Train

A FIRST look at an exciting new train station that will link two world-famous English cities has been revealed.

East West Rail (EWR) is behind the plans for the new station as well as the new line, which will connect Oxford and Cambridge.

According to EWR, a new entrance on Clifton Road will make the station both “more convenient to access” as well as “more attractive for residents and local businesses.”

It will also accommodate about 40 per cent of commuters, significantly reducing congestion in the station at peak times of travel.

A lot of consideration has gone into the project so far, with over 80 alterations already having been made to the plan’s initial proposal.

The new Cambridge station is just one part of broader project being undertaken which will cost a whopping £6.7billion.

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On Tuesday an eight-week consultation into the project shall begin as part of the final phases to obtain building permission.

Once granted, work shall officially be able to begin in 2027.

EWR estimate that the Cambridge station would then be up and running by the middle of 2030.

As well as the Cambridge station, EWR has proposed a new location for a station in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire.

This would allow for more development in the area, and would be located on St. Neots Road.

Councillor Judy Roberts, cabinet member for Place, Environment and Climate Action on Oxfordshire County Council, previously said: “We welcome the continued commitment from the government to progress East West Rail through to Cambridge.”

She added: “East West Rail effectively provides a ‘backbone’ for developing a wider regional integrated sustainable transport network.

“And it will be important that Oxfordshire works with those on the scheme to provide high-quality first mile/last mile connectivity from key stations along the route.

“It will also be important to maximise the benefits of development for East West Rail through delivering economic, social and environmental benefits, as well as onward rail connections, for example to Swindon and Bristol.”

A NEW multi-million pound train station has finally been approved – 24 years after it was first proposed.

Construction of the East London station has been plagued by delays since plans were initially drawn up in 2002.

It took until just last week for the Housing Secretary officially to announce ‘a new Beam Park rail station could be accommodated within the existing rail network’.

The station will be built along the c2c line, running between Dagenham Dock and Rainham.

From there, the train will take just 20 minutes to reach London Fenchurch Street.

Developers have already committed a staggering £42 million to the project, but if delays continue, costs are expected to rise.

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This comes as part of an ongoing redevelopment in the area – where 20,000 new homes are expected to be built by 2030.

So far, more than 1,100 homes have been completed and a further 1,200 are under construction.

Beam Park residents officially moved into the area five years ago, but have had to rely on local buses for transport.

The Greater London Authority, London Borough of Havering, and Transport for London said they will partner together to make the station a reality.

Ray Morgon, Havering Council Leader, added: “We have always said that we would do all we can to ensure Beam Park Station is built. 

“The station is much needed for Beam Park and neighbouring Dagenham, which will enable housing and business growth in this key area.”

WHITE sand beaches, enormous castles, and peaceful canals – no I’m not describing France or Spain or Portugal as you can find all of this in the UK without spending much money.

Sometimes we Brits don’t appreciate what we have on our doorstep, and let’s face it, exploring the country can be costly – but here are some truly bucket list spots that you can see on a budget.

Richard Madden has been exploring the country on foot, by rail, road even boat for his new book Great British Journeys – and has given Sun Travel an insight into his favourite finds.

Richard says: “Obviously travelling on a budget depends where you start from – but walking, whether it’s on the coast or in the countryside is free.”

By foot

He started by saying: “I was brought up around the Lizard Peninsula, and here are some incredible places to walk to, like Kynance Cove.

“In Sussex, my most favourite walk is along Seven Sisters which is spectacular with Cuckmere Haven, where the estuary meets the sea.

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“It’s also big news that the King Charles III England Coast Path has just opened.”

The coastal path project was 18 years in the making – it’s now the longest coastal path in the country and is around 2,700 miles long.

It circles the entire English coastline with it’s start (or end) point at Berwick-upon-Tweed all the way to Land’s End.

By train

But, if you don’t fancy walking miles, give your legs a rest and hop onboard a train because you can see plenty from a train window.

Along the East Coast Main Line (which stretches from Newcastle to Edinburgh) you’ll get pretty views of beaches and seaside towns like Alnmouth and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

On the fastest services, the full length of the journey takes around 1hr38 and one-way tickets can cost as little as £7.70.

Richard says: “That whole line is beautiful with coastal views and castles.

“You don’t even have to do the whole thing – just go on a couple of stops like to Alnmouth, or go further up and you’ll pass Dunstanburgh Castle.”

On the full stretch of the line, passengers will also see the Tyne Bridge, Lindisfarne Castle, the Edinburgh skyline and Firth of Forth.

Further south, another popular route is onboard the Bluebell Line which is just around the corner from National Trust‘s Sheffield Park.

Tickets for adults to board the heritage steam train start from £27 and when you book, check for children’s rates which are just £1 with their ‘kids for a quid’ offer.

The West Highland Line, also dubbed the ‘Hogwarts Express‘ is another incredibly scenic journey.

Actually called the Jacobite Steam Train, the 41-mile round trip goes between Fort William and Mallaig in the Scottish Highlands (from £72.75).

However if you’re on more of a budget but still want to get the views, hop on a public service line instead.

A ticket from Fort William to Mallaig which crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct, typically starts around £9.20.

When exploring the UK – why not check into some of our favourite hotels?

*If you click on a link in this box, we will earn affiliate revenue

Margate House, Kent

This stylish boutique hotel is in a seaside townhouse, a short walk from Margate’s coolest bars and restaurants. Decked out with plush velvet sofas, flickering candles and striking independent art, inside feels like a warm welcome home. Rooms are stunning, especially the ones that give you a glimpse of the sea.

BOOK HERE

The Alan, Manchester

The Alan looks extremely grand, built into a beautiful Grade II listed building. Spread across six floors, with 137 rooms, each one looks like a fancy design magazine. From the concrete coffee tables to the pink plastered walls, the industrial-inspired designs perfectly replicate the history of the city.

BOOK HERE

The Queen at Chester Hotel

This historic hotel has welcomed the likes of Charles Dickens and Lillie Langtry through its doors. Rooms have richly-patterned carpets with super soft bed linen and premium toiletries in the bathroom. Go for a superior room for extra goodies including bathrobes and snack boxes.

BOOK HERE

The University Arms Hotel, Cambridge

This Cambridge hotel is in the ideal spot, within walking distance to bars, shops and hotspots like the university colleges and Parker’s Piece. The inside couldn’t be prettier, with huge stained glass windows, grand chandeliers, and rooms with enormous clawfoot bath tubs.

BOOK HERE

By Boat

To explore the country, most of us will hop into the car, but Britain is so well connected through its waterways.

Richard is no stranger to canal boating and reveals some of his favourite journeys to do around the country.

He says: “The Shropshire Union Canal is one I’ve done on quite a few occasions.

“That one goes to Cheshire, and you get these fantastic views of the Roman walls, so it’s a particularly good one.

“Another that I’ve done quite a few times is the River Wye, on the border of Wales.

“It’s Wordsworth country and it’s got incredibly beautiful surroundings in that area like Tintern Abbey which go past on the water.

“To make it better, there are lots of pubs along riversides, so you can moor up and go in.”

One very famous waterways spot is the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, where you’ll find the Bingley Five Rise Locks.

Renting a 6-berth narrowboat for a week generally costs between £900 and £1,500.

If you split that between a group of six, it can work out as little as £21pppn – but this varies depending on the season.

Richard also has some top tips for those planning a staycation or day trip around the UK to reduce the costs.

He says: “My key tip is to work it all out beforehand – the further you book in advance, the cheaper things will be.

“Go through your options as well, like how you’ll travel there and if it’s cheaper to take the bus, or if it’s worth going by train than by car.

“You can consider options like camping to keep costs down, but I would say it’s only worth doing that if you enjoy it – don’t if you’re not going to have a good time.

“There are so many different landscapes in the UK and generally, you don’t have to go far to see them.”

Great British Journeys by Richard Madden (National Trust Books, £14.99) is out on April 9.

A CHERISHED attraction has returned to an English seaside town, with a new onboard activity for young passengers.

The miniature train disappeared over the winter period but it’s now up and running again.

Eastbourne’s Dotto Train takes a journey along the town’s coast, stopping at key points including the pier, harbour, and the promenade.

Passengers can sit onboard and simply enjoy the view, or they can hop off at any point to go out and explore.

While the train itself remains the same as always, a treasure map has been introduced to keep children engaged during their journey.

Each train has a chest hidden somewhere onboard which is filled with prizes.

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Kids must use their map and answer a series of accompanying questions to help them form a code.

This code can them with shared with a member of the Dotto train’s staff to unlock the contents of the treasure chest.

Tickets to board the Dotto train cost £5.50 for adults and £3 for children ages 5 to 15.

The ticket covers all-day travel, so you can hop on and off of the train as many times as you like.

Tickets can be purchased directly from the train’s conductor.

Though the train doesn’t run every day, so it’s best to check Stagecoach’s website before planning a visit.

A scenic train journey from London to Geneva via Paris offers some of Europe’s best views – and can cost half the price of a plane ticket at around £135 return

A rail journey linking three capital cities boasts some of Europe’s most breathtaking scenery—and could set you back half the price of a flight.

The Eurostar and France’s TGV whisk passengers from London to Geneva, making the very most of a trip that spans three nations. The train departs from St Pancras with a change in Paris before heading onwards to the Swiss capital.

