The entire route takes around 8 hours, the Glacier Express takes you across the Swiss Alps between St. Moritz and Zermatt regions, passing through narrow valleys, tight curves, 91 tunnels, and over 291 bridges including the unique Landwasser viaduct (UNESCO site).
Video timeline: 0:00 Starting our journey in @brienzamsee 0:20 @brienzrothornbahn8299 is taking us through the village 0:50 Steam train with different Locomotives 1:09 Geldried 1:25 Planalp Middle station 2:36 Arrival at Brienzer Rothorn 2:58 Meeting the Ibexes 4:01 Ibex Knowledge 5:00 Sunrise 5:27 Ibexes again 7:07 Going down again with @brienzrothornbahn
The railway is 7.6 kilometres long, is built to 800 mm gauge, and uses the Abt double lamella rack system.
Illustration: Adele Morgan
The line opened in 1885 and closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching Axe. The route, now a multi-use path, is known as “The Cinder Track”
The track was subsequently lifted in 1968, although speculation about a potential potash mine near Hawsker meant that the track from there to Whitby remained in place until 1972.
The line is now used as a bridleway for cycles, pedestrians and horses, known as the “Scarborough to Whitby Rail Trail”, “Scarborough to Whitby Cinder Track”, or simply “The Cinder Track”.
In the 1980s an area of the former line in the Northstead district of Scarborough was briefly used as football and cricket pitches.
In 2018 plans to spend £3.5 million to repair and improve the Cinder Track were backed by the borough council. The plans would see the route resurfaced, drainage improved and the creation of a new management body to oversee the development of the track. There is also the possibility of introducing a visitor centre, cafe and pay and display parking to generate ongoing funding to maintain the route. Work upgrading the track began in January 2020 and the first stage is now complete.
We’ll have the latest as Biden and European allies gather in Brussels for a high-stakes Nato summit. Plus, Estonia calls for Nato to build up a permanent force in Eastern Europe, a flick through today’s papers, and Monocle’s Balkans correspondent, Guy De Launey, boards the Belgrade-Budapest railway.
This could be the most ambitious public transit project in America.
SEATTLE has become one of the most attractive cities in the United States.
The tech boom has helped bring in some 1,000 new residents every week. Of course, all those new Seattleites need a way to get around, and things are getting crowded.
In response, the city has been expanding its rail system, and fast. The latest project, Sound Transit 3, will invest $54BN over the next 25 years to expand the network five-fold.
With the passage of the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, American cities are getting a chance to rethink their public transit systems with fresh infrastructure funding.
And Seattle’s expansion might be the country’s most ambitious project yet.
Michael Portillo resumes his tour of the Home Counties in the picturesque and historic county town of Guildford. His 1936 Bradshaw’s guide commends its ‘fine old castle keep’ and guildhall but makes no mention of its hilltop cathedral.
Michael meets head guide Janet Matthews to discover the origins of the first Anglican cathedral to be built on a new site in the south of England since the Reformation – begun in 1936. He finds splendid architecture and modern materials have combined to produce a gloriously open building full of space and light. Michael climbs its 160 foot tower for a panoramic view of Surrey.
Michael’s next stop is Chilworth, from which he follows his guide to Newlands Corner on the slopes of the North Downs. At this popular beauty spot, the famous crime writer Agatha Christie disappeared, sparking a massive search and a tabloid frenzy. A Christie biographer pieces the puzzle together for Michael.
Heading west across the county, Michael reaches the Georgian market town of Farnham with its 12th-century castle, once home to the bishops of Winchester. Intrigued by his Bradshaw’s reference to a famous Farnham painter, WH Allen, Michael joins the artist’s great-great-niece in the castle’s splendid gardens to learn more about him. A kind Farnham artist encourages Michael to commit the castle to canvas in his own way. After a luxurious night at the castle, Michael crosses into Hampshire to reach Aldershot. At the home of the British Army, he hears how in the years leading up to the World War II, the town began to receive conscripts for military training.
The Gornergrat Railway is a cog-wheel railway in Zermatt, in the Swiss canton of Wallis (Valais in French). The valley station is at 1,604 m above sea level and is right in the middle of Zermatt itself. The Gornergrat Railway brings passengers up to the 3,089 m high summit of the Gornergrat.
It promised to transform how Californians travel but is now seen as a “bullet train to nowhere.” This is why America’s west coast megaproject has been far from high-speed.
The world heritage listed Albula Railway. With it’s 55 bridges and 39 tunnels, it is one of the most spectacular narrow gauge railways in the world. The centerpiece is the 5866m long Albula tunnel, which at 1820m above sea level, is the second highest alpine tunnel in Switzerland. Our journey starts in Chur, the terminus station of the SBB normal gauge line from Zürich.
Boomers Daily 