Round the World in 20 days.

Having established that east is best (see previous post), how long would it really take to get round the world mostly by train?

Let's assume for the sake of argument that I'm going to set off eastwards tomorrow - at midday on Monday, 10th September 2012.

I'll catch the 12:01 from Oxford to London Paddington, then cross London to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar at 15:04, I'll be in Brussels just after 18:00, and in Cologne in time for dinner before catching the 22:28 heading eastward towards Moscow.

After a couple of nights and the intervening day, I'll get into Moscow's Byelorruski station at 09:37 on Wednesday morning.  The best direct train to Vladivostok, the Rossiya, runs every other day, so I've given myself the luxury of a static bed and time to have a look around Moscow before heading to Yaroslavski station on Thursday evening for the 23:45 departure and the long haul to Vladivostok, via Perm, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ulan Ude and finally, after 9258 km, into Vladivostok in time for breakfast on Thursday 20th September. 

I'm going to forego the delights of Vladivostok, and head to the airport to catch the Korean Air flight to Seoul, where I’m going to reward myself with a static night before the overnight "time travel special" from Seoul to Vancouver (AC064) where by the quirks of the International Date Line I'll both depart and arrive on Friday 21st September.  Vancouver is one of my favourite North America cities so I’m going to make the longest stop of the trip and have a two night stop-over, before heading to Pacific Central station in Vancouver in time for the Sunday (23^rd) departure of 'The Canadian' at 20:30.

I'm expecting to haul into Toronto station at about 09:30 on the 27^th, before catching Train 60 to Montreal, then changing again for Train 14 to Halifax in Nova Scotia. That's another overnight train ride, which gets me into Halifax just after 17:10 on the 28^th.  This time there’s not really enough time for sightseeing before I head to airport for the Air Canada (AC860) flight to London which gets me back into London at 09:35 on the 29th September, and I would expect to be back in Oxford by mid-day, about 456 hours after I left.

I played with a few variants of this trip, and found that the real trick to doing the trip quickly is getting the long train journeys to connect.  The Rossiya runs every other day, and the Canadian appears to run twice a week at this time of year.  A variant of this trip starting from Oxford on Sunday 9^th got me back into London on Monday 24^th – only 16 days.

If you're trying to track me down over the next few days email is probably the best bet, I’ll probably be in the office, but you never know. It'll all just depends how I feel tomorrow morning. 

The information in this post came from lots of websites – including Trainline, Man in Seat 61, Real Russia, Expedia, AirCanada and ViaRail.

My ‘final’ itinerary was

1	Monday 10 Sept	12:01 from Oxford, arrive Cologne 20:15,  train to Moscow dep 23:45
2	Tuesday 11 Sept	En route
3	Wednesday 12 Sept	Arrive Moscow 09:37
4	Thursday 13 Sept	Depart Moscow 23:45
5	Friday 14 Sept	Perm (at 20:08),
6	Saturday 15 Sept	Omsk (14:03),
7	Sunday 16 Sept	Krasnoyarsk (09:36),
8	Monday 17 Sept	Ulan Ude (09:50)
9	Tuesday 18 Sept	Still on the train
10	Wednesday 19 Sept	And still on the train
11	Thursday 20 Sept	Arrive Vladivostok 06:17, to Seoul (KE982)
12	Friday 21 Sept	Dep Seoul & Arrive Vancouver (AC064)
13	Saturday 22 Sept	Static in Vancouver
14	Sunday 23 Sept	Depart Vancouver 20:30
15	Monday 24 Sept	Jasper (16:00), Edmonton (23:00)
16	Tuesday 25 Sept	Saskatoon (09:10), Winnipeg (20:30)
17	Wednesday 26 Sept	On the rails
18	Thursday 27 Sept	Arrive Toronto 09:30, dep 11:35 Arrive Montreal 17:07 dep 18:30
19	Friday 28 Sept	Arrive Halifax 17:10, Depart 23:45 (AC860)
20	Saturday 29 Sept	Arrive LHR 09:35, back to Oxford by 12:00