It’s a nearly six-hour journey in total, passing through Montbard, Dijon and Bourg-en-Bresse, offering stunning vistas of national parks and rolling countryside. Passengers can hop off in Paris to discover the city—with landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Champs-Élysées, Sacré-Cœur and the Louvre.

Once the train pulls into Geneva, visitors can take in Lake Geneva, Cathédrale de Saint-Pierre, the Palais des Nations, the botanical gardens and the Brunswick Monument.

From there, it’s also a brief trip to the nearby Alps, with day excursions available from the city to ski or snowboard on the slopes and savour the local restaurants. The train can be half the price of a plane ticket. According to Skyscanner, return flights this month cost up to £394.

During the same period, return train tickets cost around £135, half the price of a flight, according to Trainline.

Families can also cut costs by purchasing Interrail passes—£482 for a family of four to travel on four days within one month, plus seat reservation charges. And expense isn’t the sole advantage.

According to the Times, four passengers journeying from London to Geneva and back by rail produce approximately 44kg of carbon emissions, compared with 108kg by car and 1,608kg by plane. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that, to maintain climate change within sustainable limits, each person has a carbon “budget” of 1,500kg of carbon emissions per year.

Although there are a number of factors that determine how polluting different forms of travel are, such as the type of electricity production used to power trains, riding the rails is typically greener than flying.

Back in 2023, carbon calculations made by the Rail Delivery Group found that travelling by rail from London to Edinburgh creates 10 times fewer carbon emissions than by car and 13 times fewer than by plane.

One of the tricky considerations for passengers is generally cost, with budget airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air typically offering cheaper plane tickets than the equivalent train tickets.

The route from London to Geneva shows that it is not always the case. The price gap between the two forms of transport may also be getting smaller.

Travellers are facing rising airfare costs and reductions in flight schedules as the conflict in the Middle East causes oil prices to soar, with concerns that ticket prices could remain elevated for months even if the war de-escalates. Cathay Pacific, AirAsia and Thai Airways are among a growing number of airlines increasing fares to offset the hikes.

While train services are also impacted by rising oil prices, fuel tends to be a much smaller proportion of their operating margins than with airlines.

THE UK’s busiest train line is just hours away from being shut down as Network Rail looks to complete essential upgrades.

Commuters will not be able to use the route for six days starting tomorrow.

The West Coast Main Line (WCML) service between London Euston and Milton Keynes will be paused from April 3 to April 8.

The line closure is part of a £400million project by Network Rail to make upgrades to the line.

New tracks will be laid out in Willesden, north-west London, with Harrow and Wealdstone station getting repairs and upgrades.

A bridge in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire will also be receiving additional waterproofing to prevent further damage.

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More than £7million will be spent on signal upgrades to help reduce failures and improve the reliability of journeys.

Network Rail described WCML as “Britain’s economic backbone”, connecting major cities with “thousands of trains and tonnes of goods every day”.

It said that parts of the line could not manage the service’s more recent demands and needed investment to prevent disruptions.

The network owner said it would provide replacement buses between Milton Keynes Central and Bedford or Potters Bar for passengers to get trains to reach central London.

The WCML operator, Avanti, has warned commuters that its train lines are expected to be busy and has lifted peak restrictions for today.

Normal services on WCML are expected to resume on April 9.

HOLIDAYMAKERS are on the fast track to sunshine thanks to a massive new £183million railway station.

The huge transport hub is rapidly taking shape and could make jetting off from a major UK airport easier than ever before.

Cambridge South station, set to become a vital link for thousands of passengers, is on tracks to open in June.

The station will offer direct Greater Anglia and CrossCountry services straight to Stansted Airport.

Bosses say the new stop will serve around 1.8 million passengers annually, providing a “seamless journey” to the departure lounge.

The four-platform site is nestled right next to the world-famous Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

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The project features a brand-new footbridge, two station buildings, and enough cycle parking to keep 1,000 bikes safe and sound.

Thameslink and Great Northern trains will also call at the platforms, with up to nine trains per hour zooming through the station.

The project has been a long time coming after being hit by significant setbacks that pushed back the original finish line.

The opening was delayed for a second time in November, after first sliding from December last year to early 2026 and then June 2026.

This latest blow was sparked when a sub-contractor responsible for the electrical and mechanical fit-out of the station went bust.

Despite the firm’s collapse, the project is believed to be back on track for a summer opening this June.

Eagle-eyed commuters have even spotted train timetables for the new hub appearing on third-party websites and the Greater Anglia app.

But Network Rail bosses told the local press that the digital timetables should not be taken as official confirmation of the grand opening date.

The Sun has approached Network Rail for comment.

A BRAND-NEW sleeper train route has launched in Europe – and Brits can very easily hop onboard from Paris.

European Sleeper will connect three cities in 15 hours and you can spend the journey tucked up in a cosy cabin.

For anyone wanting city breaks without the fuss of taking flights, this is a great solution.

The sleeper train links Paris, Brussels and Berlin.

So anyone from the UK wanting to join the service can simply head to Paris Gare du Nord – which is where the Eurostar from London St Pancras gets in.

The sleeper service runs three times a week and one-way tickets from Paris to Brussels from £21.70.

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If you do the whole journey, tickets can still be as little as £52.08.

The route departs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

There are various different tickets available, the cheapest are for “like-minded people travelling on a budget”.

Literally called ‘budget’, passengers who opt for this option get a seat in a six person compartment which starts from €59.99 (£52.08) – for a one-way journey from Paris to Berlin.

A classic cabin is “ideal for small groups, families and solo travellers.”

It can seat up to five people and has compact couchette beds with sheets and blankets – it has private options available too.

One-way tickets start from €79.99 (£69.46)

Comfort cabins are, as the name suggests, more comfortable than the other two options.

It’s a three-person compartment with private options available if you want to travel in style.

It comes with a mattress, sheets, duvet and a separate seating area.

Sun Travel found one-way tickets from €119.99 (£104.21).

To add on breakfast, which is a hot drink, juice, yoghurt with granola and crackers with various toppings, it’s an extra €14.00 (£12.16).

The Comfort Plus cabins are the most premium, and also have three beds and a separate seating area.

Passengers also get towels, toiletries, breakfast, mineral water and a welcome drink included.

One-way tickets start from €159.99 (£138.95).

From July 13, 2026, a stop in Hamburg will be added to the route.

Here’s another sleeper route launching this year…

European sleeper has also launched a route between Brussels in Belgium and Milan in Italy…

The train will stop at Brussels in Belgium; Cologne in Germany; Zurich in Switzerland and Milan in Italy.

However, the anticipated launch date of the train has been pushed back from June 18 to September 9, with tickets available to book from March 17.

The train will operate from Brussels on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays and from Milan on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

From Brussels, the train will leave at 5:56pm each time, stopping in Cologne at 10:07pm, Zurich the following day at 6:42am and finally arriving in Milan at 11:30am.

From Milan, the train will leave at 5:30pm each time, stopping in Zurich at 10:35pm, Cologne the following day at 7:59am and finally Brussels at 11:10am.

Other stops on the route include Liège in Belgium; Aachen in Germany; Arth-Goldau, Göschenen, Bellinzona, Lugano and Chiasso in Switzerland and Lake Como in Italy.

Tickets for a shared classic compartment start from €49.99 (£43.31) one-way.

Alternatively, you can book a private space from €179.99 (£155.96) either in a classic compartment for up to five people or a comfort compartment for up to three people.

Here’s another new European train that goes through seven countries and costs just £99.

And this new overnight sleeper train to connect 100 European cities with private cabins and panoramic views.

Panic came last for Mubarak Hassan* on the evening of March 28, 2022. 

It’s been four years since the terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, but the memories still echo. After one of his clients was arrested by the Nigeria Customs Service  (NCS) for alleged forgery, Mubarak travelled to the Abuja Headquarters to process his administrative bail. He was supposed to return on the same day he finished the process, but decided to spend one more night. 

“My client’s family friend,  who also happened to be a lawyer, insisted that we catch up with the evening train,” he recalled.  Tired and exhausted, Mubarak was sleeping on board when the sound of a blast reached him. 

“The next thing I heard was a voice saying that we were under attack and we should turn off our phones and lie down, which we all did. At first, I did not panic. I was asking myself if it was real or maybe the train just shifted its position, and it was misinterpreted to be an attack,” he said.

His worst fears were confirmed five minutes later, after the first gunshot tore through the wind, hitting the body of the train. Everything was happening so fast that he was struggling to process it. 

The attack on the train carrying 970 passengers happened at approximately 7:45 p.m. in Katari, Kaduna State, northwestern Nigeria. The terrorists used explosives to halt the train before firing and kidnapping passengers. This incident, which resulted in ten deaths, multiple injuries and kidnappings, later caused the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to pause its services. 

“We started to hear the screams of passengers from other coaches and the footsteps of people heading towards our coach for safety, because the gunfire started from their side. Other people in our coach started to scream as well, but a man who identified as a Colonel with the Nigerian army said that our screams would draw the attention of the terrorists to us, so we tried to keep calm,” Mubarak told HumAngle.

