Trend: Take it Slow

With train travel on the rise, will restored heritage trains or their shiny new counterparts win the race for the consumer?

When The Future Laboratory published its Future Forecast 2020 report towards the end of 2019, its authors could hardly have known the scale of the impending pandemic, nor the impact it would have on global travel. Yet remarkably, the forecasting agency named staycations as one of the trends set to shape the year; little did they know that with international travel off the cards, discovering the wonders of one’s own country would become the defining travel trend of 2020.

And with staycations comes a rise in rail travel. According to new research conducted by YouGov for rail operator LNER, Covid-19 has changed the way British people holiday, with nearly a quarter (24%) revealing they intend to go on more staycations in the future. The report also found that one-in-five are reconsidering air travel for future trips, whilst a third are looking to increase their use of trains, with 46% of those aged 1824 selecting rail as their preferred method of transport for holidays within the UK and abroad.

Aside from the current restrictions on international travel, an increasing desire to take the train is being driven by environmental concerns. It’s no secret that trains are one of the most sustainable ways to travel – LNER’s new fleet of electric bi-mode Azuma trains produce less than a third of the carbon of other modes of transport – plus, a number of highprofile endeavours have drawn attention to the matter. Last year, supermodel Edie Campbell opted to take a 12-hour train journey from London to Milan for fashion week in a bid to reduce her carbon footprint, while activist Greta Thunberg spearheaded the flight-shaming movement, promoting train travel over flying on environmental grounds.

Train travel has other benefits too; there’s no two-hour wait in departures before setting-off, and stations tend to be right in the centre of the city for easy access to accommodation and attractions. For longer distances, trips will likely take longer by rail than by air, but sometimes, that’s the point. Slow travel has been a rising trend over the last decade and was highlighted in Wunderman Thompson’s The Future 100 report for 2020. “Travellers are embracing a longer journey as an opportunity to savour the moment,” it states. “The journey, once simply a means to an end, is being relished as much as the final destination.” The report goes on to say: “Train travel, which harks back to a slower

Take it Slow…

pace of life, is redefining modern luxury travel as consumers hunger for opportunities to step back from the stressors of daily life and engage more deeply with the world around them.”

From the Yukon railroad through Alaska to the epic Trans-Siberian railway that links Moscow with Vladivostok, there’s countless great railway journeys of the world, often famed for the routes they take and the landscapes through which they pass. When it comes to on-board luxury however, few beat the beauty of Belmond. Its trains are designed to celebrate the Golden Age of Travel, with interiors inspired by stops along the way, whether it be Cusco’s ancient Inca Empire on the Andean Explorer, or Istanbul’s Ottoman palaces on the Venice Simplon-Orient Express. The latter features restored carriages from the 1920s and 1930s, though it’s worth noting that the original Orient Express, which first departed Paris in 1883, ceased operations in 2009, reportedly a victim of high-speed trains.

The world’s high-speed rail network has been developing at pace since the turn of the century;

so while one corner of the market aims to reignite the magic of slow travel – where the experience is as much about the journey as the destination – another is focusing on transporting passengers faster than ever before. Japan’s Shinkansen network, colloquially known as the bullet train, is widely regarded as the world’s first highspeed rail system and continues to set the standard thanks to its unblemished safety record, expansion projects and innovative carriage design. Its current trains travel at a speed of 320km/h, but in October 2020, trial runs of the next generation bullet train reached 400km/h, shaving precious minutes off journey times. Set to come into service by 2030, the state-ofthe-art Alfa-X has a range of groundbreaking features, not least an aerodynamic 22-metre nose – longer than any train’s in history.

The record for high speed however goes to the Shanghai Maglev, or magnetic levitation train, which launched commercially in 2004 and has a maximum operational speed of 430km/h. China in fact has been at the forefront of new rail development in recent years, with the nation now accounting for two-thirds of the world’s total high-speed railway networks. It’s also the longest and most extensively used, with over two-billion passengers per year.

In Europe, Spain is leading the way thanks to the ongoing development of the Alta Velocidad Española network, now the second longest in the world, while France is working to extend its LGV lines. Germany and the UK are also investing in new high-speed networks, but with escalating costs and lengthy delays, the public are beginning to lose patience.

Arguably the most significant development in land travel in recent years is the Hyperloop, touted as the fastest way to cross the surface of the Earth and the first new form of transportation in over a century. Ever since Elon Musk announced the concept – a vactrain that could potentially transport people or cargo at hypersonic speeds while being energy-efficient – engineers, technicians and developers have been battling it out to make it a reality. And having been the first to safely test human travel in a Hyperloop pod, it seems Virgin is winning the race.

The trial took place at Virgin’s DevLoop test site in the Nevada desert in Las Vegas, with Josh Giegel, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience taking the momentous trip. The

…or Life in the Fast Lane

occupants travelled on the newly-unveiled XP-2 vehicle, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and Kilo Design and custom-built with safety and comfort in mind. The successful trial will now pave the way for the certification of commercial Hyperloop systems around the world.

“For the past few years, the Virgin Hyperloop team has been working on turning its groundbreaking technology into reality,” says Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group. “With today’s successful test, we have shown that this spirit of innovation will in fact change the way people everywhere live, work and travel in the years to come.”

While high-speed trains and Hyperloop models are markedly different to the restored carriages that meander through the countryside, they do have something in common. Whether racing from city to city on the daily commute or leisurely taking in the sights of the surroundings, passengers have the same desires; style, comfort, good service and above all, a memorable experience.