James Bond, Hercule Poirot and Hitchcock’s lady who vanished supposedly had only one Orient Express to travel on for their fictional adventures. Soon, well-off travellers can pick from competing versions of the celebrated train.
The Venice-Simplon Orient Express, which has been running since 1982 and offers London-Venice one-night sleepers for over £4,000 per one-way ticket, is to be challenged by the Orient Express La Dolce Vita, an Italian-based operation that is also claiming to be the heir to the service created in 1883 by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.
The Accor hotel group, which uses the Orient Express name under licence from the SNCF French railways, aims to tap into the “new golden age” for sleeper trains and expanding demand for ultra-luxury rail travel.
The Orient Express has been associated since the 1920s with intrigue and glamour. Agatha Christie used it for her Murder on the Orient Express in 1934, Hitchcock set The Lady Vanishes on it in 1938 and James Bond killed a Russian agent on it in the From Russia with Love film in 1963.
Belmond, its British-based operator, says its Orient Express service is the descendant of the original, saying: “This train has long captured the hearts and imaginations of glamorous guests.”
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The rival Dolce Vita version will evoke the insouciance of 1960s Italy with 1970s rolling stock bought in Belarus and lavishly renovated.
Reservations open for the Dolce Vita next summer with trains starting in early 2023, winding through Venice, Tuscany and Sicily and also from Rome to Paris, Istanbul and Split at an average price of €2,000 a night per person.
For aircraft-averse travellers with less money, Austrian and French railways are launching a NightJet sleeper next week to run overnight on the old Paris-Vienna Orient Express line with fares starting at just €30.