Mubarak, like many others in the coach, started praying. Panic heightened as the terrorists reached the coach before them. Their voices echoed through the train as they asked people to keep quiet and lie down. 

“We heard a gunshot, and one of them asked the other terrorist who shot someone why he did that in Hausa, and he said it was because the man was showing he wanted to survive more than anyone else by raising his head, but the other terrorist said no one should shoot again, they should just take people and leave.”

A few minutes passed before they started to hear other gunshots, and the man who said he was a colonel said some soldiers came to rescue them. When the soldiers arrived, they told them not to panic and asked them to check the other coaches for their relatives. 

“Our coach was one of the safest, except for a medical doctor who was killed as a result of a stray bullet; no one else was shot.  The first thing I saw when I stepped outside was the dead body of a man. Some other people were bleeding due to some injuries they sustained.  We started helping the soldiers evacuate the passengers. The younger ones, like us, helped carry the children and elderly ones on their backs, after which the wounded ones were also moved,” he added. 

They had to climb up a sloppy hill because of the train’s position. They rested for about 20 minutes before they trekked to the main road. The army later transported them to the 44 Hospital in Kaduna around 5:30 a.m. They were checked, and people like Mubarak, who sustained no injuries, were discharged by 6 a.m. 

That was the last time Mubarak used the train. 

But this attack is only one of many issues that eroded passengers’ trust and raised concerns over the years. Train stops in the middle of nowhere, derailments, ticket racketeering, and other issues continue to affect passengers. Despite these pending issues, the NRC increased the number of trips per day earlier this month in “response to growing passenger demand.”  

This increase was what encouraged Sada Malumfashi, a journalist and researcher, to take the train again on March 12, something he had avoided recently due to the stress of trying to get a ticket for the single train ride per day. He didn’t expect to end up in an accident that day. 

According to the NRC, the accident occurred when a rear locomotive made contact with a passenger coach due to a coupling issue, and no casualties were reported. The train arrived 38 minutes behind schedule due to the accident. 

“We left on time around 7:15 a.m. It was a smooth ride at first. When we reached Jere, they made an announcement, but we couldn’t hear it from our coach. I drifted off to sleep but woke up to a banging noise. I fell off my seat, but I didn’t hit anything,” Sada said. “Due to the previous history of attacks, people were terrified, many were shouting, praying loudly, and panicking. 

Sada assumed the train was going to derail, and he tried to hold onto whatever he could. “My second thought was that maybe it was a terrorist attack, I crouched waiting for gunshots just in case because I did some reporting on the last train attack that happened in 2022 and talking to people who were directly on that train gave me a front row seat to that experience and what they described was very similar to what was happening at the moment,” he said. 

When he didn’t hear any gunshots, he got up and began checking his surroundings. The place was in disarray: luggage was on the floor, and things spilt from the cafe section at the end of their coach. 

“I saw one of the workers lying on the floor, and his leg was bleeding. There was also a pregnant lady crying as she hit her stomach. Someone couldn’t stand up because he hit his back, and another person behind me was bleeding through his mouth,” he explained. 

The incident happened about two to three minutes from Asham station on the Abuja-Kaduna corridor, so he walked to the station. Some military personnel arrived to check the accident, which gave passengers some comfort. After a while, a Hilux car, assumed to be from the  NRC, came to check the accident. 

“They didn’t communicate anything, but they took a look around. At that point, many passengers were out of the train and were hanging around outside. They turned on the engine, and we started moving again. It was a sombre trip back to Kubwa,” he said.  

A long history of train glitches

It was one such stop that made Chidera Egbo’s first visit to northern Nigeria in December 2021 a journey wrapped in terror. After he was posted to Kaduna for his National Youth Service, he tried to get a direct car from Enugu, southeastern Nigeria, where he was based, but unfortunately, he could only get one to Abuja, where he was advised to take a train. He was excited as it was his first time on a train.

Things went well at first, and he started a conversation with the girl sitting next to him. “While we were chatting, we heard an explosive sound and the train started to slow down. People started to talk, but I couldn’t understand anything as they were mostly speaking their native tongue,” he said. He panicked along with them.  The incident happened about 10 to 15 minutes away from the Kaduna station. 

He noted that there were some armed security personnel on board that day. He remembered seeing some people lying on the floor, and he followed suit. 

When the train stopped, he started to regret getting on it, and his fear worsened when someone said it was a terrorist attack. The lack of official clarification about what was happening also increased his panic. Even an hour after their supposed arrival time, no help was sent from the station. When the lights went out, a man in their coach suggested they lie down and shut off their phone lights because everyone assumed they were under attack. During that period, some passengers panicked, thinking they saw lights they believed were people approaching. They turned out to be distant static lights. 

“There was zero reception, and I had no way of contacting people to let them know what was happening. After a while, they told us that help was coming from Abuja.” The lack of phone reception rattled many of the passengers, who were worried about their families back home and had no idea what was happening to them. Some passengers demanded information. Eventually, people started to lighten up when an NRC staff member announced that help would be arriving in about 30 to 40 minutes. 

After a while, some people started demanding to be let out of the train due to the heat. It took hours for the help to arrive, and the train kept stopping as it was being pushed towards the Kaduna station. He didn’t make it to his destination till after 2 p.m. 

The experience left him rattled. He now feels anxious every time he has to travel. “I don’t travel often, but when I do, I am always on edge and feel like I am going to be attacked,” he said. 

Despite the impact of this incident, it was mostly not covered by the mainstream media. 

For some people, like Rashida Idris*, stories like this make them sceptical about using the service. “ I always hear people say it gets faulty midway, and I prefer to use the car due to how inconvenient the train is. But then, on the 2nd of August 2025, my mum, older brother, and I decided to use the train to travel down to Abuja, and it turned out to be the worst decision we made that day,” she said. It started with a slight burning smell that worsened as the train moved on, then slowed and later stopped completely. 

The train, which was supposed to leave at 7:00 a.m., didn’t arrive until 2:30 p.m, and they ended up missing the event for which they were travelling. Drinking water ran out on board, and the air conditioners stopped working, leaving people anxious and dehydrated in the heat. 

“It was very chaotic, and we were very hungry and tired. The train just stopped mid-way, no explanation from them whatsoever,” she told HumAngle.

She hasn’t used the train again since that day. 

Sometimes, these stops harm passengers, as in August 2025, when they caused a derailment en route to Kaduna. Khadija Zahradden, who was on that train, said a loud noise woke her up from a nap. 

“The train started shaking, and there was a loud sound before it fell. Some parts of the train, like the coach I was in, were slanted, but it didn’t fall down completely. I remembered it was raining,” she said. 

The passengers got off the train and began trekking to a nearby military camp. A lot of security personnel came over, including fire service and road safety officials. She recalled that a military aircraft was patrolling and left with some of the people. 

“The military personnel also carried passengers to the closest bus stop, where we got cars to complete our trip,” she said.  

Dysfunction, ticket racketeering

Bukar Hassan* was on the first-ever train ride on that route, and for the past few years, he has used it to shuttle between the two states. But now, the journey lacks enthusiasm, and his experience keeps worsening, with tickets becoming harder to obtain by the day.

“First, you have to know someone reliable whom you probably have to keep on your payroll in anticipation of a future occurrence. Usually, an NRC or TPS staff member guarantees an offline ticket,” Bukar said. “Where they are unable to secure one themselves, they look to a syndicate that has created jobs for itself through this channel. You pay double the price, and most times, the ticket is issued in another person’s name, and you probably have to do with what is available, not your preferred class of travel.” This causes the 62-year-old man major concern. 

Apart from the barriers to getting tickets, technical breakdowns occasionally occur, and the experience is usually alarming, especially if the train stops in the middle of nowhere. The security concern is also a major issue for him, as are the stops, which affect his commitments, causing delays in scheduled meeting times and travel schedules.

This is also worsened by insufficient communication, leaving passengers to fill in the blanks when something happens. 

“Passengers hardly know what the issues are and rely mostly on hearsay. In some cases, apologies are not even tendered,” he lamented, noting that the recent creation of a passenger’s forum has provided passengers with an avenue to lodge complaints. 

HumAngle investigations reveal that when complaints are made, organisation staff respond promptly via the WhatsApp forum, but this has not reduced the number of issues plaguing travellers, and many people are unaware of this channel. A disabled passenger who spoke to HumAngle, but preferred not to be named, said the organisation is making efforts to make rides more accommodating for disabled passengers, with customer service representatives approaching them to discuss their needs. However, Bukar showed concern that the uncontrollable number of bag carriers on and off the train poses a security risk. 

“Security personnel handling weapons on board in the midst of plenty, even though comforting, can easily be manhandled. Sometimes, desperate passengers board without tickets. This is a major concern as you are not sure who is a genuine traveller,” he said. 

“There are too many ad hoc staff on board doing nothing but jumping up and down and making noise. Some are only waiting for the arrival to carry passengers’ bags. Thirdly, a single channel of buying tickets only is grossly inadequate. A more reliable, functional app should be available for passengers to buy tickets in advance. I personally do not see the rationale for restricting ticket purchases to only 48 hours. It does not make any business sense. These will actually be more efficient, and also reduce the offline business,” he added. 

