This is the ancient trackway of Diolkos, in Corinth, Greece. Archaeologists say it was built at end of the 7th or the start of 6th Century BCE. It enabled ships to avoid the 190 mile trip around the Peloponnesian Peninsula, including the treacherous Capes of Matapan and Maleas. Ancient writers referred to the stone roadway… Read More The first permanent way?
One of the more recently built metro systems in Europe, the 4 line network in Bulgaria’s capital city first opened in January 1998. It currently consists of 4 standard gauge lines with 47 stations, carrying over 300,000 people each day. There’s also an extensive tram network in Sofia, although this hasn’t been enlarged since 1995… Read More Sofia Metro System
A recent visit to Hungary meant I was able to take a look at some of the countries railway heritage. There is a lot on offer, and sadly some of it I didn’t have time to see and some of it was closed due to the time of year – November & December. There’s several… Read More Railway Heritage in Hungary
The extensive network of public transport in Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city, includes the usual trams, buses and suburban railways, along with a rack railway and cable car. Another unique feature of Zurich’s network is the S10 line, which climbs 6.5 miles (10km) to an elevation of 2671ft (814m) on the Uetliberg mountain. Opened in 1875… Read More Uetliberg. The S Bahn on the Mountain
The Dolderbahn is a metre gauge rack railway in Switzerland’s largest city. Opened in 1895, originally as a cable hauled funicular, the 1.3km line runs from Romerhof, adjacent to lines 3 and 8 of the Zürich tramway up an 18% gradient on the Adlisberg mountain. It climbs 162 metres (530 ft) to the summit, where there’s… Read More Dolderbahn, Zurich’s Rack Railway
The railway that runs from Limerick to Foynes, in County Limerick will be reopening and work has started, the preliminary clearance of vegetation etc is underway. It’s been a while in coming, planning permission was granted in 2019 for the renewal of the viaduct. It opened on 29 April 1858, as the terminus of a… Read More Limerick to Foynes line to reopen
The Wye Valley line ran from Chepstow to Monmouth Troy station, skirting the river and the Wales-England border. A small branch went off to Coleford. The line opened in 1874 and closed to passengers in 1959, with stone traffic from Tidenham quarry continuing until 1992 Today there are still plenty of remaining features visible, the… Read More The Wye Valley Railway
33 years ago today the Berlin Wall finally opened. There’s been a huge amount written about the main events, so I won’t go into them here. Instead the focus is on the “Ghost Stations” (Geisterbahnhöfe) those stations in East Berlin that were closed, but had trains running through them. The three U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines… Read More The Ghost Stations of Berlin
This article from Euro News shows what are considered to be the most cycle friendly cities in the world – 9 of which are in Europe. I was in Antwerp, one of them mentioned, earlier this year, and it’s a pleasure to be able to cycle around on proper segregated infrastructure. See my blog post… Read More Cycle friendly cities
Innotrans, the world’s largest transport trade show took place again last week, At the Messe Berlin exhibition centre, for the first time since 2018. Usually held biannually, it was cancelled twice due to Covid.The 4 day event sees over 140,000 transport industry visitors from 140 countries, and almost 3000 trade stalls.Amongst those with a large… Read More New Transport For Wales Flirt trains & trams at Innotrans
Random Railways 