#DavidTrainMic

The plan to give Switzerland's most populous city a metro line failed at the ballot box, yet even before voters sent those plans to that great big train shed in the sky, a few parts of the network was already built — and can be visited today, to see what would have been quite an ambitious network...

The Jubilee, Central, even Waterloo & City lines are often packed with passengers. Ditto for the Northern, Piccadilly, even District lines, and of course, the Bakerloo. Yet the Metropolitan was here first... and is often a bit lost, or more likely, forgotten, in the crowds. But travel on the Met, and you'll experience quite a different London Underground...

Picking the very best seat is now all the rage on trains — get Seat 61! No, Seat 3F! But what about the 6-person compartments... they're there, but not everywhere now. Have the way we're getting around by rail changed as compartments onboard seem to be less frequently seen?

Zürich is known for its rail megahub, but there's also a lake — and alongside it, both local and even international railway routes, as well as tiny stations on the causeway by Rapperswil you might never have heard of!...

Covid and locked borders won't make Portugal-Singapore happen overnight as the longest rail journey which can be travelled on by passengers... so here's one I did before across borders (Beijing-Hong Kong via sleeper and HSR, this was before Covid...)

At close to 800 km today, the Beijing Subway looks to be a very well-connected colossal urban rail network — yet did you know that as early as a few years back, there were lines physically separated from the rest of the network?...

In late 2021, the Swiss railways discontinued the miniature pocket timetables for intercity travel. It's understandable — in this day and age of the smartphone, paper timetables are in less demand — but they also killed a classic of the rails in Switzerland. David Feng goes through one (from 2018) — still a simplistic, informative design classic...

It's the only country/territory I've been to so far where I've done rail mileage without starting a journey from there. It's an independent country which uses Swiss currency and Austrian rail services. And it's often misspelt and misunderstood. Welcome to Liechtenstein — train edition!

The latest trend on railway Twitter seems to be doing maps of all the railway routes you've taken. For someone who's done half a million kilometres across 17 countries and territories, this was the perfect chance to 'show off' all my miles!... including a rather suspicious travel record for Liechtenstein...

For the longest time, Beijing was missing a Subway Line 3. It's finally coming next year (2023); but did you know it had very ambitious plans? Summer Palace... Central Beijing... Workers Stadium for Sanlitun... Wangjing and the airport?... Part of this is still coming; quite a lot of the route, in the meantime, has been replaced by other lines taking (part) of its track...

Train announcement 2 - With queues at Chinese stations sometimes surreally long, expats and visitors used to feel limited — as ticket machines and online ticketing were mostly for locals. Now, no longer, as an English-language, foreigner-friendly ecosystem is increasingly reality for rail travellers in China.

Train announcement 1 - Did you know that there are a number of railway stations on German soil managed by the Swiss, and vice versa? There are two Swiss stations in Germany, and a fair bit more German stations in far northern Switzerland.