On the slow train: tourists’ experiences of deceleration

This paper examines slow mobility and deceleration in the context of tourism. It focuses on a heritage railway in Romania, which travels through mountainous scenery at an average speed of 17 km/hour. Using methods from mobile ethnography and go-along interviews it explores passengers’ experiences of travelling slowly. Passengers did not appear to be deliberately participating in slow travel as an act of countercultural opposition to the prevailing cult of speed. Instead, motives for taking the journey were more about curiosity and trying something different while on holiday. While they were not necessarily seeking deceleration, many passengers found the slow journey enjoyable and rewarding, allowing them to disconnect from everyday pace and rhythms. Passengers responded to the slow pace in various ways, including avoiding their mobile phones, paying greater attention to the environment surrounding the train, and engaging in various forms of introspection (including nostalgia). However, some passengers found the experience of deceleration challenging and unwelcome. The slow train journey did not exist in isolation but was interlocked with other forms of (mostly faster) movement, both on the day of travel and during the wider holiday in the region.