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A fruitless search for the romance in modern travel

Matt Smith

by Matt Smith

31 Dec 05:40am

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Filed under: Slow Travel Movement, Society, Travel

16 comments

On the course of a trip home for Christmas from Melbourne to the Central Coast in NSW, I had ahead of me what many others can sympathise with, a long trip dragging an uncomfortable amount of luggage and a collection of presents from one state to another.

Oh Rick, I don't think I have enough frequent flyer points to upgrade to premium economy…

On my journey I had a bus trip (to the airport) a plane trip (to Sydney) and a train trip (to the Central Coast), so like many I decided to grit my teeth and try and make the best of it. This is where the ‘slow movement travel’ philosophy comes to play.

Much can be commended for the philosophy of slow movement in travel - the idea that part of the fun is in getting there, to take your time and enjoy the trip, rather than racing towards the destination.

Thrown in are thoughts of sustainability and favouring public transport, and you are left with a rather old fashioned, romantic view of travel.

My first road block was that I could find little to enjoy in the prospect of an 11 hour train trip from Melbourne to Sydney, so I opted for the cop-out option of flying.

I tried to make the most out of a ridiculously overpriced early morning bus trip to the airport. Next I was charged $25 per ticket to check in to the flight, and waited almost a hour as a crowded mob angrily pressed passed four overworked security guards at the only open checkpoint. I tried to smile benignly, fan myself in the stuffy airport with my ticket, and enjoy the experience.

The flight was crowded, delayed, and at six feet tall (which isn’t overly tall these days) I found myself uncomfortably folded into a seat, with my knees practically wrapped around my shoulders to fit. I fixed an inane and slightly worrying smile on my face, and tried to convince myself I was having a good time.

By the time I’d been charged $17 for the privilege of leaving the domestic terminal by train, been robbed not once, but twice by the same vending machine while purchasing chips, and boarded a long, all stations train to Gosford full of rowdy teenagers, I had not only lost all enthusiasm for the slow movement philosophy, but in danger of losing my Christmas spirit all together.

The slow travel movement seems to have somewhat lofty aims, but the basic gist is to put some old time values in modern times, no matter how much time has moved on. And it’s hard - in Australia with so much ground to cover (and in the absence of a bullet train that could cover the distance in a few hours) to make a journey without using an airline service is an overly time consuming journey - one that few are going to undertake considering the cheap prices of plane tickets (before all the hidden extra fees, of course).

It doesn’t help that ‘enjoying the journey’ isn’t a high priority for those who provide the planes, trains and buses. If it does, it is somewhere on the list far below getting you from point A to point B at the lowest cost, while taking as much money from you along the way as possible.

My journey back to Melbourne was more of the same, but at least the extra long wait in the airport due to my flight being delayed by an hour has given me time to write. You find the joy where you can, even if it can’t be found in traveling.

Matt’s blog: End of the Spectrum

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16 comments

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    • Rosie says:

      07:14am | 31/12/10

      Matt reminded me of my younger days travelling home for the school holidays. It was never boring though. A 3 -4 day boat trip depending on the weather and the answer to boredom I found myself a boyfriend that I knew would be travelling with me. I try and find one that made the trip with me all the way or one that got off the boat after I left,.

      The thrill of the chase just before the holidays to find a boyfriend and to have one for all the end of the year school functions was always exciting and thrilling. Romance was in the air and while on holidays letter writing was always in full swing, no phone calls, emails or texting in those days! On our return I was picked up first and couldn’t wait to see him and spend the next few days with him. It was all innocent fun and happy times until few days after school started only to find out that he had another girlfriend during the holidays, so dumped him and found another!

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      07:33am | 31/12/10

      The bullet train can be placed on the LIberal Party’s ‘to do list’ for when the crawl back into power?  A big infrastructure project would be a first for them!

      Reply

    • scaper... says:

      08:24am | 31/12/10

      What has thread got to do with the Liberals?

      Every village has one I guess.

    • Aitch B says:

      11:27am | 31/12/10

      @acotrel

      Alan, it’s the holiday season, Parliament’s in recess. Nobody gives a shit about politics and your views on them at the moment. How about you do the same and stop posting your biased crap for a while?

