte Rosa to the Apennines.