Venice Simplon-Orient-Express in Vienna

The very first Orient Express passengers reached Constantinople not by rail alone, but by ferry.

On 4 June 1883, the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits launched the Express d'Orient from the Gare de Strasbourg (now Gare de l'Est) in Paris. The brainchild of Belgian engineer Georges Nagelmackers, the service ran to Giurgiu in Romania, with passengers completing the final leg to Constantinople by ferry and connecting train. It was the first transcontinental luxury rail service in Europe. Vienna was a natural stop on the route, the train passing through the Habsburg capital as it threaded its way eastward across the continent. From the outset, the service offered sleeping cars, a restaurant car, and a level of comfort that simply did not exist on European railways.

Sixty-seven hours from Paris to Constantinople, no ferry required; legend does not overstate it.

By 1889, the completion of rail links through the Balkans meant the Orient Express could run directly from Paris to Constantinople (Istanbul) without the need for ferry crossings. The journey took around 67 hours. The train was officially renamed the Orient Express, and its route through Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, and on to the Bosphorus became the stuff of legend.

A peace treaty rerouted history; Italy gave the train its soul.

After the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles mandated a new route through the Simplon Tunnel, bypassing Germany and Austria. The Simplon Orient Express ran from Paris through Lausanne, Milan, Venice, Trieste, and on to Istanbul. This southern routing through Italy gave the service its most glamorous association: Venice.

Fiction born from a real delay; Christie's snowbound ordeal in 1931 gave the world its most glamorous murder scene.

Agatha Christie's novel, published in January 1934, cemented the Orient Express in popular imagination forever. Christie had travelled on the train herself and was reportedly stranded on it for several days in 1931 due to flooding near Istanbul. The novel's setting, a snowbound train carrying an international cast of suspects, turned the Orient Express from a mode of transport into a cultural icon.

Thirty-five carriages rescued from youth hostels and restaurants. One man's $16 million obsession started with just two.

In October 1977, Sotheby's auctioned five original Wagons-Lits sleeping cars in Monte Carlo. American businessman James Sherwood, founder of Sea Containers, purchased two of them. It was the beginning of a five-year, $16 million obsession. Sherwood spent years tracking down 35 original carriages from across Europe, finding them in use as everything from a restaurant in Portugal to a youth hostel in Poland.

Lalique glass, restored marquetry, and carriages returned to their 1920s and 1930s glory: Sherwood didn't revive a train so much as rescue a way of travelling.

On 25 May 1982, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express departed London Victoria for Venice on its inaugural revenue service. The operation was split into two parts: the British Pullman carried passengers from London to Folkestone, where they crossed the Channel by ferry, then boarded the Continental train at Boulogne for the overnight journey through France, Switzerland, and the Alps to Venice. Every carriage had been restored to its 1920s and 1930s glory. The marquetry, the Lalique glass panels, the brass fittings: all original or faithfully reproduced. Sherwood had resurrected not just a train, but a way of travelling that the 20th century had tried its best to kill off.

One rebrand, and suddenly the Orient-Express had neighbours: Cipriani, Copacabana, Vienna.

In 2014, Orient-Express Hotels rebranded as Belmond, bringing the VSOE under a luxury hospitality umbrella that included the Hotel Cipriani in Venice and the Copacabana Palace in Rio. The route network expanded beyond the classic London-to-Venice run to include journeys to Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and seasonal services to destinations across Europe.

A $3.2 billion handshake placed the Orient-Express alongside Dior and Moët in the same corporate family.

In April 2019, LVMH completed its acquisition of Belmond for $3.2 billion, placing the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express within the same portfolio as Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Moët & Chandon. The acquisition signalled a new chapter of investment. Under LVMH, the train has seen the introduction of Grand Suites, named after the great cities on its routes, offering private en-suite bathrooms and a level of space previously unimaginable on a train.

Vienna has greeted this train for over 140 years; it shows no signs of stopping now.

Over 140 years after the original Orient Express first passed through Vienna, the city remains a key destination on the VSOE network. The train's Vienna route typically runs from London or Paris, crossing the Alps and arriving at Wien Hauptbahnhof. Passengers step off into a city that, like the train itself, has managed to preserve its imperial grandeur while remaining thoroughly alive. Meanwhile, LVMH has announced the Orient Express La Dolce Vita, a new Italian luxury train, and the Orient Express Silenseas, a sailing yacht. The brand that Georges Nagelmackers built in 1883 is expanding once more.