Every morning a mild-mannered British servant catches his commuter train to London, whips open his laptop and helps change the way people travel around the world.
Mark Smith is the man behind The Man in Seat 61 (seat61.com), an independent Web site that's riding a wave of global popularity as more and more travelers give up on chaotic air travel and embrace the romance of railways.
Fancy London to Tokyo via the Trans-Siberian and ferry? Or Bangkok to Singapore on a shoestring? Have you even heard of the WaraWara between Oruro and Tupiza? The Man in Seat 61 can help.
On a tea break from his government job in London -- he helps draft transport policy -- Smith told how his site, which grew out of a lifelong passion for long-distance rail travel, has blossomed over the past five years.
In July it pulled more than 260,000 visitors, with 50 percent more visitors just on Aug. 10 -- the day when the thwarting of an alleged plot to put suicide bombers on US airliners resulted in unprecedented levels of security, and scenes of mayhem, at major British airports.
"When I first started the site, it was attracting people who didn't need to fly, or who specifically didn't want to go by train," he said.
In the last year or two, however, "there has been a surge of interest in traveling overland to avoid flying, or to cut down on flying" amid concern about the impact of civil aviation on climate change.
Typical of the new breed of surface traveller is Barbara Haddrill, 28, an environmental activist who is taking six weeks to travel from Wales to Australia for a friend's wedding.
"If I flew to Australia I would negate everything I have done for the last six years and that would seem sad," blogged Haddrill before she set off by train via Moscow to Singapore, where she plans to find a boat to Brisbane.
By her estimate, her trip will put 1.65 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, compared to 3.7 tonnes if she flew.
Beyond environmental concerns, however, Smith senses a yearning among travelers to enjoy their journey as much as their destination.
"When you arrive somewhere by train, I suppose it's like reaching the summit after climbing a mountain," he said. "If you took a helicopter, it would be the same summit, but it wouldn't be the same."
Very much a labor of love, The Man in Seat 61 -- named for Smith's favorite first-class Eurostar seat -- is updated by Smith himself during his hour-long daily commute to work from his home outside London.
It draws not only from his own experience and research, but also on e-mail contributions from fans around the world.
As a travel planning tool, he said, it is often the only place on the Internet to find details about trains in offbeat places, such as Egypt where the state railway has no Web site of its own.
Even for travel within Europe, it has stuff that's missing from official Web sites, such as pictures to show what exactly a couchette -- an economy-class sleeper -- looks like on France's SNCF railway.
Most visited are Smith's pages on the Trans-Siberian railway, India, Australia and Canada, as well as "London to anywhere in Europe" and a historical page that clears up myths about the fabled Orient Express.
Smith's own recent journeys have seen him take the train to a wedding in Greece, then on to Syria and Jordan. Closer to home he has already introduced his baby son Nate to the Eurostar with a day trip to Disneyland.
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