All Aboard! Luxury Train Travel is Back on Track

Prior to the air travel, trains were the travel of choice for the affluent and adventurous European and American travelers. In Europe it remains a travel option of choice for intercontinental and domestic travel. In the Ireland it is incredibly convenient to grab a quick train between Belfast and Dublin. It’s a quick and comfortable ride, taking you from city center to city center.

In late summer Londoners pack in on the reserved trains to catch a flurry of shows up north in Edinburgh. The same is true of Swiss travel. Swiss locals and tourists opt for trains to pop between the major Swiss cities, be it for business or pleasure.

It was a sign of the travel times when US based Grand Luxe Journey shut down ltheir business ast week. But fear not, as trains continue their course with a nod to the opulent past. So, if train travel and luxe is your travel passion, it is still available. But you just might have to catch a plane to access it.

Glamorous rail journeys that evoke another era are becoming increasingly more popular in the global market. The 20 or so carriers out there are now joined by the Danube Express, the brainchild of a former British Railway employee.

The Danube Express, set up by Howard Trinder, will travel to destinations such as Berlin, Venice and Istanbul using sleeper carriages fitted out to five-star luxury. He’s in the right market as it is estimated that each year approximately 25,000 Britons use luxury rail services, from the legendary South African Blue Train to the Royal Scotsman in the Highlands.

Danube will be available to Britons, Europeans and visiting tourists alike. It will herald the arrival of the first luxury train service in continental Europe since 1981, when the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, the modern successor to the 1930s express which epitomised high-end rail travel was revived. The Danube Express will be the only opulent sleeper service operating between such evocative destinations as Berlin, Istanbul and Prague.

The interior of the Danube Express is all about luxury. Each of the “deluxe” and “classic” sleeping cars has just five compartments, featuring the amenities of a modern hotel suite. For small groups of especially well-heeled clients, an even more luxurious “presidential car” can be attached.

Mr Trinder, 56, a bluff Yorkshireman, spent 20 months overseeing the construction of the customised “deluxe” sleeping cars to ensure they meet his specification of an en suite bathroom in each berth and a restaurant car that comes complete with a hired pianist. 

 
They are launching a luxury train service where a three-day journey from Budapest through the Balkans to Istanbul costs from £990 per person.

Touring trains are being launched over the next 12 months, including a Belgian-built sleeper train that will operate in Switzerland and two new ultra-luxurious “Palace on Wheels” trains to cater for monied passengers in India, where three such services already exist. The total number of high-end sleeper services around the world now exceeds 20.

The process of building the Danube Express, which will be jointly run with Hungarian National Railways, involved the complete restructuring of the 1950s postal carriages with a new outer skin and the installation of retro-style sleeping compartments designed personally by Mr Trinder, at a cost of about £500,000 per car.

Other geat luxury rail journeys still available today are The Orient Express. It’s the modern-day successor to the great express that took 20th-century aristocrats and film stars from Paris to Istanbul in an opulent atmosphere. It currrently runs from London to Venice over two days in original sleeping, restaurant and bar carriages from the roaring Twenties and Thirties. Passengers cross to France in a coach via the Channel Tunnel.

The Blue Train deemed the ultimate in rail travel is a South African train that comes with gold taps, a bath and a GPS map monitor in each cabin to show its precise location. It also has an onboard boutique selling black and yellow diamonds for passengers who become bored and need to get their shop on, in the journey in between Cape Town and Pretoria.

 
Tangula is China’s state-of-the-art touring train, operated by a European hotel chain. It will feature flat-screen televisions and internet access from each compartment along with specially enlarged windows travelin from Beijing to Tibet.

The Golden Chariot is one of India’s new host of luxury trains running on the subcontinent’s sprawling network. It boasts cabins of hand-carved wooden panels and hand-woven silk sheets. The service runs from Bangalore to Goa over seven nights.

The Grand Trans Siberian Express is the longest available to train fanatics. The journey from Moscow to Beijing is completed over two weeks in air-conditioned cabin.

 
Bon Voyage!

By Karen Loftus