Rural to city train rides that are interesting

[thebeloitmoderate]

I.E Harvard to Chicago on the Metra train

[DINGO Joe]

I would assume most of them are.  I haven't traveled by train much but the New Orleans to Memphis train was interesting as you might expect.  You can still see the remnants from when the towns were oriented towards the train and not towards the highway as they are now.  Of course, it's rather ramshackled as you would expect it to be. 

[beesley]

The West Highland Line does terminate in Glasgow of course, and likewise with the Settle and Carlisle finishing in Leeds - I think Carlisle is isolated enough that it meets your criteria. I've yet to travel on the reopened Borders Line.

Internationally, there's the old Gotthard line from Bellinzona to Arth-Goldau and onto Luzern or Zurich. The stretch between Nakhon Ratchasima and Bangkok covers such a range of places that you wouldn't expect from a Thai train journey. And I've not done it, but I would be interested to do the Denali Star line.

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

Riding from the Denver Airport to Denver’s Union Station was cool. Might not start out super rural though. Maybe more exurban.

[afleitch]

The West Highland Line does terminate in Glasgow of course

That is a genuinely amazing line and deserved of the international recognition it gets (and I'm not a huge fan of that sort of hyperbole)

I've seen some amazing videos of Tokyo lines that snake out into the countryside, which I really want to take a trip on.

[parochial boy]

The Rhätische Bahn finishes in Chur, which is too small to realistically describe as urban. So that rules out being able to count the Bernina and Albula lines. But with that said, the Chur-Zürich train is jaw dropping when it passes along the side of the Walensee; as is the trip from Palézieux to Lausanne, which is only 20 minutes but mostly along the Lavaux looking over Lake Geneva to the Chablais and features in tourist adverts and postcards for a reason.

Elsewhere, the Neretva valley line from Mostar to Sarajevo is incredible. And train trips I've been on outside Europe have been mostly commuter rail or similar, and the likes of Suzhou-Shanghai, well it's impressive, but not really for the right reasons.

[Fight for Trump]

Riding from the Denver Airport to Denver’s Union Station was cool. Might not start out super rural though. Maybe more exurban.

It basically was rural when they built the airport, but it started to fill in a bit by the time they put the A Line out there. DEN used to be a horrible place to fly into because it was so far from the city, but now it's actually pretty decent because the A Line is so good. If only it ran at 15 minute frequencies later into the evening, it'd be perfect.

[Alcibiades]

The Rhätische Bahn finishes in Chur, which is too small to realistically describe as urban. So that rules out being able to count the Bernina and Albula lines. But with that said, the Chur-Zürich train is jaw dropping when it passes along the side of the Walensee; as is the trip from Palézieux to Lausanne, which is only 20 minutes but mostly along the Lavaux looking over Lake Geneva to the Chablais and features in tourist adverts and postcards for a reason.

Elsewhere, the Neretva valley line from Mostar to Sarajevo is incredible. And train trips I've been on outside Europe have been mostly commuter rail or similar, and the likes of Suzhou-Shanghai, well it's impressive, but not really for the right reasons.

Very nice to see appreciation for the Walensee! I have many fond memories of eating lunch looking out onto the sheer mountainside on the other side of the lake, on family holidays on the way to the Prättigau. And more broadly, I agree it’s a stunning route as the landscape of the densely populated Swiss lowlands gives way to spectacular mountain scenery (we would actually more commonly get on the train at Basel, as the flights were cheaper, which only magnified this effect of transition).

[parochial boy]

The Rhätische Bahn finishes in Chur, which is too small to realistically describe as urban. So that rules out being able to count the Bernina and Albula lines. But with that said, the Chur-Zürich train is jaw dropping when it passes along the side of the Walensee; as is the trip from Palézieux to Lausanne, which is only 20 minutes but mostly along the Lavaux looking over Lake Geneva to the Chablais and features in tourist adverts and postcards for a reason.

Elsewhere, the Neretva valley line from Mostar to Sarajevo is incredible. And train trips I've been on outside Europe have been mostly commuter rail or similar, and the likes of Suzhou-Shanghai, well it's impressive, but not really for the right reasons.

Very nice to see appreciation for the Walensee! I have many fond memories of eating lunch looking out onto the sheer mountainside on the other side of the lake, on family holidays on the way to the Prättigau. And more broadly, I agree it’s a stunning route as the landscape of the densely populated Swiss lowlands gives way to spectacular mountain scenery (we would actually more commonly get on the train at Basel, as the flights were cheaper, which only magnified this effect of transition).

