Time travel

The Orient Express celebrates its 140th anniversary

Playing host to spies, artists, dignitaries and presidents, the Orient Express is one of the world’s most iconic trains. Oozing decadence, glamour and mystery, it has been woven into classic fiction, becoming the inspiration for Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. James Bond even boarded it in Ian Fleming’s From Russia With Love.

Its story began when Belgian engineer Georges Nagelmackers came up with a plan to run a luxurious train across Europe. Setting off on its maiden voyage from Paris in 1883, the Orient Express carried 40 passengers who enjoyed plush seats, beds with silk sheets, a restaurant serving oysters and caviar, and musicians serenading them as they sped across the Continent for seven days via Vienna and Budapest.

Over the years, Nagelmackers built sumptuous palace hotels in the countries where the train stopped. By 1889, when infrastructure was completed, it travelled all the way to Istanbul, then called Constantinople, although it never actually went as far as the Orient.

When the Simplon Tunnel was completed in 1906 – the longest tunnel in the world connecting Switzerland to Italy under The Alps – it drastically reduced travelling time between Paris and Venice.

However, as the decades rolled on, cheaper and faster air travel soared in popularity and in 1977 the Orient Express made its last direct trip between Paris and Istanbul, and some of its iconic carriages were sold at auction.

Millionaire James Sherwood spent the next few years procuring 35 of the original vintage cars and, in 1982, it was relaunched as the Venice Simplon Orient Express making its first journey from London to Venice. It still operates today.

The Orient Express legend also lives on through its La Dolce Vita train (starting next year, offering routes within Italy), a collection of luxury hotels launching in 2025, and Orient Express Silenseas – the world’s largest sailing ship – due to set sail in 2026. orient-express.com