Excess Baggage - 04/07/2009

Couch surfing is a recent travel phenomenon of the internet age. Travellers use a website to contact people all over the world who will put them up and give them an introduction to local life which the ordinary tourist would miss. Sandi Toksvig finds out from journalist Fleur Britten about her experiences couch surfing in Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, and what it's like to play host to a complete stranger in her own home. It is nearly 30 years since Jimmy Savile proclaimed, 'This is the Age of the Train', but is it still? Sandi talks to columnist Matthew Engel and guide writer Benedict le Vay about the pleasures of chugging along some of Britain's lesser-known branch lines, compared with the problems of inconvenient timetables and high prices.