Postcard from a train station 'waiting garden'

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [The Independent]( August 26, 2022 [View in browser](   [The Independent]( [The Independent]( In a week of Italian meandering, the sweetest sight I have found is at Santa Margherita station on the Ligurian coast: besides a waiting room, passengers are free to relax in a waiting garden. Train gain: passengers at Santa Margherita station in Italy, where they have a waiting garden On one side, intercity trains rush past; on the other, the view is of ferries embroidering the Mediterranean with their wakes. This is a garden of transportational delights, and rather more agreeable than a pair of stations in the garden of England: Ashford National and Ebbsfleet National, as I think the Kent stations astride High Speed 1 should be renamed. This week Eurostar announced [it will not resume services to either Kent station until 2025 at the earliest](. Travellers hoping to board a passenger train through the Channel Tunnel to Paris, Lille or Brussels will need to “backhaul” to London first, before whizzing past their starting point an hour or two later. The train firm partly blames a “toughened post-Brexit border environment” – and warns of “further complexity expected with launch of [Entry Exit System](”. As a reminder, the UK asked for British passport holders to be treated as third-country nations after leaving the European Union. As a result of the UK’s decision, EU frontier officials must conduct more onerous checks. Escaping Kent to Continental Europe direct via the tunnel is still possible on the Eurotunnel shuttle between Folkestone and Calais. This week motorists and their passengers on a shuttle from the French side [were safely evacuated after a breakdown in the tunnel](. It sounds an alarming, stressful and exhausting experience. People were offloaded from the relative comfort and reassurance of their cars into a surface tunnel and then onto a spartan, vehicle-carrying train that came to their rescue. I hope Eurotunnel considers a more explicit safety briefing in future: explaining in greater detail what happens in the very rare event of a breakdown, to prepare passengers for the procedures designed to keep them safe. Travellers on the about-to-be-relaunched [ferry link from Dover to Boulogne]( can expect a thorough safety briefing, meanwhile. A new venture, SailLink, will deploy a sailing catamaran on the “adventurous three- to four-hour Channel crossing”. To comply with maritime rules, a maximum of 12 passengers can be carried. “Feel the effect of the invisible force on the sails, keep an eye out for ships and watch the other coast grow closer,” says the company. I look forward to sampling this new venture into sustainable travel.   [Get inspired...]( [Cornwall without the crowds]( Fancy seeing a quieter side to England’s holiday hotspot? Head for the county's Forgotten Corner [I'm an image]( [Stay of the week]( With a luxe spa, highly rated restaurant and striking mix of antiques and modern style, Ellenborough Park in Cheltenham is our pick for end-of-summer pampering [I'm an image]( [Hit the Croatian coast]( Where to stay, eat, drink and shop in the thriving port city of Rijeka Tip of the week: Don’t fear the go-around An [air-traffic controller this week sought to reassure passengers]( about the sometimes-alarming moment when an aircraft that appears about to land soars upwards at full power. In a blog for the air-navigation service Nats, Kim Giles – who works as an approach controller for two of the UK’s five busiest airports, Luton and Stansted – says: “An aircraft failing to land and trying again is always seen as something quite scary and dramatic when it’s spoken about in the media. No matter what the reason is, a go-around happens because it is the safest course of action in that moment in time. “All crew are taught from the beginning of their flying training to go-around if they’re ever unhappy with the approach.” [Read the full story here](   Deal of the week: Save on rail journeys in France French Railways (SNCF) has a short-term half-price promotion on its Carte Avantage – cutting the cost from €49 to €25 (£21). The railcard offers both the holder and a travelling companion a 30 per cent discount on many train journeys made in France at weekends (except in the Paris transport region and on Ouigo low-cost services), on return journeys that include a Saturday night stay and on some international trips. Tickets on direct TGV, Inoui and Intercités trains are capped at a maximum of €79 (£67). In addition the holder can take up to three children (from 4 to 11 years old) at a 60 per cent discount, with savings applying on any day of the week. International rail guru Mark Smith calls it: “A great deal that may well wash its face financially on just one trip.” You have until 29 August to get the card (which is virtual) at cut price. [Read about the most inspiring European rail trips for 2022](   Question of the week: Route 66 – the best stretch? Q I am looking to drive at least part of Route 66 next year. Which is your favourite stretch? A “The mother road” has an illustrious history. Route 66 was born in 1926 as a 2,400-mile highway connecting Chicago on Lake Michigan with Santa Monica on the Pacific Ocean. But just three decades later the current US Interstate system was launched – with Route 66 superseded by freeways for much of the journey. Of what remains, my favourite stretch is between San Bernardino in California (the original home of McDonald’s) to Victorville – home to the fascinating “aircraft graveyard”, as well as an excellent Route 66 museum. You can easily include it on a two-day road trip between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. [Get your kicks by watching my film about this segment of Route 66]( STAT OF THE WEEK 8,128 The distance in miles between New York JFK and Auckland; next month, [Air New Zealand starts nonstop flights]( taking 17h35m between the two. From June 2023, Australian carrier Qantas will share the route. What you might have missed - Below par: [UK summer flights are one-sixth down on August 2019]( - Opening up: [Japan to drop PCR tests for travellers next month]( - Airport link: Elizabeth line will connect central London with Heathrow from November]( SIMON'S DIARY       Every day from Monday to Friday I tackle a top travel story, or explore a topic in more detail than usual in ‘Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast’ – available free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](.         Every day from Monday to Friday I tackle a top travel story, or explore a topic in more detail than usual in ‘Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast’ – available free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](.         I find the easiest way to rush out stories is to tweet them. It’s also an easy way to contact me. My direct messages are open and I read all DMs, though regrettably I can’t respond to every one. Let me know your thoughts [@SimonCalder](         I find the easiest way to rush out stories is to tweet them. It’s also an easy way to contact me. My direct messages are open and I read all DMs, though regrettably I can’t respond to every one. Let me know your thoughts [@SimonCalder](         Each Saturday and Sunday I take questions live at 5.30pm British time on Instagram Live – from wherever I happen to be in the world – so please do come and say hello. Follow me on [@Simon_Calder](         Each Saturday and Sunday I take questions live at 5.30pm British time on Instagram Live – from wherever I happen to be in the world – so please do come and say hello. Follow me on [@Simon_Calder](         Or you can find me on TikTok. Come and have a look at what I have been up to as I bring you top travel topics and report on the latest changes in a minute or less via [@caldertravel](         Or you can find me on TikTok. 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