‘Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train’ by Monisha Rajesh

This is the third book by Monisha Rajesh about global rail travel that I have read, and they have all been completely delightful. Like me, she loves sleeper trains, but unlike me (nowadays) seems very happy to share her cabin with strangers.

For much of my life sleepers have been disappearing. I used to love travelling to Spain on the hotel trains that left Paris Gare de L’Est each evening bound for Madrid and Barcelona, but these stopped operation about ten years ago (I think). The good news is that sleepers are now coming back. More routes in Europe are being developed all the time, and Amtrak is expanding its US offerings too. Hopefully, before long there will be enough new services around for Monisha to travel on and write about in another book in a few years time.

This book does not describe a single adventurous journey, but consists of eighteen discreet chapters, each recounting her adventures on a different night train with a variety of travelling companions, and the places she visited before and after boarding.

She goes all over Europe, including trips on some of the trains that head up to the very north of Scandinavia. She also heads across Turkey, goes from London on the Caledonian Express to Scotland, travels up from Florida to New York on the Amtrak Silver Meteor, and most spectacularly, through the Andes in Peru. There is also another Indian journey thrown in for good measure to complement the whole book of Indian railway adventures she wrote a few years ago.

It was a complete pleasure to read this book. For the best part of a fortnight I read one chapter each night before going to sleep fantasising about being rocked gently into slumber on a night train. Each reads like a very engaging short story. Monica Rajesh has a delightful self-deprecating sense of humour and tends not to deprecate other people or the places she visits. She writes beautifully.

A highly enjoyable slice of contemporary travel literature.