"Train Journey" is not Wright's only poem in which trains are featured. In "The Trains," published in Wright's 1946 collection The Moving Image, trains are a poetic vehicle used to illustrate the horrors of war. Said to have been written during the War in the Pacific (a theater of World War II), "The Trains" showcases the way that war disrupts life. In the poem, trains barrel through a peaceful orchard and awaken a tiger in the human psyche, representing the human response to war. Some follow its call with a gung-ho attitude, and others are pressured into following the masses. Either way, peaceful human life is disrupted and tainted for generations to come.
In her environmental activism and campaign for Aboriginal rights, Wright felt that violence toward fellow human beings and violence toward the land were inextricably linked. This is seen in "The Trains" when the trains barrel through orchards, "[hurling] their wild summoning cry, their animal cry" as they head north with guns. Though this violence is not at the forefront in "Train Journey," some critics read the train as a symbol of colonization, whose far-reaching consequences have disrupted Australian native life (both people and nature). In contrast to the beautiful descriptions of nature in the poem, the atmosphere of the train is portrayed as "the confused hammering dark." However, despite the negative connotations of trains in both these poems, trains also symbolize journeys, personal transformations, change, and progress.
