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.
As for this year's most talked about rail adventure, China's newly launched high-altitude train to Tibet, "I think I'll wait until the excitement has calmed down."
"The world is changing," he added. "If we're not careful, it will be an identical world with identical fast food places, identical hotel chains, and every journey is an identical journey at 30,000 feet."
"But we're not there yet," he said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS