Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways

Congo:

An exploration of some of the world's oldest and most scenic railway journeys begins with a Congo railroad, built by the French colonists, that connects the country's inland capital, Brazzaville, with the coast, which is 310 miles away.



Australia:

Chris Tarrant rides 2000 miles north on "The Ghan" line from Adelaide (capital of the state of South Australia), across the "red desert" centre of the Australian outback, finishing at Darwin (capital of the Northern Territory).



India:

This week Chris Tarrant is travelling on the Konkan railway which runs down the west coast of India connecting the port cities of Mumbai and Mangalore. Although the British Empire built 40,000 miles of track across this vast sub-continent between, they stayed clear of this narrow, boggy strip of land as it was such a treacherous and difficult environment in which to build a railway. As a result Western India remained undeveloped until over 100 years later when a brave Indian engineer took on the daunting task. Known as 'The People's Railway' it opened in January 1998, finally connecting the remote villages along the route to the outside world.