The “Orient Express” has been called the “king of trains” and the “train of kings.”
Royalty, writers, actors and spies have ridden the unique route between Paris and Istanbul, which began within the late nineteenth century.
Writer Agatha Christie described the Orient Express as “the train of my dreams.” She set a bestselling murder mystery novel on its carriages, and fictional spy James Bond rode it within the movie “From Russia With Love.”
Travelers might consider the Orient Express as a single luxurious train, but there have in reality been quite a couple of through the years, with many routes and owners.
Soon, people will give you the option to decide on to take a ride on several trains using the Orient Express moniker, by two competing firms, the LVMH-owned luxury travel company Belmond and the French hospitality multinational Accor.
Each have original carriages which date to the late 1800s. But they differ in how they’re designed, where they travel and the way long they have been in operation — one for a long time and the opposite set to launch in 2024.
History behind the ‘Orient Express’
The unique train was conceived by a young Belgian engineer named Georges Nagelmackers, who was inspired by the Pullman sleeper trains he rode during a visit to the US in 1868.
Nagelmackers wanted to construct something similar — but more luxurious — for upmarket passengers in Europe. In 1883, the “Train Express d’Orient” made its first journey out of the Gare de Strasbourg in Paris (now the Gare de l’Est) to Vienna.
The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express will launch eight recent suites in June 2023.
Belmond
A number of years later, the train was renamed the Orient Express and started traveling to Istanbul, then referred to as Constantinople. Travelers flocked to the train’s modern technology and splendid silver cutlery and silk sheets.
Soon, Nagelmackers’ firm began to construct more upscale trains for other European routes, including one which ran through the then-new Simplon Tunnel, which connects Switzerland to Italy, in addition to the “Arlberg-Orient-Express,” operating between Calais, France, and Budapest, Hungary.
By the Nineteen Seventies, the unique Orient Express trains had made their last journeys, and the carriages fell into disrepair.
But within the Eighties, two businessmen undertook separate endeavors to revive them.
James Sherwood, an American, spent a reported $31 million acquiring and restoring enough carriages to form the “Venice Simplon-Orient-Express,” now owned by Belmond. (So as to add to the confusion, Sherwood also added hotels to his travel group, calling them Orient-Express Hotels. He renamed the corporate to Belmond in 2014.)
Swiss tour operator Albert Glatt began a service between Zurich and Istanbul, referred to as the “Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express,” which is now owned by Accor.
The ‘Venice Simplon-Orient-Express’
“This train comes imbued with a lot history,” he said. “The carriages are beautiful.”
As for Accor’s plans to launch a train also called the Orient Express,” Franklin said, “We are the ones which were doing it for 40 years, and I believe we take it as an enormous compliment that folks are … seeing how well we’re doing with that.”
A one-night trip on the “Venice Simplon-Orient-Express” starts from £2,920 ($3,292) per person.
Belmond
Belmond has a one-off licensing deal to make use of the Orient Express name on its Venice Simplon train, Franklin confirmed, while Accor has the rights to the brand as an entire.
The “Venice Simplon-Orient-Express” will operate winter journeys for the primary time this December, visiting Paris, Venice, Vienna and Florence, encouraging guests to go to the Christmas markets in those cities.
And next June, recent suites are opening on the train, which include private bathrooms, a steward, kimonos and slippers.
A one-night journey will cost from £5,500 ($6,135) per person in the brand new suites, that are one step below the train’s most luxurious category — the Grand Suites — which include private dining, heated floors and “free-flowing” champagne, in accordance with the web site.
A collection on the “Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.”
Belmond
Tickets for around half of the brand new suites have already been bought, and Grand Suites (about $9,600 per night) are almost sold out, Franklin said.
The ‘Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express’
A number of years after Glatt put his train back on the rails, it was again left derelict.
Fast forward to 2015 and French rail company SNCF — which then owned the rights to the Orient Express name — commissioned researcher Arthur Mettetal to seek out the train.
“We had an exquisite brand, but no cars,” Guillaume de Saint Lager, now vice chairman of Orient Express at Accor, told CNBC. “We knew there was this entire train, but we didn’t know where it was.”
Using Google Maps and Google 3D, Mettetal situated 17 of the unique cars on the Poland-Belarus border.
Carriages from the “Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express,” found derelict on the Poland-Belarus border, are being restored by the French hotel group Accor.
Maxime d’Angeac | Martin Darzacq | Accor
The bar automobile on the “Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express” will feature a bar with a glass counter, a tribute to French designer Rene Lalique.
Maxime d’Angeac | Martin Darzacq | Accor
Much of the inside — including original marquetry, or decorated wood — was intact, said de Saint Lager.
An in depth restoration is now underway, with architect Maxime d’Angeac hired to design the interiors. His temporary was to “have a type of fantasy of what might be Art Deco,” d’Angeac told CNBC by phone. He said he had a major collection of the train’s original drawings and models.
Original glass Lalique lamps, in the form of a flower, will light the train’s corridors, while other original elements from the rediscovered train will even be incorporated, comparable to suitcase racks and door handles.
A corridor on the “Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express” features original glass Lalique flower lamps.
Maxime d’Angeac | Martin Darzacq | Accor
The bar automobile will feature call buttons for champagne and repair, while the dining automobile could have a mirrored ceiling in addition to a glass wall to the kitchen, so guests can see the chef.
Sleeping suites will feature leather partitions, embroidered headboards and en suite marble bathrooms. De Saint Lager described it as a “cruise train,” where guests can alight at lesser-known places (routes and costs are yet to be announced).
Passengers will soon give you the option to remain at “Orient Express” hotels, too, the primary of which can launch in Rome in 2024, in accordance with Accor’s website.
The Orient Express ‘La Dolce Vita’
Accor has more plans to make use of the Orient Express name. It is also developing six “La Dolce Vita” trains that can run through 14 regions in Italy in addition to neighboring countries, with goals to have 10 Orient Express hotels by 2030.
A rendering of the “Orient Express La Dolce Vita,” which can connect Rome to cities like Paris, Istanbul and Split.
Dimorestudio | Accor
These trains pays tribute to an era different from the Venice Simplon or the Nostalgie-Istanbul trains.
“La Dolce Vita” — which translates as “the sweet life” — refers to Federico Fellini’s 1960 movie, in addition to to a way of Italian glamour and pleasure. The trains are designed to embody “the Italian art of living and all its beautiful traditions,” in accordance with a web-based post by interiors company Dimorestudio, which is working on the project.
The trains could have 18 suites, 12 deluxe cabins and an “honour suite.” Most will leave from Rome’s Termini station, where passengers could have access to a lounge before departure, and can travel around 16,000 kilometers (about 10,000 miles) of railway lines, with stops at lesser-known Italian destinations.
A rendering of a bedroom suite on the “Orient Express La Dolce Vita,” showing the train’s Nineteen Sixties-style decor.
Dimorestudio | Accor
Together with the Orient Express La Minerva Hotel in Rome, Accor will even open the Orient Express Venice Hotel in 2024 in a restored palace. As well as, Accor has plans to launch an Orient Express hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Those trains are also set to be launched in 2024, in accordance with an organization representative.
— CNBC’s Monica Pitrelli contributed to this report.