At 06:44 on 23 September 2018, Train G5711 pulled out from Platform 1 at Shenzhen North railway station – the first train from mainland China going into the new Hong Kong West Kowloon high-speed railway hub.
This was the very first train David and wife Tracy were on which involved a cross boundary service. At that point, Hong Kong was no longer at this distance city which was only accessible by plane – from now onwards, passengers can simply ride on the once-a-day high-speed train from Beijing west to Hong Kong West Kowloon and get there within the same day.
Media, as usual, surrounded David on the epic trip, but this was far from the sole epic journey of the year. For 2018, David and wife Tracy also travelled to Switzerland and Austria, in particular on the ICE from Zürich to Sargans, and the railjet from Sargans onward to Feldkirch, Austria. He also travelled on suburban trains around Zürich, especially to stations and on lines he had never been to before around Seebach.
Although in terms of total annual mileage, David managed to just cross the 50% barrier set by 2017 record high (so less miles were done this year than last), the journey still to come to lots of new destinations. These included stations in southeastern China (Ganzhou, Ruijin, and Longyan), as well as to station see intentionally visited — Yueyang East and Xianning North, two of the earliest High Speed stations opened in late 2009.
The year ended on the trains in one that saw an epic start-of-the-year journey encompassing Northern, Central, Southwestern and Southern China — Beijing, Changsha, Guiyang, Kunming, Yuxi, Namzningz/Nanning, and Shenzhen.
2018 Travelogue
National/Territorial railway networks
Austria: Feldkirch
China mainland: Nationwide with a focus on Beijing, Tianjin, Eastern and Southern China; other cities included Changsha, Guiyang, Kunming, Namzningz/Nanning, and Shenzhen.
Hong Kong: by High Speed
Switzerland: Genève, Gornergrat, Winterthur, Zermatt, Zürich
Urban rail/Metro/Tram networks
China mainland: Beijing Subway, Changsha Metro, Kunming Metro, Namzningz/Nanning Metro, Tianjin Metro
Hong Kong: MTR
Switzerland: Genève unireso, Zürich ZVV