Stockholm-Istanbul Express

The 7th International Conference on Railway History, which took place in early November this year, had the history – and future – of East-West railway connections as its overarching theme, and the organizers had found the perfect venue for the event: the historic Sirkeci Railway Station in Istanbul, on the shore of the Bosporus.

From the 1880s onwards, it functioned as the terminal station for the famous Orient Express from Western Europe to Constantinople, one of the most impressive East-West connections in infrastructure history. And the history continues: Turkey has now built a railway tunnel under the Bosporus, for the first time ever interconnecting Europe and Asia at these latitudes. During the conference, in which representatives from Iran’s and even from Afghanistan’s State Railways participated, it also became clear that a new Eurasian railway revolution may be in the making as China invests enormous sums in improving its land-based transport connections with Europe. The Marmaray tunnel under the Bosporus will become one of the most critical components in such a future transport system, or so the Turkish State Railways think and hope.

Given the topic of the conference, I couldn’t resist the temptation to give the already existing East-West railway system a try and take the train from Stockholm to the conference in Istanbul. It took a few days, but why always hurry and take the plane? In an age of state support to monstruous capital airports and minimal taxes on airlines’ carbon emissions (and none at all on the horrible sound pollution), it remains more expensive to take the train to distant destinations. But what an experience, gliding smoothly through Europe’s magnificent autumn landscapes, over the bridges interconnecting Denmark’s islands, through Germany and across the Austrian Alps into Slovenia and onwards through Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria to the southeastern corner of Europe!

Everywhere people on the move, boarding and unboarding, everyone with one’s own destination and one’s own life story. I felt a child-like happiness. But at the same time, naturally, I couldn’t help thinking about the thousands and thousands of refugees who these days move in the opposite direction. Towards the end of my journey, I passed out of the European Union and Schengen, then returned briefly before leaving it again at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Passport controls, stamps, torches searching for hidden passengers. A Cold War feeling reminiscent of train travels in the former Soviet Union. And outside: huge fences along the borders, some of them newly erected. Southeastern Europe is a sad and confused region of the world these days.