Trains On The Brain Interview With Jools Stone

Jools Stone just can’t get enough of train travel. He is the self appointed Social Media Tzar and Chief Editor of Trains On The Brain. Not to mention a key fixture in the travel blogging community. We had the pleasure of meeting Jools at #tbe12 and was fascinated to find out the wonder of train travel. We caught up with Jools and here are the best bits:

Our Verdict: Train travel is clearly a far more relaxing, less expensive and eco-friendly method of travel. Trains On The Brain stands as a perfect site to investigate the thrill of travelling the world by train. 

I like travelling on trains because….? (fill in the blank!)

How long have you got? It’s just the civilised way to go and it harks back to a more leisurely era when the journey itself was part of the travel experience. Plus I hate airports and all the faffing that comes with flying these days, which just makes me want to repeatedly dash my head against the seatback in front…. Sorry, I think it’s time for my injection again…

How did the train travel obsession start?

Fairly recently actually, only about 4 years ago. I took the sleeper train from Paris to Venice and it was just such great fun compared to flying. Although there were little Derren Brown-like triggers planted years before as well. When I was a nipper our family holidays to Devon and Cornwall always started with a long train journey from Paddington. We couldn’t open our packed lunches until we got near Bath. Plus I met my wonderful wife-to-be on a train platform, so the ‘romance of the railways’ just kinda stuck after that…

Give our readers a flavour of a typical day on a train?

Oh well it can vary so much of course, but you mustn’t let your commuting woes taint the notion of travelling by train for fun. For a true taste of the experience I’d recommend a long distance ‘land cruise’ over a few nights, like the Trans Siberian or one I took across Canada last year with Via Rail. It’s a communal experience, you eat and chat with strangers, it allows your thoughts the space and time to wander properly and it gives you a real sense of how big the world is and how varied it can be, even within the borders of a single country.

How has social media changed the landscape of travel blogging?

I can only speak form my own experience of nearly 2 and a half years of (lazy and inconsistent) blogging, but it’s a mixed bag. On the one hand ‘micro-blogging’ arguably makes traditional blogging a little redundant, and of course the increased take up of Pinterest or whatever THE NEXT BIG THING is supposed to be inevitably means more noise and sadly more ‘travel porn.’ And don’t get me started on Facebook and everyone’s incessant demands to like, share and comment on this, that and the other!

You could argue that the playing field has been skewed in favour of those who are good at building a following, good at marketing and scoring the quick-win than at the craft of writing itself.

But equally we all have to use all the tools in the shed. What can you do, cling to your carrier pigeon and smoke signals and pine for the gold old days when it were all fields and forums round these parts?

Favourite train travel itinerary?

Ahh, waaaaay too many to mention! InterRail alone provides dozens of great routes. One I’m just itching to do though is to cross America by train, from New York to San Francisco, coast to coast in a month, with a biiiiiig Deep South de-tour, taking in lots of stops to re-fuel at juke joints and barbeque pits along the way. For the seriously hardcore, take a look at the Ultimate Train Challenge – a fab charity project on the world’s longest continuous train ride, from Lisbon to Saigon.

Your one piece of advice for a prospective train traveller?

Plan well ahead, book early and prepare to learn the tips n tricks to make the best of the frustratingly complex booking systems most train operators foist upon us! Oh yeah, and ya’know, read my blog. ☺ (Ok, that’s four, but hey…)

Tell us a funny train travel anecdote?

Last year when I crossed Canada by train we were about an hour out of Toronto, pretty much deep in the bush. Suddenly we start backing up for about ten minutes, then come to a stop. The guard comes through to the caboose, walking very purposefully carrying a paper bag. He opens the back door and steps out onto the tracks. We were all wondering what was going on, was there some sort of problem with the train? We hear some chat with the driver of the train backed up behind us and he comes back in laughing, saying ‘You didn’t see this, OK?’ He’d given the freight train driver a flask of coffee! Freight trains get priority on the lines, so apparently they need to keep them sweet, to keep delays to a minimum.

Which city would you never go back to in a million years?

I’m fairly forgiving about cities and would probably give most a second chance, but I can’t see myself rushing back to Fort William in the Highlands anytime soon. Thank God they’ve got some mighty mountains up in their neck of the woods!

Which other travel bloggers do you admire & inspire you?

Quite a few, but I’m gonna keep this on a TBE tip. Kash of Budget Traveller for his heartfelt honesty, humour and general savvy, Lola of GeoTraveller’s Niche for storytelling, telling it like it is and adapting her travel style to her personal situation.

And of course I couldn’t forget the ‘Posh n’ Becks’ of British-based travel blogging – Jayne of 40 before 30 for her consummate professionalism and rapid freelancing ascent and Justin of 48 Hour Adventures for a killer concept, well executed on top of a demanding career.

How do you buy your travel money?

Usually I go to a comparison site and print out the ICE voucher, which tends to be cheapest, for Euros anyway, but I also use ATMs a fair bit too. Occasionally I get it in advance over the counter at Thomas Cook or the Post Office, and other brands which engender my trust for some reason.