Bukar also noticed that, during trips, stones are sometimes thrown aboard by nearby communities. He thought the incident had eased over the years, but HumAngle investigations show that this problem still persists: on December 24 2025, a stone was thrown aboard, shattering a window, which almost hit a passenger with her baby. 

Bukar continues to use that service, as the train is still the most convenient means of transportation for him at the moment. 

Like Bukar, Hassan Yunus*, who travels twice or three times a month, depending on his schedule, faces a similar problem. His family lives in Kaduna, while he works in Abuja. He frequently uses the train, which he considers the easiest and fastest way to travel between the two cities.  

“As a frequent passenger, I experience long stops quite a number of times, sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes an hour, depending on the cause, but the management and the operation team will work to resolve the situation. To me, the management is trying, just that they need to improve as a revenue-generating corporation,” he said. 

He believes the biggest barrier travellers face is ticketing issues with the transport payment solutions. He thinks the issue is fueled by poor customer service and system downtime. This also affects passengers’ quality of life, as many would have to stay awake to buy a ticket in the middle of the night. In a few instances, he was wrongfully debited after booking a ticket, and the process to get a refund for the missing ticket is usually stressful. 

Another passenger, Balarabe Bello*, says getting tickets from Abuja to Kaduna is often a struggle. “I often notice that sometimes they hold the servers, and you will struggle to get a ticket, especially the business class tickets. Even if you are on the app by 12:00 a.m. when tickets are supposed to be released, it just keeps loading, and you can’t buy them,” Balarabe said. 

In such cases, most people will attempt to buy directly from the train station workers, and a business class ticket, which usually goes for ₦6500, can sell for ₦8500, and he had heard of people being sold tickets as high as ₦15,000.

“My mum travels often as she works in Kaduna, and she is always complaining of one issue or another, such as uncomfortable seats and other technical issues. One time when I was on it, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere for like 10 to 15 minutes as a result of a burning smell coming from under the train,” he said. 

To confirm claims of ticket racketeering by passengers, a HumAngle reporter followed the process of purchasing tickets outside the official channel. We interacted with NRC officials selling tickets through the back door to desperate passengers, short-changing the government. We also found that some individuals who are not working in the ticketing office also profit from the existing dysfunction by charging passengers far above official rates. The back-door procedure is simple: you provide your full name, phone number, and National Identity Number (NIN), then pay extra for the tickets. Although there’s a website to purchase tickets, many passengers are unaware of it, leaving them with no option but to patronise the racketeers.

Halimat Akande* knew that getting tickets for the Kaduna-Abuja train could be a hassle, so she tried to buy tickets earlier for a Monday trip. She wanted to purchase two for herself and her mother at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, but there weren’t any seats available.  

“My mom contacted someone who claims to work there. He said we should pay ₦5,000 for each ticket,” she said, a claim HumAngle confirms to be true. The price for economy or standard tickets on the website ranges from ₦3,600 to ₦ 3,800, depending on the seating arrangement. This option is the most affordable means of transportation from Kaduna to Abuja, as even car rides cost ₦9,000. 

The NRC official, whom Halimat contacted, had mistakenly bought Abuja-Kaduna train tickets instead of Kaduna-Abuja. He reassured her they would receive their proper tickets before their trip, asking them to arrive early on the travel date, as a worker from the Abuja station would hand them the tickets at the train station.

They arrived an hour before their trip.  “We stayed outside as we couldn’t check in since we didn’t have a ticket. A man approached us and told us we were not supposed to be standing there, and if we didn’t have a ticket, we should get out of the station.” Halimat and her mother both felt embarrassed and left the station to prevent further discomfort. 

When the man arrived, he asked them to wait a little longer, claiming he had their tickets ready. However, when he brought the tickets, both were registered under different names. She also noticed that one ticket was for the previous date, but he assured them it wouldn’t be a problem. After he spoke to some people, they were allowed to board with the one valid ticket. 

The man said he would get her a valid ticket before the journey started, but he never did. “After we boarded, my mum sat down in the assigned seat, and I sat down in the then-empty seat beside her, but the original owner came, and I had to stand up. I kept moving to about four or five random seats, but the rightful owners came up to claim those seats,” she told HumAngle. 

She met her colleague, who was in the same predicament when he came to claim her mother’s seat as his own; the details on his ticket matched hers exactly. 

“He told me that he was even going to take the road, but someone called him to tell him they had gotten him a ticket, only to give him the same exact ticket my mother had, which further complicated the situation. I think he ended up standing for a while,” Halimat said.  Eventually, her mother offered her a seat and tried to find an empty one on the train, but it took a while before they got one for Halimat.  

She was nervous and anxious, even after she got a seat, especially during the ticket verification round that happens during the trip. When the man reached her, she switched off her phone and claimed the battery had died. Fortunately, he bought her story, and she was able to escape for a moment. But her anxiety remained as the man told her to charge her phone before he returned, which he never did. 

“Even though I knew they couldn’t drop me while the train was in motion, I was worried they might report or  arrest me because  I had broken a rule.” The whole experience was terrible, and she started advising people not to buy tickets offline from station workers. 

For Nabila Shehu*, her trip to Abuja on July 25 2025, took a turn for the worse when she arrived at the train station and discovered that the number of passengers exceeded the original arrangement. 

“It seemed their server had issues that day, and some people were debited but didn’t get a ticket. Due to the high number of people that were affected, they just opened the train and asked us all to get in,” Nabila said. 

She couldn’t get a ticket earlier and called someone at the train station, who promised to get her one, but due to the pending issue, he couldn’t process any tickets for her and her four children. 

“We couldn’t get seats, but one of the staff members on board gave me his stool and also helped me get another. I couldn’t sit, and the children took turns,” she complained, noting that the trip was difficult and exhausting, as they arrived late. The air conditioner was barely working, she added, and the train was moving too slowly due to an overload.  “It was a terrible experience, and I avoided the train when I was returning.” 

However, when she used the train again in November, she encountered no issues.

HumAngle sent an email to the NRC seeking clarification on issues raised by passengers regarding dysfunction and ticket racketeering in the Abuja-Kaduna train operations.  We have yet to receive a response. Meanwhile, the risks of travelling the 198km between Abuja and Kaduna remain high, as passengers are forced to choose between the road, which has been under construction for the past six years, and the train, despite ongoing problems. 

THE LNER first class lounge at London King’s Cross Station will reopen tomorrow after a plush makeover.

It’s the perfect place to relax with plenty of seating, private booths and complimentary food and drink.

LNER is the only passenger lounge at King’s Cross Station and it closed a few months ago for an upgrade.

It will reopen on March 31, 2026 with a brand-new look – and it’s very fancy.

Inside is an open plan area with dark red walls and pink coloured furnishings along with elegant lamps and little tables.

New to the lounge are six booths that have been designed to be private and are ticked away from the main lounge.

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Each has charging ports, small desk and a lamp.

Anyone in the lounge can enjoy free food and drink which is available throughout the day.

In the morning, there’s a selection of pastries and in the afternoon there are cakes and muffins – and a range of biscuits and crisps.

There’s also fruit juices, tea and coffee.

Guests to the lounge can enjoy the snacks on the curved banquette seating, or nearby tables and chairs.

Thanks to the redesigning of the space, the capacity of the lounge has increased to 122.

Off the back of customer feedback, other additions include more luggage and storage areas and resigned the reception.

There are new screens too for platform information so customers shouldn’t miss their train – even if they’re relaxing in the lounge.

Colette Casey, Customer Experience Director at LNER, said: “The Lounge has been transformed into a modern, comfortable, relaxing area for our First Class customers to spend time in and enjoy before or after travelling with us, and we cannot wait to hear what they think of the changes.”

There is some disappointing news and that is that most travellers won’t be able to use the lounge as it’s only accessible to first-class LNER ticket holders.

But if you do have one of these tickets, then you can access the lounge from the ground floor located next to Waitrose.

Or head upstairs to the entrance on the mezzanine.

The lounge is open during the weekdays from 7am until 9.25pm.

Saturdays it’s open 8am to 8.15pm and 9am to 8.15pm on Sundays.

There’s also a free family zone with beach huts, a soft play area and a huge train set within London King’s Cross.

It’s right next to the Travel Centre and can be used by families who are booked onto trains departing the station – but it’s not limited to LNER customers.

Inside are four brightly-coloured beach huts complete with tabletop toys and games.

There’s a bespoke Hornby train set, keeping both big and little kids entertained.

And there’s a soft play area with a slide and a tiny black boulder doubling as a climbing frame.

Here’s another secret spot in London St Pancras…

Just opposite Kings Cross within St Pancras is somewhere else that you may not have stumbled upon – and you can get free drinks.

A hidden bar called the Booking Office 1869 is within the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London.

Each day at 5:05pm, visitors can have a free drink.

According to a TikTok video posted by @thecuriouspixie: “A bill rings, a flame ignites and a bartender will perform a full rum punch ritual.”

This happens at 5:05pm because the hotel originally opened on May 5, 1873, but the booking office opened in 1869 – which is where the name comes from.

For more on trains – this could be the most glamorous train ride ever with a beautiful bar and onboard suites.

And here’s more on how the first ever direct trains from London to Switzerland are even closer to launching.

IT’S no secret that Brits are obsessed with McDonald’s with over 3.8 million customers visiting every single day.

So when I heard the largest one in the world was opening just outside the UK, I had to see it for myself.

The biggest McDonald’s in the world was in Orlando – until the one at Disney Village in Paris opened just last month.

On the outskirts of the theme park, the new McDonald’s is 2,000sqm and set across three floors.

This makes it the biggest in the world overtaking the Orlando, Florida restaurant which measures 1,800sqm.

The new McDonald’s in France can seat up to 600 customers and has two outdoor terraces, each of which has space for 250 guests.

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This is where you get the best views, including of Lake Disney and the PanoraMagique hot air balloon.

Inside is a wall mural of Disneyland Paris and even an indoor soft play area for kids.

During my visit to preview the World of Frozen, which officially opened on March 29, I decided to pop in and see it for myself.

Like other new McDonald’s, this one has opted for a sleek look with dark wooden panelling, glass balconies and neutral tones.

But for those who remember the original next door, I reckon the exterior is a bit of a let-down.

The old restaurant which closed last year after 25 years, was very 90s with the classic golden arches outside, lots of red and white stripes and a real retro feel.

What’s quite sad is that you can still see the remains of it – including the golden arches which now lay on the ground – outside from the pretty sun terraces.

Pushing aside my views on the exterior, I carried on and entered the restaurant where I was greeted by a member of staff who gave me a table number and directed me to one of the twenty-three self-service machines.

The one we went to wasn’t actually working, like quite a few of the touchscreen stations, which was surprising, seeing as the restaurant had been open for less than a month.

Other than that, the downstairs was clean, with a few tables (as most of the seating is on the upper floors) and the entrance to the soft play.

There was also a separate McCafé counter where you could get a coffee as well as a doughnut, McPop or macaron.

There are lots of unique McDonald’s treats that vary depending on which country you’re in, so I had to go for some French-only goodies.

First up, the Croque McDo, which is essentially a cheese and ham toasted sandwich – which set me back €3.70 (£3.21).

For anyone who enjoys a croque monsieur, I’d definitely recommend a Croque McDo, it was a tasty ham and cheese sandwich with crunchy toasted white bread.

I then opted for the Fries Cheddar Fondu-Bacon, which are the classic French fries with melted cheese and bacon bits.

I can’t say the same for the chips, when they finally got to us, they weren’t overly warm and I wasn’t a fan of the cheese topping or bacon bits.

And as a Brit, I’m a sucker for a dry chip dipped in some ketchup.

A medium portion set me back €5.30 (£4.60).

And for dessert, a small pistachio sundae for €2.80 (£2.43) – my favourite of the three.

The soft-serve ice cream came in a little reusable pot and was drizzled in sweet and nutty pistachio sauce – it was delicious, and probably would be even tastier on a hot summer’s day rather than a chilly March morning.

One surprising drink that you can get here – and at McDonald’s restaurants across France – is beer, which is usually a Kronenbourg 1664.

Scrolling through the menu, I sadly didn’t spot any beer – but that was most likely because it was 11am in the morning.

Wanting to enjoy the view of Lake Disney, I headed onto the first-floor sun terrace which I had to say had beautiful views.

Other aspects of the McDonald’s that has people talking is its soft play.

I briefly had a look, and it is spread across all three floors with a huge winding slide going from top to bottom.

While I didn’t step inside, the excited wails of children implied that they were having a fun time.

However, not all experiences at the new McDonald’s have been positive, with some on my social media saying their food was cold, and service was slow.

After exploring Disneyland Paris for myself, I’d say McDonald’s is a quick and easy solution when hunger strikes.

But with so many other restaurants and snack stalls to explore within the theme park, I’d probably take a chance on them before returning to the fast-food chain.

For those who are planning a trip to Disneyland Paris to see the new World of Frozen – here’s everything you need to know before you go.

And here’s the best time to visit Disneyland Paris for cheaper hotels and shorter queues.

ABOARD THE CRESCENT — There’s something melodic about watching the sun rise over a rural stillness broken only by the rhythms of steel wheels on tracks. Or so we tell ourselves.

In this case, being aboard a train at all owed more to politics than poetry.

Congress and President Trump were mired in their latest budget stalemate, one rooted in his immigration crackdown and the tactics of federal forces he has sent to U.S. cities. But this impasse has upended a foundational constant of American life today: easy air travel.

In Atlanta, my hometown airport, cheerfully marketed as the world’s busiest, had descended into organized chaos. Unpaid federal employees called out from work, leaving a diminished security staff to screen travelers frustrated by hours-long waits in line. I wanted to get to Washington for the NCAA basketball tournament. So I eliminated the risk of a missed flight and booked the train overnight and into game day across a 650-mile route.

In this fraught moment in U.S. politics, I slowed down and thought about things we take for granted. Who ever ponders the conveniences of that 20th century innovation, the airplane, that makes 21st century hustle possible? We book and board. An unconscious, first-world flex of modernity. It’s even rarer to grapple with the inconvenience.

My decision had taken me further back, to the 19th century and another defining innovation: the long-distance train.

A 14½-hour weekend train ride is time aplenty to appreciate how completely politics, economics, social strife and fights over identity and belonging have always affected the order of our lives, including how, when and where we move around in these United States. But Amtrak’s Crescent also allowed me to see the expanse of our collective experience.

I traversed the urban, suburban and rural breadth of East Coast America. I learned how other travelers came aboard. And in that, I found the portrait of people, past and present, who refuse to be as paralyzed as some of their elected leaders.

Convenience on the railways

There is little glamour late night in a crowded Amtrak station. Children are up past bedtime and tended by frazzled parents. Older adults struggle with luggage and stairs.

Airports are not red-carpet affairs either, of course. But there is a certain cache to Delta’s Atlanta-Washington flights. They typically take about two hours gate to gate. They often are slotted at a midpoint gate of the concourse nearest the main terminal. That is almost certainly a nod to members of Congress who use it, but who have lost some airline perks during this extended partial shutdown — which as of Sunday is the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

In normal circumstances I can get from my front porch to Capitol Hill or downtown in as little as 4½ hours. Security lines these days could at least double my overall air travel time.

The train is still longer, and time is money, we are taught. But certainty has value, too, even if it means an 11:29 p.m. departure. And at the Amtrak station, there were no standstill lines, no Transportation Security Administration agents, no ICE agents as stand-ins.

Passengers who arrived mere minutes before departure made it on board and found seats quickly — assigned in boarding order, not predetermined zones that yield jammed aisles. There’s no in-seat service or satellite TV. But even coach seats, the lowest Amtrak tier, are as spacious as airline first-class — and there is Wi-Fi, so it’s not the 19th century or even 20th century after all.

On board, I heard one crew member joke, “I’m no TSA agent.”

The pathways of history

As a boy in rural Alabama, I counted train cars and wondered where they were headed. I’ve since read diary entries and letters from my grandmother and her sisters recounting World War II-era weekend trips to Atlanta.

The South’s largest city has a historical hook too. Originally named “Terminus,” Atlanta developed in the antebellum era as a critical intersection of north-south and east-west rail routes. That is what drew Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for one of the Civil War’s seminal campaigns that helped defeat the Confederacy.

A century after the Civil War, Delta chose Atlanta for its headquarters rather than Birmingham, Ala., which was the larger city as of the 1960 census. The company’s decision was tied up in tax breaks for the airline, named for its crop duster origins in the Mississippi Delta region. According to some interpretations, Delta’s decision was made easier because of the more overt racism of Alabama’s and Birmingham’s leaders as they defended Jim Crow — a code that, among other acts, allowed states to segregate the passenger trains that predated Amtrak.

On this night, I heard many languages and accents, notable given the role that immigrant labor played in building the U.S. rail system and especially striking now with immigration — legal and illegal — at the forefront in Washington, my destination. I saw faces that reflected U.S. pluralism, a different mix from what my grandmother and aunts would have seen a lifetime ago.

The array of voices celebrated the freedom and ease of rail travel. So did Agatha Grimes and her friends after they boarded in Greensboro, N.C., as part of a long weekend trip to celebrate her 62nd birthday.

“I got stuck in the Atlanta airport last week,” Grimes said, as her group laughed together in the dining car. “It’s just nuts.”

Beretta Nunnally, a self-described “train veteran” who organized their trip, said, “There’s no worry about parking. No checking bags. You come to the station, you get where you‘re going, and you come home.”

An era for planes, trains and automobiles

Still, that is not as easy in the United States as it once was.

Just as politics, economics and subsidies helped expand U.S. railroads, those factors diminished the network as auto manufacturers, oil companies, road builders and, finally, airline manufacturers and airlines commanded favor from politicians and attention from consumers.

Riding hours across rural areas, I noticed the junkyards where kudzu and chain-link fencing framed rows of rusted automobiles. I saw the farmland and equipment that helps feed cities and the rest of the nation. I awoke to see the night lights of office towers in Charlotte, N.C., and its NFL stadium. I saw vibrant county seats — and I thought of countless other towns like them that are not thriving as they sit disconnected from passenger rail and far from the Eisenhower-era interstate system that we crossed multiple times on our way.

In each setting, voters — conservatives, liberals, the extremes and betweens — have chosen their representatives, senators and a president who now set the nation’s course.

When I arrived in Washington, I paused to enjoy Union Station’s grand hall and its Beaux Arts appeal, and I lamented how much splendor has been lost because so many striking U.S. terminals have been razed. I stepped outside and looked up at the Capitol dome.

While I had slept, the Senate managed a bipartisan deal to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except immigration enforcement. As I continued northward, House Republican leaders rejected it. The stalemate continued.

The president, however, took executive action to pay TSA workers, and their paychecks may resume within days, though long airport lines may continue awhile longer.

I was a weary traveler but renewed citizen. I had a game to get to. And the train rolled on.

Barrow writes for the Associated Press.

Why limit yourself to one beautiful, romantic Italian city when you can pack two into the same break and see, discover, enjoy and eat twice as much?

Italy has so many fascinating cities to explore and it’s incredibly easy to hop between them, and that’s exactly what I found out on a dual-destination interrail trip to Milan and Venice, reports Abby Wells

With its biannual fashion weeks and designer shops galore, Milan is known as the fashion capital of the world – and as something of a seasoned shopaholic, I was looking forward to discovering its glamorous side. Our base while in Milan was Avani Palazzo Moscova, a historic hotel in the Porta Nuova district that housed the city’s first railway station back in 1840.

Its rooms are chic and modern, with everything you need for a comfortable stay.

READ MORE: This champagne-soaked city is the perfect train-travel alternative to a Paris mini-break

How to cover the classic sights of Milan

A number of experiences can be booked through the hotel, helping to make your stay an unforgettable one. First up for us was a two-hour tour of the city in a vintage Fiat 500, during which our driver, Milan-born Federico, took us to places you wouldn’t normally see.

One hidden gem was Villa Invernizzi, a serene oasis in the middle of the bustling city where you can catch a glimpse of flamingos roaming in the gardens. It was great fun whizzing around with the car’s sunroof open, and a must to get a feel for the city.

The next day we had a personalised cosmetics experience at City Lab Cosmetics, where we got to make our own lipstick. Here experts help you discover a shade suited to your skin colour, and you get to choose the finish, formula, scent and even the shape of your lipstick, and see it being made from scratch in the lab – a unique experience.

Then, finally, we got to do some shopping, courtesy of an expert-led tour around some of Milan’s best vintage boutiques. It started with the bargain ones, where I picked up a gorgeous little black bag for five euros, before finishing in a more upmarket store filled with Chanel dresses and Gucci bags (sadly out of my price range).

All the sightseeing certainly helped me work up an appetite and the food I had in Milan was delicious. I mainly stuck to the Italian staples of pasta and risotto. Avani Palazzo Moscova’s restaurant specialised in fish, but our tiramisu, made at the table, was a particular highlight.

Another restaurant definitely worth a visit is Osteria del Gambero Rosso, barely a five-minute walk from the hotel and where the friendly atmosphere made for a really special evening.

Fitting Venice into the same trip

Then it was on to our next stop, Venice, a speedy and easy two-hour train ride away. We walked out of the station to a postcard-worthy view of the canal in all its glory, with gondolas and water taxis going up and down the waterways. It felt like walking onto a film set.

A short walk away was our hotel, Avani Rio Novo Venice, which is tucked away in a sought-after neighbourhood where Venetians actually live, away from the main tourist drag. Here I enjoyed kicking back and enjoying the views of the canal through my room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

How to cover the classic sights of Venice

As it was my first time in Venice, a gondola ride was top of my hit list and it didn’t disappoint. Our gondolier was lovely, happily entertaining us with facts and answering all our questions. One top tip is to make sure you have cash on you, as it’ll often mean you pay a bit less – and the more of you there are, the cheaper it is. As in Milan, the Avani hotel here can book various experiences to show off the best of Venice.

First, we paid a visit to Lunardelli Venezia, a workshop specialising in making wooden furniture and objects. Here we saw the intricate processes behind creating the exceptional designs and also had a go at crafting a piece ourselves.

The hotel also arranged a water taxi to the interconnecting Murano islands, an area known for its glass-making workshops.

The one we visited even supplies beads for Milan Fashion Week. Here we learnt to make our own beads to take home as a one-of-a-kind souvenir. I couldn’t wait to wear mine on a necklace.

Another must-visit in Venice is St Mark’s Square and we made our way there through narrow alleys and over the historic Rialto Bridge, which crosses the Grand Canal at its narrowest point. Obviously popular, it was very busy, but getting to St Mark’s Square as the sun was setting had a magical feel.

Both of these iconic cities exceeded all my expectations, and the country’s excellent rail network makes city-hopping a smart option when planning your next Italian escape.

Booking the two breaks

Single rooms at Avani Palazzo Moscova Milan Hotel start from £205 per night. Standard rooms at Avani Rio Novo Venice Hotel start from £167 per night.

BRITS are set to face major travel disruption as the UK’s busiest train station is set to close this weekend – affecting several train and tube lines.

Network Rail has confirmed commuters planning to use a busy London station might need to re-route.

It comes after it was announced that “vital maintenance, renewals, and repairs” will take place at the site across five days.  

The closure at Liverpool Street Station will take place to improve roof drainage and track drainage, as well as vegetation management.

While most of the work has already been carried out, passengers have been told that Liverpool Street’s mainline station will experience its final closure on March 28 and March 29.

What lines will be affected?

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The Elizabeth line will still be running, however, there will be no access to the main concourse. Commuters have been also been warned that there will be no Overground Weaver line trains operating this weekend.

Train operating company, Greater Anglia, stated on its website: “On both days, Liverpool Street Main Line station will be closed (including the concourse) to all Greater Anglia, Stansted Express, c2c, Elizabeth line and London Overground services.

“Greater Anglia services to/from Cambridge, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertford East and Stansted Airport will start/terminate at Stratford.”

They added: “On both days, Elizabeth line’s low level Liverpool Street station remains open however services will not run beyond Stratford due to closures on the Great Eastern mainline.

“On both days London Overground Weaver line services will not run between London Liverpool Street and Enfield Town/Cheshunt/Chingford.”

Commuters have been directed to use rail replacement buses where possible. The services will run between Seven Sisters and Enfield Town/Cheshunt and Hackney Downs and Chingford.

Officials have urged passengers to plan their journeys ahead of time. It comes as the station recorded a staggering 98 million entries and exits between April 2024 and March 2025.

Trish Ashton, TfL’s Director of Rail, said:  “We’re sorry for any disruption caused by weekend engineering work impacting London Overground and Elizabeth line services during March.

“These planned works are essential to help keep our services safe and reliable. Customers are advised to ‘check before they travel’ using the TfL Go app or at TfL.gov.uk, and allow a little extra time for their journeys.”

You can also check the Network Rail website here for more information on planned works.

A POPULAR train station is getting a long-awaited, multi-million pound upgrade.

South Kensington is often called a ‘museum hub’ by being the gateway to three free attractions – the V&A, Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

And the train station is about to get a huge makeover to make it much easier to travel to and from.

The new plans revealed by TFL will see the Grade II listed station be modernised.

This includes step free entrances, and a new eastbound platform for the Circle and District lines.

Being the busiest London Underground station with no accessible entrance, it is though as many as 500,000 journeys aren’t made to the station because of it.

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Around 30million passengers use the station every year, with the Circle, District and Piccadilly line stopping there.

Works are set to start later this year, and will be completed by 2029.

Bruno Carr, head of investment planning at TfL, said: “This transformational scheme will deliver much-needed step-free access to this station, while also making the area around it more pleasant for the millions who visit the nearby attractions and museums every year.”

Scott Anderson, head of property development at Places for London, said the upgrade would make the station the “jewel of the Tube network”.

Part of the station opened in 1868, with the Metropolitan line (no longer running there) and the District line.

The train station’s crowds are expected to continue, especially after the nearby Natural History Museum was named the most popular attraction in the UK.

Overtaking the British Museum, more than 7.1million people visited last year.

Millions a year also visit the V&A and Science Museum in South Kensington along with the Royal Albert Hall.

South Kensington is even home to a street nicknamed Little Paris.

Also nicknamed Frog Alley, Bute Street has French bookshops and bakeries throughout.

Another train station getting an upgrade is London Liverpool Street, the UK’s busiest railway station.

And a new £460million, “first of its kind” train station is opening in Birmingham as part of the HS2 plans.

A WETHERSPOONS pub in Britain’s busiest train station has been raved about as being one of the most beautiful in the UK.

Hamilton Hall is built in the former ballroom of the old Great Eastern Hotel at London Liverpool Street Station.

Named after Great Eastern Railway Company Lord Claud Hamilton, it became a Wetherspoons in 1991.

It was both the first central London Wetherspoons and the first in a train station.

While the hotel itself is still open – you can stay at what is now the Andaz London Liverpool Street for £260 a night – many of the original features remain in the pub.

This includes the ornate mouldings and frescos, as well as the celling decorations, and artwork.

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Previous punters have raved about the pub, saying it didn’t feel like a Wetherspoons.

One person wrote: “This is the most stunning building. Feels like a very expensive hotel with Wetherspoons prices!”

Another agreed: “Many of the original features have been kept and so you have the feel of dining in a rather grand place.”

Someone even said it felt like “drinking in a room in a country house manor,” while others said it was like “stepping back in time”.

The pub is popular both with tourists waiting for a train as well as football fans heading to games.

One traveller simply said: “A Wetherspoons like no other.”

There are a number of other stunning Wetherspoons around the UK which have converted former theatres, banks and cinemas.

Another beautiful Wetherspoons pub is found in Folkestone, with the Samuel Peto built in a former chapel.

There’s also the Art Picture House in Manchester, originally built in 1922 as a theatre and cinema.

The Knight’s Templar in London was called the most beautiful in the world, but has since sadly closed and been taken over by someone else.

Here are some of the other prettiest Wetherspoons in the UK.

A UK train station that welcomes more than seven million passengers a year will reopen its doors today after being closed for almost a year.

The London station has undergone a £2.5m revamp with major upgrades to the escalators, which frequently caused travel disruptions.

The opening follows a campaign to replace the old escalators that dates back to 1999.

More than 3,000 people signed the petition after failing escalators at Cutty Sark routinely caused closures.

As a result, thousands of passengers were forced to take the 121 station steps instead. 

Four new escalators have been installed in “the most complex escalator replacement scheme ever undertaken on the DLR and the London Underground“.

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The shiny new escalators will be up and running from today – eight days earlier than TfL had announced – and should last the station 30-40 years.

The station is also much brighter as the escalators have rows of lights and the area has been whitewashed.

The pale blue panels have been replaced with white panels, which reflect light much better and have a noticeable effect on the station’s appearance.

A new lift has also been installed as well as energy-efficient lighting, upgraded safety features, local artwork, and a new raised ceiling.

Seb Dance, Deputy Mayor for Transport, told The Sun previously that it was “fantastic” the major upgrade at Cutty Sark DLR station could be delivered earlier than expected.

Before it closed, Cutty Sark was the third busiest station on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), after Canary Wharf and Limehouse.

The Narvik Stockholm night train, officially known as Nattåg 94, connects the Swedish capital with Narvik in Norway, covering more than 1,500 kilometers each way

From my bunk, I watched my wife ease herself from her bed onto the cabin floor before spinning on the spot to face the toilet door. The track lights of somewhere in the Midlands filtered and crept around the edge of the blind, providing enough illumination for her to find the handle and enter.

Unbeknownst to either of us, in stacking our bags inside the cubicle, we’d primed the above-toilet shower to soak my wife and our possessions with an unwanted blast of water the moment she squeezed in.

My half-waking dreams were cut short by her waterlogged wails as the reality of the Caledonian Sleeper quickly put to bed my night train delusions.

I recall this experience not to say the Sleeper, which connects London with the great cities and Highlands of Scotland, is a bad service. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a greater joy than looking out the window after a night’s kip on the northbound route to see snowcapped mountains and glistening lochs. Not just that, but it compares very favourably cost-wise to a flight and hotel, while being much less environmentally damaging.

But it is to say that returning to my pillow damp, in a bed far too close to a standard issue National Rail toilet (which the private cabins really don’t need) isn’t the classy, James Bond adjacent experience I’d been expecting. Nor was lifting the blind to a crowd of commuters on a Euston platform at 6am, staring back at my pyjamaed self.

OPINION

Milo Boyd

READ MORE: Iconic Caledonian Sleeper hints at potential new stops after starting Birmingham service

So, two years on, it was with a similar sense of trepidation that my wife and I clambered aboard the SJ night train at Stockholm Central Station to take on one of Europe’s longest train journeys.

The Narvik Stockholm night train, officially known as Nattåg 94, connects the Swedish capital with Narvik in Norway, covering more than 1,500 kilometers each way. Departing from Stockholm Central Station in the evening, it takes about 18 hours to complete the trip.

Rather than tacking up the west along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, the train shoots straight up from Stockholm, trundling through some of Sweden’s 28 million hectares of forests, as well as flatlands and swamps.

The final stop on the line may be familiar to war history buffs. During WW2, the British Navy entered the Norwegian fjords through the ice-free, Gulf Stream-warmed port of Narvik in pursuit of Nazi ships. They launched a dramatic and comprehensive assault that would be Hitler’s first major strategic defeat of the war.

The reason the Allied and Axis powers threw resources at this far-flung patch of Lapland is iron ore. The northernmost Swedish city of Kiruna is home to the world’s largest underground iron ore mine, which now delivers 90% of all of Europe’s supply. Securing the ore and the trainline that has been delivering it to Narvik since 1902 was crucial for powering both sides’ war machines.

In March, 124 years after the route first opened, I hopped aboard the sleeper to Kiruna – two hours shy of the final stop, but well into the Arctic Circle.

It was, in a word, fantastic.

Upon entering my second-class private cabin, I was worried it’d be a little cramped for my wife and me. However, unlike the Caledonian Sleeper, which has two unmovable beds, the SJ’s three bunks can be flipped back into the wall. When you’re not kipping, the middle can be folded away, making way for a hidden backrest below and turning the bottom bunk into a comfy sofa.

My wife and I lounged in this set-up for the majority of our trip, reading our books and watching the Swedish countryside trundle on by, including the amusingly named town Bastuträsk (sauna swamp).

I would not be as bold as to argue that the Swedish landscape is as beautiful as the Highlands. Its lakes may be bigger and its mountains significantly higher, but there are few places as moving as Rannoch Moor or as stunning as the peak of Mam Ratagan Pass.

But equally, Sweden is no slouch in the beauty stakes, and it’s surprisingly varied. In riding up two-thirds of the country, you’ll see glistening blue lakes turn to great frozen expanses; the four mighty, free-flowing national rivers Torne, Kalix, Pite, and Vindel; more ancient forest than almost anywhere else in Europe; and finally the Kölen mountain range.

The train is certainly not new, but it has a solid, vintage feel that contrasts with some of the slightly flimsy modern trains I’ve ridden on. There was something unusually soothing about the reassuring clunk of the door and the Scandi-design approved clothes hooks. The addition of a Bakelite radio alarm clock above each bed was the cherry on the 70s cake.

Unlike in the Sleeper, where we’d stacked our bags in the bathroom due to a lack of cabin space, two storage racks just below the ceiling kept the gangway clear and the room spacious-feeling.

A similar design divergence came with the toilet. The Caledonian Sleeper’s en-suite option sounds luxurious, but in reality, it’s an unwanted, even unpleasant feature. The shower room doubles as a lavatory, with a heavy, workmanlike lid covering the toilet and serving as a place to perch beneath the stream. There was something a little alarming about sleeping so close to a mechanical, seemingly suction-powered WC, and claggy about steam and shower drizzle drifting into the bedroom.

On the SJ, the idea of an ensuite is abandoned. Instead, the cabins have a mechanical shower keycard, which can be used to open the shower at the end carriage. They have a changing area, a stack of thick, fresh towels, impressive water pressure, and even a hairdryer.

After a surprisingly good night’s sleep and a spruce up in the best on-the-move bathroom I’ve ever experienced, I was feeling fresh and ready to check out the buffet car.

The carriage is divided into four seating areas around solid tables, with windows along the length of the carriage. This, and the ‘påtår’ bottomless tea or coffee system in play, meant there was little else to do but sit back, relax and watch the Arctic slip by.

Book it

The starting price of the SJ night train from Stockholm to Kiruna is 1,125 SEK (£90) for a couchette and 1,695 SEK (£136) for a 2^nd class sleep carriage.

Book at www.sj.se/en

THE UK is heating up today, with highs of 20C making it hotter than places in Athens and Ibiza.

So if you fancy a last minute trip to the beach, we’ve rounded up 11 of the best which you can get to by train from a UK city in less than 60 minutes.

Weston-super-Mare – 19 minutes from Bristol

One of the closest beaches to Bristol, Weston-super-Mare can often get a bad rap as a seaside town.

But the huge new £20million Weston Placemaking Strategy will regenerate the town as part of a 10-year plan, which includes a new waterpark and reopened pier.

We spoke to a couple who have been going there for 55 years – here’s what they love about it.

Great Yarmouth – 25 minutes from Norwich

Great Yarmouth is also getting a huge revamp, with a £40million upgrade including North Quay and the Victorian Winter Gardens.

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A traditional beach, it is even home to Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, which was named one of the UK’s best theme parks.

Here are some of Sun Readers top tips on what to do in Great Yarmouth.

Southend-on-Sea – 53 minutes from London

Nicknamed the British Miami, Essex’s Southend-on-Sea is one of the coolest seasides on the list.

You might spot a celeb at the Roslin Beach Hotel which has welcomed everyone from Gary Barlow and Tyson Fury to Denise van Outen and TOWIE stars.

We’ve rounded up some other things to do there, including the free-to-visit theme park.

Exmouth – 20 minutes from Exeter

Devon‘s oldest seaside resort, Exmouth has it all from playgrounds and chippies to cheap Haven holiday parks.

It’s also on the new 2,700 coastal path which is the longest of its kind in the world – if you fancy a bit of a hike.

The Sun’s travel reporter Cyann Fielding explains why she loved visiting the beach as a child.

Cromer – 45 minutes from Norwich

Did you know that Britain has its own Great Barrier Reef – and it is less than an hour by train from Norwich?

Cromer is not only one of the warmest beaches in the UK (outside of summer) but it is also famous for its delicious Cromer crab.

