Great Railway Journeys

1. Introduction

Air Date: 1980-10-23

Travel From New York to Los Angeles With Ludovic Kennedy.

2. Coast to Coast

Air Date: 1980-10-30

Travel From Sydney to Perth With Michael Frayn.

3. The Long Straight

Air Date: 1980-11-13

Michael Frayn traces the route of Australia's trans-continental railway, the Indian Pacific, with a detour along the way.

4. Deccan

Air Date: 1980-11-13

Brian Thompson travels through the south of India from Bombay to Cochin.

5. Confessions of a Train Spotter

Air Date: 1980-12-04

Michael Palin travels from London to Kyle of Lochalsh in the north of Scotland.

6. Zambezi Express

Air Date: 1980-12-04

Michael Wood travels from Cape Town to the Victoria Falls.

7. Three Miles High

Air Date: 1980-12-11

Miles Kington travels from Lima in Peru through the Andes and Lake Titicaca to Bolivia.

8. Changing Trains

Air Date: 1980-12-18

Eric Robson travels from Paris to Budapest via Zurich and Vienna.

1. From Hong Kong to Ulaanbaatar

Air Date: 1994-01-13

Clive Anderson takes a humorous look at the contradictions and confusions of present-day China as he makes his way from Hong Kong, via Shanghai, Beijing and the Great Wall, to end up in Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia.

2. Cape Town to the Lost City

Air Date: 1994-01-20

Finally, in South Africa, Rian Malan escapes riot-torn Cape Town and makes his way across the country to Johannesburg, talking to people of all races and wrestling with South Africa's violent past and increasingly ominous future. He ends his journey amid the bizarre splendour of the Palace of the Lost City hotel in Bophuthatswana.

3. St Petersburg to Tashkent

Air Date: 1994-01-27

Former Kirov prima ballerina Natalia Makarova explores the railways of Russia, taking in Volgograd, Samarkand and the river Volga, and dancing on the railway itself

4. Derry to Kerry

Air Date: 1994-02-03

Palin's second Great Rail Journey (1994) takes him from the ancient walled city of Londonderry to the most western tip of Ireland. He travels his 'family line' as he attempts to trace his great grandmother who left Ireland for the USA over 150 years ago. His trip through still a war-torn Northern Ireland takes him on to Belfast before headng south to Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic, and on to Wexford, Waterford, the little village of Buttevant and finally Kerry's Dingle Bay, the most western point of Ireland.

5. Santos to Santa Cruz

Air Date: 1994-02-10

In South America Lisa St Aubin de Terán travels from Santos on the coast of Brazil, near Sáo Paulo, over the mountains and plains of Brazil to the Pantanal Swamp, a wilderness of lush vegetation, and on to the city of Santa Cruz, home of the cocaine barons in Bolivia. She vividly describes the contrasts of beauty and poverty which she finds in the two countries.

6. Karachi to the Khyber

Air Date: 1994-02-17

In Pakistan, Mark Tully journeys from Karachi in the south to the Khyber Pass on the Afghan border in the north, making a diversion to travel to Quetta via the spectacular Bolan Pass on one of the most challenging lines built by British engineers anywhere in the world.

1. Crewe to Crewe with Victoria Wood

Air Date: 1996-09-04

Victoria Wood makes a round trip to the north of Britain from Crewe, taking in both the east and west coasts, and Thurso, the most northerly point possible by train.

2. Aleppo to Aqaba

Air Date: 1996-09-11

3. Great Zimbabwe to Kilimatinde

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4. The High Andes to Patagonia

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5. Mombasa to the Mountains of the Moon

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6. London to Arcadia

Air Date: 1996-10-09

7. Halifax to Porteau Cove

Air Date: 1996-10-16

1. India: East to West

Air Date: 1999-01-05

Ian Hislop travels from Kolkata, the former capital of the British Raj and present seat of the Marxist government of West Bengal, to Rajasthan.

2. Granada to Salamanca

Air Date: 1999-01-12

Michael Portillo explores his roots in a trek across the railway networks of Spain.

3. Tokyo to Kagoshima

Air Date: 1999-01-19

Fergal Keane travels through Japan and receives earthquake training and etiquette lessons.

4. Los Mochis to Veracruz

Air Date: 1999-01-26

Rick Stein crosses Mexico from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

5. Guantanamo to Pinar Del Rio

Air Date: 1999-02-02

Nick Hancock crosses Cuba, battling hurricanes as well as the crumbling infrastructure.

6. St Louis to Dogon Country

Air Date: 1999-02-09

Hollywood star Danny Glover rides the oldest line in Africa, the Bamako Express.

7. Singapore to Bangkok

Air Date: 1999-04-06

Stephen Tompkinson relives the days of colonial train travel as a pampered passenger on the Eastern and Oriental Express.