Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways — Season 5
About this season
Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railway Journeys brings to life beautifully not only the romance of travelling by train, but also the sights, sounds and smells of the countries and places visited, while also illuminating the customs and attitudes of the people the author encountered along the way.
Episodes (4)
1. Conquering The Alps
Aired 7 January 2019 • 45 min
Chris heads to the Alps to ride on six pioneering mountain railways. It’s the middle of winter, with snow and ice constantly threatening to derail his journey, as he crosses Austria and Switzerland on ever higher and higher railways to find out how and why these extraordinary lines were built. Along the way he faces some terrifying 19th Century winter sports and a climb up the North Face of the Eiger. Will Chris conquer the Alps? Or will they conquer him?
2. The Train in Spain
Aired 14 January 2019 • 45 min
In this episode, Chris embarks on a thousand mile journey across Spain’s complex railway system, from Gibraltar in the far south to Bermio on the north coast, deep in Basque Country. Travelling on an extraordinary range of different trains and types of track, he’s on a mission to find out how Spanish railways evolved from some of the most backward in Europe to the most advanced and innovative in the World, through one and a half centuries of stormy history, including the Civil War and four dark decades of the Franco dictatorship.
3. A Journey Too Far?
Aired 21 January 2019 • 45 min
Chris Tarrant embarks on a journey across Ukraine, where he meets a soldier from the ongoing civil war and visits Chernobyl.
4. The Reunification Express
Aired 28 January 2019 • 45 min
Chris embarks on a rail trip across Vietnam, exploring its French colonial history along the way, as he sets off along the Reunification Line from Ho Chi Minh in the south - to Hanoi in the north.