Sun travel reporter Alice Penwill explains why she loves going to Cromer.

Brighton – 58 minutes from London

One of the UK’s most popular beaches, Brighton just squeezes under the one-hour-train mark.

A recent study even found that it has the most pubs per person so you can grab a pint to take to the beach.

Our Assistant Travel Editor Sophie Swietochowski reveals how to do a weekend in the famous seaside town from the best shops to beautiful hotels.

Hunstanton – 50 minutes from Cambridge

Named one of the best seaside spots in the UK by Time Out, Hunstanton is your traditional seaside resort.

It lays claim to having the best sunset views, being the only spot on the East coast that faces West.

Sun travel reporter Jenna Stevens explains why you should visit other parts of the nearby county too.

North Berwick – 30 minutes from Edinburgh

North Berwick has two main sandy beaches, Milsey Bay and West Beach, so really its two trips in one.

According to the Scottish Tourist Board, it is still a “hidden gem” and “largely unspoilt”.

We’ve rounded up some other things to know about the tiny resort.

Folkestone – 55 minutes from London

The Kent town of Folkestone is getting a lot of hype at the moment – from the new ‘UK’s biggest beach sauna’ to the reopening on the seaside funicular this summer after years of closure.

Less than an hour from London, it was even named one of the best places to live in the UK.

Deputy Travel Editor Kara Godfrey has revealed everything to look forward to in the town this year.

Crosby Beach – 25 minutes from Liverpool

One of the best places to spot the Northern Lights is, unusually, Crosby Beach near Liverpool.

It’s other claim to fame is being home to an Antony Gormley “Another Place” art installation, of which there are 100 cast-iron figures across the coastline.

Here are some other things to do in the nearby area.

Barry Island – 33 minutes from Cardiff

If you’re a Gavin and Stacy fan, you’ll know Barry Island and its just half an hour by train from the nearest city of Cardiff.

It has everything from Barry Island Pleasure Park, as well as a huge stretch of beach with all you need from chippies to arcades.

We spoke to the locals who gave us their top tips on what to visit in Barry Island.

A BUDGET rail operator is launching a new route that will travel 400 miles across the UK – and tickets cost less than £30.

Lumo, which operates fully electric trains, will connect London Euston to the Scottish city of Stirling this summer.

Rail travel across the UK can be very expensive but Lumo, which is part of FirstGroup, is known for its affordability.

Starting July 10, Lumo will start its new route from London Euston to Stirling for as little as £29.90.

When the service launches it will have four daily return trains between the two cities.

Between the two cities, trains will call at Milton Keynes, Nuneaton, Crewe, Preston, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Whifflet, Greenfaulds and Larbert.

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For those travelling between London and Preston, tickets start from £23.90.

And between Preston and Stirling, tickets can be booked from £14.90.

Stirling sits north of both Glasgow and Edinburgh and it’s known for its huge historic castle and even has an interactive Old Town Jail attraction.

Visitors often head to The National Wallace Monument which is a 220ft tower in the countryside.

The city also has a high concentration of pubs for its size – the oldest alehouse is The Settle Inn which has been serving ale since the 1700s.

Stuart Jones, managing director of First Rail Open Access, which runs Lumo said: “These fares are about putting customers first.

“By offering simple, low-cost tickets and direct services between Scotland, the north west of England and London, we’re making it easier and more affordable for people to travel for work, leisure and family visits.”

Onboard a Lumo train, there are no first class seat options – but wherever passengers sit, there’s access to USB sockets and tray tables.

Lighting can be personalised by using the button on the back of the seat in front of them.

Passengers can also use the free Wi-Fi, and each seat has a winged headrest for comfort and a coat hanger.

Lumo offers other routes too like London King’s Cross to Edinburgh.

But its latest started in December 2025 from London to Glasgow.

The company announced the news on social media, it said: “Our new timetable starts on 14th December 2025!

“Our new Glasgow service will start in December and we’re also adding an additional service from Newcastle to London King’s Cross every weekday.”

Lumo runs two northbound and one southbound service on weekdays and one service in each direction on Sundays between London King’s Cross and Glasgow.

On the way it also stops at Falkirk High and Newcastle.

For more on Scotland, here’s the most popular Scottish city to visit in 2026 with Traitors castles and epic road trip route.

And here’s a mythical Scottish waterfall with ‘magical properties’ where the water flows red.

BORED of regular hotels? Why not head off on a staycation… to spend the night in a train carriage instead.

Nestled in the West Sussex countryside, you will find a restored vintage train carriage that is stopped in its own ‘station’.

Named the Lowe Comotion, the carriage is in Batchmere, Chichester and sleeps up to four people, with one main bedroom.

Inside, guests will be greeted by vintage decor and quirky train signage that not only makes you feel as if you are stepping onto a long, luxury train journey but also back in time to the golden age of train travel.

There’s a log burner and comfy sofa that transforms into bunk beds as well, to make it truly feel like a first-class experience.

When it comes to having a bite to eat, there is a dining table and chairs by the window, so you can enjoy your food whilst looking out at the view.

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The kitchen has everything you’d need including a kettle, grill, toaster and microwave.

In the middle of the carriage is where you will find the bathroom, complete with a vintage bathtub.

Outside there is a spacious patio with seating too and a barbeque for the summer.

The carriage has to be booked for a minimum stay of two nights and is pet-friendly, so your four-legged friend won’t be left out.

It also includes towels and linen, so you don’t need to worry about bringing your own.

One recent guest said: “A lovely railway carriage with loads of great touches and details.

“Definitely first class. We had a grand time staying here and loved the birdsong as well as the rain on the roof when the weather let us down a bit!

“Woodburner ensured a cosy night was had and would definitely recommend to friends. Lovely private area with space for kids and dog!”

Another guest added: “Wow – what a unique and wonderful place – superbly converted 1870’s railway carriage with so many thoughtful and stylish design details we hardly wanted to go out – but also couldn’t resist the huge private lawn that comes with it – a huge hit with our over excited sheep dog! We were overexcited to sleep in it.

“Never been happier to sit on a train carriage that’s not moving!”

A third guest said: “This place is absolutely stunning! It’s so quirky and one-of-a-kind.

“Our stay here was incredibly peaceful and tranquil, exactly what we needed to unwind and recharge.”

Lowe Comotion costs from £150 per night to stay.

As for the area surrounding the carriage, you can head off on lovely countryside walks or bike rides.

Just nine minutes down the road is West Wittering Beach, which is known for its natural beauty.

The beach has a number of facilities including the Beach Cafe, where you can grab a bite to eat such as a Beach Breakfast with poached eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato, beans, potato rosti and toasted brown bloomer for £11.95.

And the beaches at Selsey, East Wittering, and Bracklesham Bay are all close by as well.

If you want to see some of the local nature, then you can head to RSPB Medmerry.

The reserve boasts 6.25miles of trails and features a lot of birdlife including avocets.

If you’ve got kids, jump in the car for 12 minutes to Selsey, where you will find West Sands Fun Fair.

It costs just £15 for unlimited rides on the attractions, which include Waltzers, Dodgems, pedal boats and toddler’s rides.

For more glamping getaways, here’s the UK’s original glamping destination with al fresco massages and farmhouse style tents.

Plus, the Finnish-like glamping resort in the UK countryside with safari lodges, sauna and outdoor cinemas.

RAIL commuters will face a number of disruptions as the UK’s busiest train station is hit with a series of closures this month.

Scheduled works will be carried out on select weekend days throughout the remainder of March, beginning tomorrow.

Anyone planning to travel through Liverpool Street Station in London tomorrow may want to double check their plans.

Network Rail has revealed “vital maintenance, renewals, and repairs” for the bustling hub, impacting all routes and services to and from the station. 

Liverpool Street’s mainline station, which sees approximately 98 million commuters annually, is set to shut for five weekend days, during which its concourse will also be closed.

These closures will impact Elizabeth line and London Overground, as well as National Rail services, including Greater Anglia and c2c.

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While the station itself will undergo roof drainage repairs, work will also be carried out relating to track drainage and maintenance, as well as vegetation management and litter clearance along railway lines.

Commuters can expect disruptions on the following dates:

Sunday, March 15

The entire station will be closed on this date, with London Overground services running from London Fields instead.

Elizabeth line services will continue to run, though commuters are advised there will be no access to the main concourse on this date.

Saturday, March 21 – Sunday, March 22

Again, the entire station will be closed for both these dates, with Elizabeth line services continuing to run on Saturday, March 21, with no access to the main concourse.

On Sunday, March 22, there will be no Elizabeth line trains running.

There will also be no Overground Weaver line trains on either of these dates.

Saturday, March 28 – Sunday, March 29

Liverpool Street Station will again be closed for both these dates, while Elizabeth line services continue to run throughout the weekend.

Again, there will be no access to the main concourse on these dates.

There will also be no Overground Weaver line trains running throughout the weekend.

To avoid travel disruptions, rail passengers are advised that rail replacement buses will operate between Stratford and Romford, and between Newbury Park and Shenfield tomorrow.

And before 9.50am, buses will replace trains between Seven Sisters and Enfield Town/Cheshunt and Hackney Downs and Chingford.

Check the Network Rail website for further details on replacement services throughout March.