Venice Simplon-Orient-Express in Venice

The first passengers never even reached Constantinople by rail; a ferry finished the job.

On 4 June 1883, Belgian engineer Georges Nagelmackers launched the Express d'Orient from the Gare de Strasbourg (now Gare de l'Est) in Paris. The train, operated by his Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, ran to Giurgiu in Romania, with passengers completing the final leg to Constantinople by ferry and connecting train. It was the first transcontinental luxury express in Europe, and it changed the way the continent thought about travel.

Sixty-seven hours from Paris to Constantinople; diplomats and royalty would settle for nothing less.

By 1889, the completion of rail links through Bulgaria meant the Orient Express could run directly from Paris to Constantinople (Istanbul) without interruption. The journey took around 67 hours. The train quickly became the transport of choice for diplomats, royalty, and the wealthy, its teak-panelled sleeping cars and white-linen dining service setting a standard no other railway could match.

A tunnel beneath the Alps unlocked the route that Agatha Christie would later make immortal.

After the First World War, the Simplon Orient Express was introduced, running from Paris through the Simplon Tunnel beneath the Alps and on to Venice, Trieste, and eventually Istanbul. The new route through Switzerland and Italy offered some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Europe. It was this Simplon variant that would become the most famous incarnation of the train, and the one Agatha Christie immortalised in her 1934 novel.

A novel never out of print, born from a passenger who knew every creak of the sleeping cars.

Agatha Christie published Murder on the Orient Express in January 1934, drawing on her own experiences aboard the train. Christie had been a regular passenger, and the novel's claustrophobic setting, a snowbound sleeping car somewhere in the Balkans, cemented the Orient Express as a byword for mystery and sophistication. The book has never been out of print and has been adapted for film three times, most recently in 2017.

Thirty-five scattered carriages, one obsessive vision; it started with two lots and £32,000 in Monte Carlo.

American entrepreneur James Sherwood, founder of Sea Containers, attended a Sotheby's auction in Monte Carlo in October 1977 where two original Wagons-Lits sleeping cars were sold. Sherwood bought them both, paying £32,000. It was the beginning of a five-year obsession. He would go on to track down 35 original carriages from locations across Europe, some in use as restaurants, others abandoned in railway sidings, and commission their painstaking restoration to 1920s glory.

Sixteen million dollars spent, and not a single empty seat on opening day.

On 25 May 1982, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express departed London Victoria on its inaugural revenue journey to Venice. The service combined the Belmond British Pullman from London to Folkestone, a cross-Channel ferry, and the restored continental sleeping cars from Boulogne through Paris and the Alps to Venice Santa Lucia. Sherwood had spent $16 million on the restoration. The train was fully booked.

Twenty-four hours from London Victoria to Venice, through the Alps and without a single ferry in sight.

The opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 eventually allowed the VSOE to offer a seamless rail journey from London to the continent, replacing the ferry crossing that had been part of the original experience. The British Pullman now carries passengers from London Victoria to Folkestone, where they transfer to the continental train. The journey from London to Venice takes around 24 hours, passing through the French countryside, the Swiss Alps, and the Brenner Pass.

At $3.2 billion, LVMH folded the Orient Express into the same portfolio as Vuitton, Dior, and Moët.

In 2014, the VSOE's parent company was rebranded as Belmond, and in 2019 LVMH acquired Belmond for $3.2 billion, placing the Orient Express within the same stable as Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Moët & Chandon. The acquisition signalled a new era of investment. The carriages have since undergone further restoration, and new Grand Suites were introduced, each themed around a great European city: Venice, Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Istanbul, and Prague.

Seventeen carriages dating from the 1920s and 1930s, restored to their Art Deco finest and still crossing Europe in style.

The VSOE continues to operate its classic London to Venice route alongside seasonal journeys to destinations including Paris, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Istanbul. Under LVMH's stewardship, the Orient Express brand is expanding: a new Orient Express hotel is planned for Rome's historic Minerva building, and a sister train, La Dolce Vita Orient Express, will operate routes across Italy. The original VSOE, though, remains the definitive experience: 17 original 1920s and 1930s carriages, restored to their Art Deco best, rolling through some of the finest scenery in Europe.