A NEW book, Scotland From The Rails: A Window Gazer s Guide, is set to be published by Bradt Travel Guides on Monday. Here, its author Benedict le Vay shares some of his favourite routes. He says: It is hard to know what to leave out as no Scottish rail line is boring. But it s easy to know where to start …
1. The West Highland Line The most scenic railway line in the world. Don t take my word for it, but as adjudged independently by thousands of travellers. All I can say is I have travelled every line in Britain, and this is the king of the lot.
The famed Glenfinnan Viaduct; a train approaching the Horseshoe Curve on the West Highland Line; The Jacobite steam train crossing the Caledonian Canal on the Banavie Railway Swing Bridge. Pictures: Colin Mearns/National Railway Museum/SSPL/Getty PICTURE the scene: sitting nestled in a window seat as sweeping panoramas unfold. Trundling through rugged glens and mist-strewn moors. Skirting the edges of majestic mountains and traversing remote coastal stretches. A smattering of landmarks – waterfalls, standing stones, crumbling keeps – to stoke the imagination. The tantalising romance of rail travel never fails to excite (who doesn t love the film Brief Encounter?) and Scotland has no shortage of gems: from stunning scenery and breathtaking summits to incredible bridges and famed viaducts – the list goes on.
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The Jacobite Steam Train (or as it is better known, The Hogwarts Express). (Image: Getty)
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3. The Mekong
Travelling overland around southeast Asia can be a daunting task for many tourists, not to mention a crowded, hot, sticky endeavour. The perfect way to explore the region while still avoiding multiple flights is by taking a Mekong River cruise.
As the third-longest river in Asia, the Mekong forms a natural highway for watercraft, flowing 2,703 miles from the Tibetan Plateau, through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, with the majority of Mekong River cruises plying the waters of the Lower Mekong and those latter countries.
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam offer doubtless highlights, however, taking in the colonial architecture and blissful Buddhist vibes of Luang Prabang in Laos; the intricate relief sculptures that beautify the walls of the largest religious building on Earth, Angkor Wat, in Cambodia; and the vast subterranean network that constitutes Vietnam’s wartime Cu Chi Tunnels, among countless other unmissable sights.
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Supporters of the West Highland Line – which includes the iconic Glenfinnan Viaduct used in the Harry Potter movies – fear the last remaining rail freight service may soon be lost.
Alvance Aluminium a member of businessman Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, recently announced a £94 million investment in a new recycling and casting facility at its Fort William smelter that will almost double production to 80,000 tonnes a year.
To support the development, the company is proposing significant upgrades to the port at Corpach to improve efficiency of material flow.