Rovos Rail: 30 years of luxury travel

Since its first overnight journey in 1989 with a seven-coach train to what was then the Eastern Transvaal, Rovos Rail has expanded exponentially and now offers eight trips around Southern Africa with trains that can accommodate up to 72 passengers.

Journeys range from 48 hours to

15 days with the newest route, the Trail of Two Oceans, departing from Dar es Salaam to Lobito in Angola. Earlier this year a Rovos Rail train completed the trip – the first time in history that a passenger train travelled the East-to-west copper trail.

“Our new route coincides nicely with our 30th birthday. I would like to say it was planned but I cannot take credit for the serendipitous timing,” says Rohan Vos, owner and CEO of Rovos Rail Tours. Also in the Rovos fleet is the Shongololo Express, purchased and renovated in 2016. Three journeys are on offer ranging from 12 to 15 days with the train travelling for over 300 days of the year.

It took a decade for the company to break even but in 1993 – the year the first Autobiography Range Rover was revealed – an auspicious milestone was reached when Vos formed a relationship with Phillip Morrell from Jules Vern in the United Kingdom. Together they plotted a route from Cape Town to Victoria Falls and the journey proved successful.

The business now employs 440 staff members at Rovos Rail Station, the impressive private railway station and headquarters in Pretoria. It now also houses a little museum that pays homage to 30 years of operation and the railway history of South Africa. A sixth train is in production with completion aimed for December 2019. For more information, visit www.rovos.com.

Land Rover re-enacted a famous episode in its venerable history going back to the Roaring Twenties when racing the famous Le Train Bleu (The Blue Train) was a favourite pastime…