Astonishing landscapes, exclusive interiors, excellent food, and service available 24 hours a day. Luxury trains evoke the image of a bygone era, when traveling was more than just getting from one place to another. Traveling by these trains is not the cheapest, but it is not surprising, since they resemble expensive five stars hotels, more than classic way of commuting. The trip in one of those train, especially in older days, was almost a social event. Well, no one in their wits, would treat a journey in Orient Express, like just a casual subway ride.
Orient Express
without any doubt one of the most famous trains of all time. The popularity and recognition lie in the level of its service. The stories were circulating through the Europe. What has made it truly immortal, was a detective novel “Murder on the Orient Express” written by Agatha Christie. The train was built, maintained, and portrayed as one of the premium railway trains in the world at that time. High-end service and comfort for wealthy and business passengers that traveled across the Europe. The original route stretched from London to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). It was first transcontinental express, that initially covered a tracks of more than 1,700 miles (about 2,740 km). The trains stopped on the way in such cities as Munich, Vienna, Budapest, and Bucharest. The original route was maintained between 1883 and 1977. At some point it begins switching to the shorter trips between Paris and Vienna. Eventually, Orient Express disappeared from the European train schedules on 14 December 2009.
Trans-Siberian Express
Built between 1891 to 1916 by order of the Russian Tsars Alexander III and his son Nicholas II. This is the largest railroad network in the world. Almost instantly, it became one of the most famous travel routes in the world. Connecting Moscow with the city of Vladivostok, 5772 miles (9289 kilometers) away. This astonishing network of rails became one of the easiest ways to travel across the vast horizons of Russia. The train is fully functional till this day. Today, the trip from Moscow to Vladivostok takes 6 days and 4 hours (Trans-Siberian Express train “Rossiya” and “Golden Eagle”). Additional new rail network at Ussuriysk allows the trains to travel even further. 3 more days in the train, heading south, across the border of North Korea and straight to their capital of Pyongyang.
Flying Scotsman
Flying Scotsman is the most famous train in Great Britain. Since 1862 it connects the capitals of England and Scotland, daily. The one and only route, stretches across 392 miles (630.8 kilometers). At first (through the first decades), the travel time between London and Edinburgh last 10 and a half hours. With some modernizations and technical improvement, that time was successfully shorten down by two hours. Throughout the century and a half of outstanding service, this train line received many upgrades. The latest modernization allows the whole journey to be complete in just a 4 hours.
Blue Train
One of the world’s most luxurious trains. It travels between Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa. The “Blue Train” is basically a five-star hotel that move across 994 miles (1,600 kilometers). The train pass through the Kruger National Park in South Africa. That is gives the passengers the opportunity to observe live animals in their natural habitat: cheetahs, hippos, leopards, lions, spotted hyenas, black rhinoceros, antelopes, elephants etc.
The northbound journey begins in Cape Town. On the way, travelers can visit Pretoria and Matjiesfontein. The southbound route starts in Pretoria, and on the way, there is a tour of the “diamond city” – Kimberly, famous for its diamond mines. Passengers are placed in two-person rooms with a wardrobe, bathroom (choice of shower or bathtub) and a heated marble floor. Each soundproofed, air-conditioned, equipped with a telephone and a TV, which broadcasts the image from the camera at the beginning of the train.
Rovos Rail, the Pride of Africa
The Pride of Africa is a luxury train which is run by Rovos Rail. It is billed as the “World’s Most Luxurious Train”. It travels through South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania. Exactly from west to east.
When it comes to this train, luxury and splendor is the key word. Each of the passenger’s quarters has a large lounge, a bedroom and a Victorian-style bathroom with bath and shower. There are also restaurant and lounge cars with panoramic windows on the train. The last car is an observation car with an open patio. The service is available 24 hours a day. Restaurant car is equipped with silver cutlery on real and expensive porcelain. The most expensive tickets on the route from Cape Town (South Africa) to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) cost $ 21,550. The route through South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania takes 15 days. There are plenty of picturesque places, that is the train is passing by: Victoria Falls in Zambia, the desert in Namibia, the Great Rift Valley, or the reserve in the Mpumalanga province. The train takes only 72 passengers.
TGV
The pride of France. TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse – “high-speed train”) was built in the 1970s as a solution for transporting people between major cities. With speeds skyrocketing up to 198.8 mile/h (320km/h), with the average trip speeds of almost 174 mile/h (280 km/h). The great success of the commercial use of TGV in 1981 caused large expansion of high-speed railway lines across France. Neighboring countries such as Spain, Italy, and Germany quickly emulated France by building their high-speed network lines. Nevertheless, none of them became known worldwide as TGV.
Ghan
most famous train in Australia. It is seemingly connecting the south and north coasts of the continent between cities Adelaide and Darwin. The line opened in 1929. Train needs about 54 hours to travel over 1802 miles (2900 kilometers) across large Australian deserts. On average, the engine car is equipped with 16 to 26 passenger cars but on some occasions, the engine is pulling whooping number of 44 cars, which results in the length of the train expanding to 0.74 mile (1.2 kilometer).
Indian Pacific
In addition to Ghan, this train line runs from west to the eastside, connecting both oceans at the same time. First stop in Sidney, on the Pacific Ocean, all the way to Perth, on the coast of Indian Ocean. The journey across the 2460.6 miles (3960 kilometers) of Australian desert lasts three days, which includes the travel across the longest stretch of perfectly straight railway track in the world 294.5 miles (477 kilometers).
Glacier Express
It is called an express, but considering its speed, in fact it is the slowest express, from all the trains. The name has more to do with the option to travel through the Swiss Alps, in one shot, as approximately 7 and a half hours train trip. The full length of the route between Zermatt and St. Moritz takes you across 291 bridges and through 91 tunnels. The large windows, in all the cars, allows you to admire truly picturesque views. Sit back, relax, and take in the unspoiled natural scenery of the Swiss Alps. The first Glacier Express started on 30 June 1930 exactly at 07:30 (perfect on time, just like a Swiss watch). Because of large amount of snow in some parts of the route, it was running only is summer months. From 1982, when the improvement construction was finished, the train upgrade to all year-round schedules.
Maharajas’ Express
This Express train from India is considered today, to be one of the most luxurious trains ever created. It decorated in such a way, to best reflect the conditions in which Indian princes used to travel. It is called royalty on wheels. It offers state of the art facilities and amenities. One of the highlights is the “Presidential Suite”. A whole train car dedicated to only one passenger. Because so much space is assigned to each passenger (even below the presidential suite), its maximum capacity is topped at 88 people.
The train started to operate, not so long ago, in March of 2010, bringing back the splendor of Indian Royalty.
*Oher famous trains:
The Sweet Train (Japan)
Rocky Mountaineer (Canada)
Bullet train (Japan)
Eurostar (United Kingdom)
Golden Eagle Danube Express,
Belmond Royal Scotsman,
El Transcantábrico (Northern Spain), Peruvian Central Railway
Eastern & Oriental Express (New Zealand),
Belmond Grand Hibernian (Ireland),
Deccan Odyssey (India),
Shangri-La Express (China),
Al-Andalus (Spain),
Kyushu Seven Stars (Japan).