Haha, yeah, Basel for Easyjet and then that bus to the station. Done it many, many times. If you get the train to Zürich that goes via Olten the first bit that goes through the Jura is pretty nice too, although the other route isn't so exciting.

But yeah, Walensee along with the Glarnerland is one of the absolute underrated gems of Switzerland. Which is really crazy when you consider quite how easily accessible it is. Only downside is the water is absolutely freezing.

[beesley]

The Rhätische Bahn finishes in Chur, which is too small to realistically describe as urban. So that rules out being able to count the Bernina and Albula lines. But with that said, the Chur-Zürich train is jaw dropping when it passes along the side of the Walensee; as is the trip from Palézieux to Lausanne, which is only 20 minutes but mostly along the Lavaux looking over Lake Geneva to the Chablais and features in tourist adverts and postcards for a reason.

Elsewhere, the Neretva valley line from Mostar to Sarajevo is incredible. And train trips I've been on outside Europe have been mostly commuter rail or similar, and the likes of Suzhou-Shanghai, well it's impressive, but not really for the right reasons.

Very nice to see appreciation for the Walensee! I have many fond memories of eating lunch looking out onto the sheer mountainside on the other side of the lake, on family holidays on the way to the Prättigau. And more broadly, I agree it’s a stunning route as the landscape of the densely populated Swiss lowlands gives way to spectacular mountain scenery (we would actually more commonly get on the train at Basel, as the flights were cheaper, which only magnified this effect of transition).

Haha, yeah, Basel for Easyjet and then that bus to the station. Done it many, many times. If you get the train to Zürich that goes via Olten the first bit that goes through the Jura is pretty nice too, although the other route isn't so exciting.

But yeah, Walensee along with the Glarnerland is one of the absolute underrated gems of Switzerland. Which is really crazy when you consider quite how easily accessible it is. Only downside is the water is absolutely freezing.

Another underrated set of lines are the ones going in and out of St. Gallen and various nearby places - either to Appenzell/Altstatten/Herisau or towards Schaffhausen and the Bodensee. Not as conventionally scenic, but underrated compared to similar areas in France and Germany.

[parochial boy]

Another underrated set of lines are the ones going in and out of St. Gallen and various nearby places - either to Appenzell/Altstatten/Herisau or towards Schaffhausen and the Bodensee. Not as conventionally scenic, but underrated compared to similar areas in France and Germany.

My one trip to St Gallen was kind of temperer by the fact I got on the train on a hot sunny day in Geneva, and got off in driving rain about about 15°C in St Gallen itself. The town is really pretty, but its reputation for bad weather is not exactly undeserved. I've never been around it on train, but definitely agree about Appenzell. All of the pre-alps are really cutesy and underrated given they have to live, literally as well as figuratively, in the shade of the high alps in the Valais/Berner Oberland/Grisons.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

Not sure if this counts as rural but Valencia to Barcelona via the EUROMED is very interesting.

[thebeloitmoderate]

I'll freaking remember the 3 times in which I went to Chicago and back via the Harvard Metra train
June 19, 2016
September 3, 2017
June 30, 2019
The 2016 ride took me and discovered a bunch of Northwest Chicago suburbs that I heard only on Google Maps and not even a Rand McNally Book that I owned as a kid.

[muon2]

The Rhätische Bahn finishes in Chur, which is too small to realistically describe as urban. So that rules out being able to count the Bernina and Albula lines. But with that said, the Chur-Zürich train is jaw dropping when it passes along the side of the Walensee; as is the trip from Palézieux to Lausanne, which is only 20 minutes but mostly along the Lavaux looking over Lake Geneva to the Chablais and features in tourist adverts and postcards for a reason.

Elsewhere, the Neretva valley line from Mostar to Sarajevo is incredible. And train trips I've been on outside Europe have been mostly commuter rail or similar, and the likes of Suzhou-Shanghai, well it's impressive, but not really for the right reasons.

I didn't go as far as Palézieux, but I did take the train from Geneva to Lausanne for a conference in 1996. That had some impressive views as it ran along the strip between the Jura and Lake Geneva.

Though it's not a commuter line the train from Granby CO in the Rockies down to Denver on the California Zephyr is as spectacular a three hour ride into a big city as I've seen. The stretch from Glenwood Springs to Denver (or reverse) is arguably the most scenic one-day ride in the Amtrak system.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

The Hudson water-level route from Rensselaer/Poughkeepsie to NYP/Grand Central has to be mentioned. The Surfliner is also pretty great, especially north/west of LA.

Outside the U.S., some highlights I've done:
Hualien to Taipei
Domodossola to Milan
West Highlands line (already mentioned)
Penzance to London
Anywhere to Salzburg
Huaihua to Zhangjiajie