While much of this has been forgotten as railway travel has become more prosaic and functional, we are constantly reminded of the romance of rail by its portrayal in books and films. Barely a period piece comes along that does not have people jumping off trains into each other’s arms or cosying up in a private compartment. So much happens on station platforms, in waiting rooms and on board. The version of the railways portrayed in The Railway Children is etched into the popular imagination. There is a connection between the mode of travel and the family that is not replicated elsewhere.

Part of the pleasure of railway travel is its perfect pace. The right train journey is just fast enough to avoid the tiresome longueur of a car or bus trip but not so rapid, like air travel, as to miss what’s happening outside your window. That however is under threat. High-speed trains remove much of this pleasure. They are too functional, with service that often mirrors the worst aspects of air travel – such as security checks at station – and their very speed removes part of the pleasure of watching the world go by slowly enough to enjoy imagining who lives in that little cottage or why those cows are all grouped together at the far end of that field.

Another barrier to enjoyment is the bureaucracy of crossing borders. Despite more than a half-century of European federation and integration, going across a frontier can be as difficult as it was to get across the Iron Curtain before 1989. Trains seem to be the subject of far more intrusive checks at borders and, moreover, the failure to standardise technologies means that very often there are long delays at crossings while locomotives are changed.

There is, though, good news. Quite wonderfully, night trains are coming back. They were almost wiped out in the rationalisations and cutbacks of the first two decades of this century but now new possibilities are opening up across Europe. For example, a night service between Paris and Vienna has just been reintroduced. This, of course, used to be the western leg of the Orient Express but it was killed off by a combination of high-speed trains running between Paris and Strasbourg and low-cost airlines. I travelled on the route just before it was scrapped in 2009 and it was a sad experience, offering the worst ever white-bread plastic sandwich as catering.

Now the Austrian rail operator ÖBB has relaunched the service under its NightJet brand and the trip is deliberately timed out of Paris to enable travellers to enjoy a dinner while the train trundles along the Marne Valley. This is part of a trend of new overnight services across Europe including Amsterdam-Zurich and Malmo-Berlin – romantic train rides that are still available to the discerning traveller. And hopefully, customs officers will refrain from waking up sleeping passengers at the frontiers.

Three incredible long-journey train trips 

Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok to Moscow

My favourite journey may be a rather obvious one as it is the longest single train ride in the world. Travel westwards on the 5,750-mile Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok to Moscow, taking a six-and-a-half day journey and hopping off at two or three of the intermediate stops. Fewer tourists do this journey in a westerly direction and the first two days take one through absolutely barren land, the absence of habitation outside the carriage window impressing on one the sheer scale of the world in which we live.

Most of the food on the train is basic but the borscht is excellent. There is a premium service, the Rossya, running every other day and offering a slightly improved level of comfort which is more expensive, but in reality the ordinary service trains carrying Russians going about their daily business are more fun. The locals are always delighted to meet foreigners and keen to share their food and chat. Or if nothing else, the samovar at the end of each carriage is always available to make up one of the endless varieties of Pot Noodle on sale at every station – and tea, of course. The pace of the train is perfect, never running faster than 60mph, and stopping often enough to allow people to stretch their legs and buy provisions from the station stalls. And if travelling in winter, the best time because of the snowy landscape, do not fear the Siberian cold. The trains are if anything overheated, and the locals are quick to strip off their outdoor wear, unabashed about wandering around all day in pyjama bottoms and slippers.

America on an Amtrak

In contrast, the journey around America on an Amtrak train is very much a tourist experience, taken almost solely by retired folk and aviophobes. Nevertheless there is no better way of touring around the nation that still, strangely, has the biggest rail network in the world: 100,000 miles surviving out of what was once a 250,000-mile system. There are trains with traditional names like the Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and New Orleans, and the California Zephyr running between Chicago and San Francisco, which connect the whole country, covering every state. They have a homely feel, with friendly staff who deliberately seat you next to strangers in the dining cars. You will meet more Americans than you would on any road trip.