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| Franchise(s) | Railtour |
|---|---|
| Main service(s) | Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Belmond British Pullman Belmond Royal Scotsman Eastern & Oriental Express Belmond Andean Explorer |
| Fleet size | Continental train: 18 carriages; UK train: 9 carriages |
| Parent company | Belmond |
| Other | |
| Website | Official website |
The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) is a private luxury train service from London to Venice and other European cities. It is currently owned by Belmond.
These VSOE services are not to be confused with a regularly scheduled train called the Orient Express, which ran nightly between Paris and Bucharest – in the last years of operation cut back to between Strasbourg and Vienna – until 11 December 2009. This latter was a normal EuroNight sleeper train and was the lineal descendant of the original Orient Express daily departure from Paris to Vienna and the Balkans. While this descendant train was primarily used for every sort of passengers to Central and Eastern Europe, applying only the standard international train fares, the VSOE train is aimed at tourists looking to take a luxury train ride. Fares on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express are high as the service is intended not as an ordinary rail service, but as a leisure event with five-star dining included.
The train was established in 1982 by James Sherwood of Kentucky, United States. In 1977 he had bought two original carriages at an auction when the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits withdrew from the Orient Express service, passing the service on to the national railways of France, Germany, and Austria. Over the next few years, Sherwood spent a total of US$16 million purchasing 35 sleeper, restaurant and Pullman carriages. On 25 May 1982, the first London–Venice run was made.
The VSOE has separate restored carriages for use in the UK and for mainland Europe, but all of the same vintage (mostly dating from the 1920s and 1930s). Passengers are conveyed across the English Channel by coach on the Eurotunnel shuttle through the Channel Tunnel. In the UK Pullman carriages are used; in continental Europe sleeping cars and dining cars of the former Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits are used. Sleeper carriages currently have three levels of accommodation available: Grand Suites, Suites, and Historic Cabins. From 2025 the private carriage "L'Observatoire" is scheduled to be added.