Whether it's the rhythmic sway of the carriage, the breathtaking views from the window, or the social interactions with fellow passengers, railway travel offers an array of experiences that cannot be replicated in any other form of transportation. Despite its ubiquity, railway travel is often overlooked as a mundane or even tedious activity. However, viewing it through a cultural analytical lens can open up an array of interesting insights.
In this text, we will explore the diverse range of experiences that railway travel can offer and examine the various elements that make this mode of transportation so distinctive and special.
Travel Phenomenology
One way to view railway travel and to understand what it means to people is through phenomenology - an approach that's often used by cultural analysts to study the way we perceive various phenomena.
Phenomenology is the study of experience and how it is lived, perceived and interpreted by individuals.
The phenomenology of railway travel is an approach that seeks to understand the experience of train travel from the perspective of the traveler. It involves exploring the subjective qualities of the journey, such as the sights, sounds, and sensations, as well as the social and cultural dimensions of the experience. From a phenomenological perspective, riding a train is a multi-sensory experience that engages all of our senses in different ways.
Motion
One of the key phenomenological aspects of train travel is the sense of movement and motion. Train travel can be a visceral experience, as passengers feel the rumble and sway of the train as it moves along the tracks. This sense of motion often creates a feeling of immersion and transport passengers to a different state of mind, as they listen to the rhythmic chugging of the train engine, and the clickety-clack of the tracks beneath the wheels. The movement of the train can also be soothing, lulling passengers into a sense of relaxation and calm. For others, this motion feels invigorating, providing a sense of excitement and adventure about the travel destinations awaiting them.
Altered sense of time and space
Another important aspect of train travel is the sense of time and space. Trains are often associated with long journeys, which creates a sense of timelessness and distance from the everyday world. These feelings can be heightened by the views from the large train windows, as passengers see vast, uninterrupted stretches of countryside, mountains, and other natural wonders that are free from the distractions of cities and towns, and are not typically visible from other modes of transportation.
Jenny Diski (2002: 98) has captured this experience in one of her books:
Everyone knows the pleasure, even on the shortest train journey, of staring out at the world that goes by beyond the viewer’s control, to the accompaniment of the rhythm of the wheels on the rail and the swaying of the carriage. Hypnotic, the landscape forever approaching and passing, skimming along, the eye snatching a detail, noticing a cloud, a bizarre building, a blasted tree, a startled creature, but not being able to hold on to it as the view rolls by. Our thought processes work more slowly than the speed of the train or the eye.
Railway Station as a Gateway Between 2 Worlds
According to Wolfgang Schivelbusch, the railway station operates as a gateway that unites two distinct types of spaces: the city's transit space and that of the railway. The neoclassical stone buildings of the station are part of the city, while the steel and glass construction belongs solely to the railroad's "industrial" side (Schivelbusch, 1977, p. 162). This differentiation is a crucial aspect of the departure experience, which feels like moving away from the familiarity of the urban context that is left behind to the anonymity and novelty of the railway tracks that lie ahead.
Travel Fever
Another recurring theme in observations about railway travel is the station as a tangle of nerves, the railway as a nervous system. This is how the Swedish novelist Walter Ljungquist described this in a 1934 novel:
A railway junction is like a knot of nerves, it vibrates with life. All roads lead to here. Here we are all thrown together, share a few moments and hasten on. You look amicably, lightly and fleetingly at others here. You don’t dwell, just get some fresh air away from the stifling heat of the compartments, you move with a feeling of weightlessness, a feeling of being propelled forward. You don’t carry any responsibilities for the surroundings, you are entitled to take everything lightly and fleetingly, in passing. Caress it with the eyes and then forget it. You are on the road, don’t plan to stay, everything is left behind, you just swish past… (Ljungquist, 1933/1961, p. 10).
Where did this new sensation emerge, and what were the cultural factors that produced it? Nervousness, like its sub-form, 'travel fever,' is a combination of worry and desire that we often see in travelers. It causes bodies to be unsteady or dizzy, and minds to be impatient for the body to move. Travellers try to calm themselves down by pacing the floor, shifting their weight, or seeking refuge on a bench in a corner. In this situation, people clutch reassuring objects such as a travel bag, smartphone, or feel for the ticket in the breast pocket every other minute.
In their minds, people are already traveling quicker than their legs can carry them.
Inspiration on the Rails
Railway travel has a certain magic to it that you simply can't experience through other means of transportation. It's not just about getting from point A to point B; it's about the journey itself and the unique experiences that come with it.
So next time to take a train journey, try the phenomenological lens on and allow yourself to be fully immersed in the experience - feel the gentle swaying of the train, listen to the rhythm of the tracks beneath you, and breathe in the fresh air as you glide through lush landscapes. Who knows what new inspirations and insights you'll come up with along the way?
Sources
Diski, J. (2002). Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America with Interruptions. Virago Press.
Ljungquist, W. (1933/1961). The Station. A. H. Davis (Trans.). Quartet Books.
Schivelbusch, W. (1977). The railway journey: The industrialization of time and space in the nineteenth century. University of California Press.
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