Air Travel

Modern life is impossible without travelling. Of course the fastest way of travelling is by plane. Many people prefer travelling by air as it is the most comfortable and quickest way of travelling. Travelling by plane has also its advantages and disadvantages.

If you are going to travel by air you'd better buy tickets beforehand because many people are fond of travelling by plane. There are some reasons why people choose that way of travelling. If it is summer, it will be better to think of your trip before the vacation starts.

Modern planes have very comfortable seats in all cabins, and there are first class, business and economy class cabins. Inside the cabin the air is always fresh and warm. Before the plane takes off the stewardess helps everyone get comfortable in the seats and wishes them a pleasant trip. She also gives all the information about the flight, the speed and the altitude. During the flight you can have something to drink and to eat. You can read newspapers and magazines or simply look out of the pothole. But you will see nothing outside but the clouds. You can buy first-class, second-class and third class tickets.

You must be in time for your flight because you must have time to pass customs and passport control and check in. Before boarding the plane the passenger must register at the airport. While registering you are required to have the luggage weighed. If the luggage weighs more than 20 kilograms you have to pay extra. Sometimes people forget the time and the number of the flight. They can always ask for that at the airport's information bureau and also get information about next flights and their timetables.

Nowadays travelling by air is one of the dangerous means of travelling. There are a lot of air crashes and many people die in them. And I think people prefer safety to comfort on board a ship.

Though we all seem to agree that the future belongs to air transport, other means of travelling are still popular today.

Trains

There are different kinds of trains: passenger trains, mail trains and goods trains. Mail trains carry mail, or post, that is letters, parcels, newspapers and magazines. Goods trains carry goods. Passenger trains carry passengers. Mail trains and passenger trains are usually combined: they have carriages for passengers and a special carriage or two for mail.

Passenger trains can be slow or fast. A slow train stops at every station. Fast trains have few stops: they stop only at very large stations. So we can call these trains respectively stopping trains and non- stopping trains.

There are local trains and long-distance trains. Local trains connect points situated not far away from each other, say, a hundred or two-three hundred kilometres. By a long-distance train you can travel very far — for thousands of kilometres. If you live in a large city, like St. Petersburg or Moscow or Kiev, you can go to the suburbs of the city by a suburban train.

Sometimes, when travelling a long distance, you have to change trains (or make a changing), that is get off one train and board another, if there is no through train to the place of your destination.

When you are travelling a long distance, it is very convenient to go by an overnight train. Overnight trains have sleeping accommodation: they usually have "corridor cars," i. e. carriages with separate compartments (they are called sleeping cars, or sleepers). In each compartment there are two lower and two upper berths, on which you can sleep like in bed. Trains which run by day are called day coaches. You cannot sleep in these trains: they have only sitting accommodation: very comfortable soft armchairs.