There is a train in Switzerland that calls itself an express and takes all day about it. I have wanted to ride it for years.
I have not ridden it. What I have done, on three separate wet Sundays, is watch this documentary about the line from St. Moritz to the Matterhorn, with a pot of tea and the radiator on. It has become a small ritual, and I am no longer sure the trip itself could improve on it.
What I like about a slow timetable
A fast train makes a promise about where you will be. A slow one makes a promise about what you will be doing, which is sitting down and looking out of a window. I have come to think the second promise is the better one.
Most of my own journeys are far less grand: a stopping service along the coast, a bus that waits for the ferry, a connection missed on purpose because the café on the platform looked kind. None of it would fill a documentary. All of it left me with an afternoon I did not have to account for.
You do not take a slow train to arrive. You take it because someone else is driving and nobody can reach you.
Packing for a long window
- A flask, because the trolley is a rumour.
- A paper map, to find out what that mountain was.
- One book you will not read.
- A sandwich that survives being sat on.
One day I will save up and go. Until then, I have the tea, the film and a growing list of stations I can pronounce badly.
Video: DW Documentary on YouTube. Embedded here, not made by me.
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