Usually I try to blot out other people's mobile phone conversations when I'm on a train, but there was something intriguing about this one. I was on an early Eurostar heading for Zurich via Paris, sitting across the aisle from a typical British banker, when he took a call from his wife. Even across the carriage I could hear her agitation at the other end of the line, and his attempts to hush the call only made it all the more interesting. He signed off by promising to call someone – which he then did.

By the sound of it that "someone" was both a friend and business contact, and after the usual niceties my fellow passenger cleared his throat nervously, and dived in. "Jacques, I have a difficult question to ask," he started. "But is our au pair staying with you?"

Of course, I couldn't hear the answer, but judging by his reaction it was neither a clear yes nor a definitive no. Evidently, the plot had just thickened. At which point, possibly aware that I was listening in, my fellow passenger rose from his seat and left the compartment to conclude the conversation in the corridor.

Although I'm not proud of the eavesdropping component, this tantalising glimpse of someone else's life is actually typical of travel by train. On a plane, you see nothing but clouds, and on a motorway you see the back end of the lorry in front. But a train allows insight into a destination, peering into a nation's backyards as it runs unfettered through country and city, transporting a cross-section of locals and travellers, some of whom may be disposed to talk – even if it's just on a mobile phone.

New high-speed links have cut journey times significantly over the last two years, with the next big step forward due on 13 December, when new track brings Amsterdam an hour closer, as well as shortening trips to many other cities. Building on the next phase of Europe's high speed rail project begins next year.

And now that we have modern, high-speed services running to the heart of city destinations, trains are no longer the dog-eared refuge of enthusiasts. Thanks to exhilarating speeds, upmarket lounges and interiors designed by the likes of Philippe Starck (in the case of Eurostar) and Christian Lacroix (on new TGVs) – they're attracting a more fashionable crowd. People who have au pairs.

Eurostar itself is an unbeatable formula, especially with its starting point in the wonderful railway cathedral of St Pancras, which combines the glory of railway's golden age with the technology of new generation trains. For someone heading for Lille, Paris or Brussels for the weekend, Eurostar is an obvious choice, but it is also the conduit to further rail-based city breaks.

The train quits London through a concrete canyon, shrugging off one of the world's greatest cities in a few brief minutes, passing close to the 2012 Olympic Village along the way. It slices through the garden of England, with orchards and occasional vineyards. After a short interval of darkness, it's in France, among poplar-lined expanses of giant ploughed fields, which become an impressionistic blur of colour at speed. The buffet car fills up with the British middle-classes, waxing lyrical about the countryside around their French second homes. Some of them get off at Lille for TGVs to more rural France because this avoids changing trains in Paris for many destinations. You can get down to Tours, across to Rennes and down to Dijon and even as far as Lyon with a simple change of platform at Lille. This is the first serious connection to Europe's 7,500km of high-speed rail routes, a quantity scheduled to double by 2020.

Lille is also the diverging point for Eurostars to Brussels, where travellers can connect with the Thalys, a high-speed train run jointly by the French, Belgians and Germans, which connects to cities such as Antwerp, Rotterdam and Cologne.

For my journey to Zurich, I was tackling a harder proposition: changing trains in Paris. On previous rail trips I've had to cross the city from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon. Crossing a big city with luggage may sound intimidating, but the trans-Paris RER network runs frequently and fast, and Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyons is only two stops. This time, however, for Zurich, all I had to do was a trolley-trundle down the hill to Gare de l'Est.

The modern generation of TGV is even more sophisticated than the Eurostar. On some of the routes south of Paris, the trendy double-decker iDTGV rents out PlayStation Portables and encourages singles to mingle. My TGV Lyria to Zurich was a bit more sedate than that, but it sizzled east out of Paris on one of the latest high-speed tracks to open, and we were soon in Champagne country.

Then came Strasbourg, the line slowed, and I was peering through the window to see if I could spot the German border, and then the Swiss one. Next we were in the giant tangle of lines entering Zurich's Hauptbahnhof, seven and a half hours after leaving London.

This Swiss city is ideal for visiting by train. Zurich's Hauptbahnhof is right in the heart of the action and Bahnhofstrasse is reputed to be one of the most prestigious shopping streets in Europe.

Prestigious shopping leaves me cold, but happily Zurich was far livelier and more cosmopolitan than I expected. Its setting, alongside the Limmat river where it flows into Lake Zurich, is refreshing, and its cafe culture in the pedestrianised alleys of the Old Town was a surprise. All that wealth has sponsored creative architecture and a luxuriant arts scene, from the Museum Rietberg (rietberg.ch), a fabulous villa stuffed with oriental works, to the Schiffbau (schauspielhaus.ch/www/160.asp), a former shipbuilding hall which is now a trendy spot for eating, drinking, and performance.

In the end, though, I didn't stay long. I had a train to catch.

• Andrew Eames is the editor of Great Train Journeys of the World, to be published by Time Out on 1 October, price £16.99. For details of how to book tickets to Zurich, see overleaf.

Where the station is one of the sights

Some of Europe's great cities are worth visiting just for the railway station. Tom Hall of Lonely Planet picks his favourites.

Hlavni, Prague

Among the many things that took travellers' breath away when Prague emerged from behind the Iron Curtain in the 90s was the dramatic railway station. Hlavni Nadrazi is one of many art-nouveau gems in the city. The station's lavishly decorated lobby and ornate ceilings create a superb first or last impression, and the terminus is slowly being renovated.

Centraal, Antwerp

Don't be fooled by the modesty of Brussels' Midi Station: the Belgians do grandiose terminals as well as any European country. Prince among them is Antwerp's recently renovated Centraal Station. It's hard to know where to look – at the giant dome, the vaulted ceiling or the dramatically sweeping main staircase. The station is also home to a diamond gallery with 30 shops, a nod to the city's jewel-dealing heritage.

Santa Maria Novella, Florence

This is a slightly surreal introduction to what is, for most visitors, a few days bingeing on Florentine art, architecture and food. It's a Fascist building, built with Mussolini's approval. Everything from signal boxes to station clocks is resolutely modernist. The platform-side memorial to Jews deported from here to concentration camps is a reminder of the more chilling consequences of Fascist rule in Italy.

Rautatieasema, Helsinki

When a station has a lounge reserved exclusively for the use of the President, you know it's a bit special. Clad in Finnish granite and fronted with iconic statuary, Helsinki's main train station was brightened up in 2000 by the installation of a glass roof.

São Bento, Porto

The spectacular murals made with blue azulejo tiles are so dramatic as to be a tourist attraction in their own right. Jorge Colaço's work covers the walls of the station and depicts great scenes from Portugal's history.

• To read a longer version of this article, including five more of Tom's favourite European stations, go to Lonely Planet's website.