Introduction

In the global economy of the 21st century, the need for long distance international travel, whether for people or freight, becomes ever greater. Alongside this international travel however is the growing concern over the environmental consequences of the inexorable growth of both road and air transport. By comparison however, rail transport is generally seen as being an environmentally benign form of transportation and one to be encouraged in the international movement of goods and people. The need for the retention, if not expansion, of rail transport following years of decline in the latter part of the 20th century, is often based on its environmental advantages.

However it arguably remains the case that international rail transport, even more so than domestic rail transport, is often slow, expensive and inconvenient in comparison to road and air transport. This article addresses some of the problems associated with international rail passenger transport and the overland train journey from London to Mumbai in India, is used as an illustrative case study. While the focus throughout is on international passenger journeys, much of what is said may also apply to freight transport and to national rail traffic. The article is presented in three parts. The first examines the problematic nature of much international rail travel, while the second examines these problems in the specific context of the train journey from London to Mumbai. The final part attempts to examine some future prospects for international rail travel in the light of the preceding discussions.

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International Rail Travel in the 21st Century
Following Green (1997), the problems of international rail travel present themselves on three levels. First, and without implying any order of priority, are the security threats from geo-political instabilities. Second, are the technical incompatibilities between, and sometimes also within, different national train operators and finally there are administrative inefficiencies in railways operations. Each of these is considered in turn.

1.1 Security threats from geo-political instabilities:

The operational viability of all railways, but particularly international ones, can be compromised by actions resulting from military and civil conflicts. The affects of such conflicts may occur on three levels. There may be just occasional service disruption as has sometimes happened with the train service between Belfast and Dublin. At the next level the train services may be with drawn altogether as with the Trans Maghreb Express between Algers and Tunis or the Trans Asia Express between Tehran and Istanbul. The third level is the complete destruction of the railway infrastructure as happened with the Benguela Railway between Angola and Zambia in the long running civil war in Angola. This railway is however currently being rebuilt (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4010669.stm).

Railways present particular security problems, arguably not exhibited to the same extent by road and air transport. There are often large numbers of people embarking/disembarking at numerous stations all of which are very hard to protect. Moreover, railways are easy to sabotage especially where there are often long stretches of unprotected track. It must however be emphasised that following the bomb attacks on the London and Madrid metros in July 2005 and March 2003 respectively, it is by no only international trains that are threatened by such activities. The point however is that where railways cross international borders another level of potential insecurity is added. To make a fundamental, if rather obvious points, trains can neither fly over, nor drive around, trouble spots. In the event of hostilities, the railway between two countries is often the first transport link to be severed and well before road and air connections.

1.2 Technical incompatibilities between national railway systems

Possibly the commonest of these are the different track gauges between, and sometimes within, countries. Unless there is a specially constructed gauge change station at the border, as between France and Spain, Poland and Russia or Iran and Turkmenistan, the change of gauge necessitates a complete change of rolling stock for passengers and freight. Instead, or as well as the different track gauges, the loading gauge between different railway systems may vary thereby restricting the type of rolling stock that can be used on cross border journeys.

Signalling systems may also differ between countries and where railways are electrified, so may, currents, frequencies, voltages and means of current collection. All the above necessitate a change of either train crew, locomotive or entire rolling stock on international journeys and this slows the journey down and inflates the cost. Such difficulties do not confront road and air transport thereby giving them a competitive advantage over rail.

1.3 Administrative inefficiencies in railway operation:

These are many and varied but possibly the most serious, in terms of compromising journey performance, is the excessive delays at international frontiers due to protracted customs and immigration procedures. Additionally, different sets of operating rules and regulations, together often with different languages between national railway operators engender huge inefficiencies in international operations. A key underlying problem is the absence of any international co-ordinating and controlling organisation for railway transport. Instead there are simply a multitude of national railway operators pursuing their own national objectives.

To see the effects of some of the above impediments to efficient and effective international rail transport, it is instructive to examine the train journey from London to Mumbai. The following section details this journey as done by the author in August 2005.

2.0 The London-Mumbai by Train Journey

The railway route to India goes through Europe, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Back in the 1960s and 1970s these countries were visited by many westerners travelling overland route to India. In those days the traditional route went through Afghanistan, where there never have been any railways, rather than directly from Iran to Pakistan (Figure 1, 2 & 3 –maps of railway route). The revolution in Iran in 1979, followed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and the frequent border closures between India and Pakistan effectively closed off the overland route by the early 1980s. However by 2005, all international borders encountered between the UK and India were open, and train services operated across all the borders.