    • tom says:

      08:05am | 31/12/10

      well what can you expect. the only “slow travel” part of your journey was replaced by the frantic runaround of a flight. if you would have caught an overnight sleeper train instead of flying you would have had a wonderfully slow meditative trip that would have dropped you off at the station to transfer to your central coast train. instead you chose to replace that with the expensive airport bus service, the cacophony of the departure lounge and the frenzy that is air travel today.
      next time try a long distance train trip

      Reply

    • hot tub political machine says:

      08:19am | 31/12/10

      The dream of high speed rail in this country - oh what a thing it would be. Too bad it costs money. I’m willing to put in $10 bucks who’s with me?

      Reply

    • MelD says:

      09:01am | 31/12/10

      You should have flown to Newcastle then got picked up from there

      Reply

    • S.L says:

      10:45am | 31/12/10

      Spot on MelD that’s what I would’ve done. Even a bus trip back to Newcastle and the train from there is a much better option.

    • A Bob says:

      09:21am | 31/12/10

      You made the mistake of thinking 11 hours on the train was a bad idea. The service from Melbourne to Sydney is very comfortable and relaxing. If I got tired of looking out the window I watched a couple of DVDs on my laptop. When the battery went flat I read a book. It was great.

      I used to catch the train to Adelaide too, but the buggers changed the timetable and it’s no longer possible. Now I drive most of the time. 8 hours there on a Friday night, 8 hours back on a Sunday afternoon. I get to see my kids in between which makes it all worthwhile. Done the trip maybe 100 times now. Tiring, but still better than queueing up at the airport.

      Romance is all in the mind, you tried to find it in an airport, no wonder you failed.

      Reply

    • Matt says:

      09:33am | 31/12/10

      I know, I shouldn’t be surprised. But when I’ve got so far to go and could only travel the day before Christmas, trains weren’t really an option!

    • fairsfair says:

      11:06am | 31/12/10

      You have not experienced hell until you catch the train from Brisbane to Cairns or vice versa. The tilt train can’t reach its capacity for 50% of the journey and thanks to a faulty signal crossing which caused that horrible crash a couple of years ago it goes at clackedy clack speeds of the Sunlander. It is a joke. As big a joke as Peter Beattie himself. It costs more than flying and if you do actually go on it it is simply full (when I say full I mean about five people to a carriage) of Centrelink bludging people with a hoard of children (as they only have to pay the booking fee of $15) or old age pensioners.

      Ah, the romance.

      Give me horrific service at Jetstar and the crappest airport in Australia (Cairns) anyday.

    • Observer says:

      10:00am | 31/12/10

      ahh yes, I remember flying to either Melbourne or Brisbane and back for business and the trip back up to Gosford was longer than the actual flight.  As for the rowdy teenagers, try catching the train to and from the Central Coast to Sydney on a daily basis. How some people can be so inconsiderate of others never fails to amaze me.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      01:05pm | 31/12/10

      I always get a root on a train.
      Can’t complain.

      Reply

    • redvixen says:

      01:05pm | 31/12/10

      Even after the hidden fees for flying, it is still cheap in comparison to 20 years ago, when I had to travel from Rockhampton to Mt Isa by bus (because plane travel was way out of the reach of ordinary working folk) to visit my fiance.  You want to talk about slow miserable travel, try that a couple of times and see if you keep your sense of humour!

      Reply

    • Day Tripper says:

      11:38am | 02/01/11

      What a bunch of whingers ! Try living on the west coast !!!

      Reply

    • Habibulloh says:

      12:57pm | 19/04/12

      Our train rides are 3.5 hours, round trip. They go into a roadless ycnaon area and then back to Elgin, so there is n o place to disembark and stay overnight and return the next day. Also, we only run on selected Saturdays. Go to Ride the Train on the website and also view 2011 Excursions for additional information. The cost for adults is $75 per person; Seniors (60 and older) is $65; Youth (16 and younger) is $35. Children 3 and younger are free. These prices include lunch, served on the train. The train rides make a wonderful gift for Father’s Day or graduation. Contact Alegre Travel to purchase a gift certificate or make reservations.

      Reply
 
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