Orient Express Today
VSOE runs services today to eight major destinations in Europe between March and November:
- London
- Paris
- Rome
- Venice
- Vienna
- Prague
- Budapest
- Bucharest
- Istanbul
- Dresden
- Kraków
The VSOE has separate carriages for use in the UK and for continental Europe, but all of the same vintage (mostly dating from the 1920s and 1930s). Passengers are conveyed across the English Channel by coach on the Eurotunnel shuttle through the Channel Tunnel. Whereas restored Pullman carriages are used in the UK, in continental Europe restored dark blue former Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits carriages are used. Note that the service in the UK is called the British Pullman, and it has a brown and cream livery and is a day-only train that serves elaborate teas and brunches and visits such sites as castles and spa towns. The service in Europe is the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and has sleeping carriages for full overnight, luxury service. Both the VSOE and the British Pullman are among the World's Top 25 Trains as listed by The Society of International Railway Travelers for high levels of dining, food, off-train experience and accommodation on board.
These VSOE services are not to be confused with a regularly scheduled train called the Orient Express, which ran nightly between Strasbourg and Vienna until 14 December 2009. This latter was a normal EuroNight sleeper train and was the lineal descendant of the regular Orient Express daily departure from Paris to Vienna and the Balkans. Until 8 June 2007, this train originated in Paris, but thereafter was curtailed at its western extremity to Strasbourg after a TGV line was opened between Paris and Strasbourg. While this descendant train was primarily used for transportation to Vienna and cost only the standard train fare between the two cities, the VSOE train is aimed at tourists looking to take a luxury train ride.
Read more about this topic: Venice-Simplon Orient Express
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