2.1 Across Europe: London to Istanbul

This journey may best be considered in three parts: the European section, from London to Istanbul; the Middle East, from Istanbul to Zahedan in Iran and finally the Indian sub-continent from Zahedan to Mumbai.
These sections are each considered in turn.
London – Istanbul: the first part of this journey involves taking the dedicated high speed Eurostar service to Paris, a journey that has recently become both time and cost competitive with airline companies plying this route. According to recent reports (Gough 2005), Eurostar has won back substantial traffic from the airlines. At Paris however the high speed network ends and the journey continues overnight to Vienna on a traditional train, the so-called Orient Express. Until 1977, this famous train used to connect Paris directly with Istanbul, but since then has been steadily cut back to Bucharest and finally to Vienna making the journey to Istanbul much more fragmented than it used to be.

The present day Orient Express arrives each morning in Vienna (Wien Westbahnhof) at 08.30 and the onward connection departs at 10.03 for the three hour journey to Budapest. After leaving London there are no border crossing formalities until the Austro/Hungarian border between Vienna and Budapest, but even there these are very efficiently conducted while the train is in motion and there is no change of crew or locomotive at the border.

From Budapest Keleti Station, a daily train – the Trans Balkan Express – goes to Thessaloniki in Greece. The train conveys one through carriage to Istanbul which is detached from the Trans Balkan Express at Bucharest and shunted onto another train for Istanbul. The journey is slow, leaving Budapest at every evening at 19.15 and getting to Istanbul after two nights at around 08.30 in the morning. The route goes through Romania and Bulgaria and necessitates three international border crossings of all of which are exceedingly protracted and add several hours onto the journey. Lack of on board catering facilities and any reduced fare options do not render this a particularly competitive service in the 21st Century. The route has largely been dictated by geo-political considerations since following the war in the Balkans in the 1990s, the preferred journey through the former Yugoslavia is no longer practical. Although the same track gauge is maintained throughout between London and Istanbul, there are several changes of locomotive and other rolling stock involved.

2.2 Through the Middle East to S W Asia: Istanbul – Zahedan

Istanbul-Tehran: the first leg of this journey involves the once weekly Trans Asia Express, a 67 hour journey, that commences at Istanbul, Haydarpasa Station, at 22.55 every Wednesday evening and is scheduled to arrive in Tehran on Saturday evening at 18.30. The train has had a chequered history (Wade-Matthews 2001). It only started operating in 1971 with completion of the line connecting Turkey to Iran (Brice 2005). The service was then suspended in the early 1980s following the revolution in Iran in 1979 and more recently instability from Kurdish rebellion in south eastern Turkey. The train service only recommenced operating in March 2001. In 2005 it consisted of six passenger carriages, with each comprising four berth couchette compartments with bedding provided, and a restaurant car, open throughout the entire journey. The rolling stock is modern, clean and comfortable and the 1900 mile journey costs just £37.00 with the ticket purchasable at Hardarapasa station booking office in either US dollars, Euros or with Visa but not Sterling. No on-line booking and reservation is currently available.

The journey to Tehran takes a full three days and three nights and involves a five hour ferry crossing of Lake Van in eastern Turkey. Lake Van is 1,719 metres above sea level and the port of Tatvan is 1884 km from Istanbul (Wade-Matthews 2001). The ferry is equipped to carry railway wagons but it is far too small to accommodate the entire train. Only the train’s baggage van is shunted onto the ferry and so passengers must alight from the train and take all their belongings with them. At Van, on the other side of the lake, passengers rejoin the Trans Asia Express but this time it is an Iranian train that has brought Istanbul bound passengers from Tehran. The rolling stock that comprises the Iranian train is decidedly elderly but still very clean and comfortable. Once the baggage van is shunted off the train ferry and onto the end of the train, the Trans Asia Express continues its journey and a few hours later the Turkish border at Kapikoy is reached.

All passengers then have to disembark from the train for passport control, which as usual, is exceedingly protracted with just one immigration official processing the entire train. The process is repeated at Siva for Iranian immigration but this time the officials come on the train to stamp the passports. By around 9am on the Saturday the train arrives in Tabriz, the first major town in Iran. It is here that customs clearance takes place, and this involves a 2½ hour wait but at least it gives time to use the money change facilities of the Bank Melli which has a branch in the station.

After Tabriz there is an unhindered run through to Tehran on a line that was not completed until 1958. Notwithstanding the late running of the train there was still a 20 minute ‘prayer stop’ en route at a small station where passengers disembarked to enter the mosque. Even the smallest of railway stations in Iran have their own mosque. The train finally pulled in just before 22.00 making it about 3½ hours late which seemed to be about normal for this journey.

Tehran-Bam: for the journey south from Tehran towards Pakistan, the transport is more frequent. Here Raja trains, operate daily, over night, services between Tehran and Kerman taking about 13 hours for the 950 km journey. As with the Trans Asia express, all coaches had air conditioned, couchette style sleeping accommodation, there was a fully functioning restaurant car and the train was scrupulously clean. Unlike the Trans-Asia Express, however, there are no border crossings to delay it and so it arrived in Kerman perfectly on time at 07.20 in the morning.