Forget the golden sands of Bondi and the soaring arch of the harbour bridge: Sydney is winning over tourists with its trains.
Despite the fact that most Aussies come back from Europe raving about its loco-motive network and bemoaning the fact that we can’t inter-rail around Australia, there is, apparently, something cool about Aussie trains that Aussies don’t appreciate.
That something? We can change the direction of our seats. Scottish traveller Chloe Frater found this mind-blowing, making a video entitled, “When people ask why I’m obsessed with Australia.”
In the clip she shows viewers how you can flip a train seat so that it either faces forward or backward, making your journey more or less social.
“Sydney is living in 2035,” she said.
The video sparked a flurry of love for the city of Bin Chickens and Dodgy Pubs That Have Been Gentrified.
The comments section of the clip is full of remarks like “I’m from Aus and didn’t even know this exists” and “omg that is sooo cool.”
“Threw me first time someone did this on the train.,” one TikTok user commented. Pictures via TikTok (@chloefrater)
Others said things like: “I need to move to Australia” and “that is so satisfying.”
What the video fails to take into account is the awkwardness of using the seats to face someone (unless it’s a good friend) and the fact that the trains actually need to be running for anyone to make use of this feature.
