Originally Posted by
Aviatrix
There is something called the "Venice-Simplon Orient Express" which is a luxury excursion train in the style of the original Orient Express. I think anyone here in the UK who hears the word "Orient Express" will think first of "Murder on...." and then of the modern luxury train - which, although few people will actually have been on it, is quite a household name.
Yes, you're right about the excursion trains (there was also the
Nostalgie Orient Express for a while), but they're not useful transportation. As you imply, they're for just riding around in luxury. The operators of these trains advertise them as the "Orient Express" and have even tried to get the French, German and Austrian railways to drop the name of the real
Orient Express, which has run since 1883 between Paris and various destinations in eastern Europe (before world War I also to Istanbul and today only between Strasbourg and Vienna). These operators even tried to make the public believe that the
Orient Express stopped running in 1977, when that was really the
Direct Orient, a tired, shabby secondary train to the (formerly luxurious)
Simplon Orient Express (via Milan) and which took over the Paris-Athens/Istanbul cars from the SOE. In 1975 the DO was still running with sleepers to Athens and Istanbul, and I even rode it once, but it was long past its "expiration date." The way to the Balkans in 1975 was from Munich, but even those trains no longer conveyed sleepers to Istanbul, only to Athens. Today one has to travel via Budapest.