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71-561: The Orient Express embarked on its initial journey on June 5, 1883, from Paris to Vienna, eventually extending to Istanbul, thus connecting the western and eastern extremities of Europe. The route saw alterations and expansions, including the introduction of the Simplon Orient Express following the opening of the Simplon Tunnel in 1919, enhancing the service's allure and importance. Several routes concurrently used

142-596: A Prussian who was sent to Istanbul by the German government in order to study Ottoman architecture , but lectured architectural design at the School of Polytechnics in Istanbul (now Istanbul Technical University ). The terminal building which rises on an area of 1,200 m (13,000 sq ft) is one of the most famous examples of European Orientalism , and has influenced the designs of other architects. The building

213-477: A 20-minute train journey as an alternative to driving over the Simplon Pass. The service began on 1 December 1959. As roads over the Simplon Pass steadily improved throughout the 1970s and 1980s the tunnel's shuttle schedule was cut back, then ended altogether on 3 January 1993. Almost twelve years later, on 12 December 2004, the car shuttle service began again and now runs about every 90 minutes. In

284-599: A Belgian banker's son, invited guests to a railway trip of 2,000 km (1,243 mi) on his Train Eclair de luxe ("lightning luxury train"). The train left Paris Gare de l'Est on Tuesday, 10 October 1882, just after 18:30 and arrived in Vienna the next day at 23:20. The return trip left Vienna on Friday, 13 October at 16:40 and, as planned, re-entered the Gare de Strasbourg at 20:00 on Saturday 14 October. Georges Nagelmackers

355-486: A chain of Orient Express-branded luxury hotels, licensed from SNCF, owner of the Orient Express branding. The chain was renamed Belmond in 2014 when the branding license ended. In 2017, Accor purchased a 50% stake in the Orient Express brand from SNCF for the right to use the name. In 2018, Accor began renovation work on 17 CIWL carriages from the defunct Nostalgie Istanbul Orient Express , which date back to

426-517: A connecting service from London to Folkestone on the British Pullman , using similarly restored vintage British Pullman cars, but it was announced in April 2023 that due to complications ensuing from Brexit this would cease, and travelers from London would have to take Eurostar to Paris in order to join the Orient Express. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express operates from March to December and

497-587: A convenient connection to the Strasbourg-Paris TGV , but due to the less flexible prices the route became less attractive. In the final years through coaches between Vienna and Karlsruhe (continuing first to Dortmund , then to Amsterdam , and finally to Frankfurt ) were attached. The last train with the name Orient-Express (now with a hyphen) departed from Vienna on 10 December 2009, and one day later from Strasbourg. On 13 December 2021, an ÖBB Nightjet train began running three times per week on

568-516: A daily train to Sofia with through cars to Bucharest in high season is offered. Sirkeci is an underground railway station along the trans-Bosphorus Marmaray tunnel. This underground station was opened on 29 October 2013 along with four other stations (Kazlıçeşme, Yenikapı, Üsküdar and Ayrılık Çeşmesi) on the Marmaray line. Sirkeci is serviced by TCDD trains running between Kazlıçeşme (west of Sirkeci) and Ayrılık Çeşmesi (east of Sirkeci on

639-453: A day worked on the site. They were mostly Italians, who suffered under very poor working conditions: 67 workers were killed in accidents; many died later of diseases. During the work, there were strikes, which led to the intervention of vigilantes and the Swiss army . With up to 2,150 m (7,054 ft) of rock over the tunnel, temperatures of up to 42 °C (108 °F) were expected and

710-730: A luxury tourist train using restored coaches from the 1930s. The VSOE still makes one journey per year to Istanbul , but mostly travels between Calais and Venice . Between July 2005 and February 2011, the Friendship Express , (an international InterCity train jointly operated by the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) and TrainOSE linking Istanbul and Thessaloniki , Greece) terminated at Sirkeci Railway Station. Since May 2013 there are currently no international trains from Sirkeci Terminal. For trains to Bulgaria only, suburban trains connect to Halkalı from where

781-415: A new building method was developed. In addition to the single-line main tunnel, a parallel tunnel was built, with the tunnel centres separated by 17 m (56 ft), through which pipes supplied fresh air to the builders in the main tunnel. It was envisaged that the parallel tunnel could be upgraded to a second running tunnel when required. The first Simplon Tunnel (19,803 m (64,970 ft) in length)

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852-659: A new underground station was opened to the public and is serviced by Marmaray trains travelling across the Bosphorus. Station reopened on 26 February 2024 as part of T6 Sirkeci–Kazlıçeşme Tramway Line / U3 Sirkeci–Kazlıçeşme Rail Line . Sirkeci Terminal has a total of 4 platforms (3 above, 1 underground) with 7 tracks (5 above, 2 underground). Formerly, commuter trains to Halkalı would depart from tracks 2, 3 and 4; while regional trains to Kapıkule , Edirne and Uzunköprü , along with international trains to Bucharest , Sofia and Belgrade would depart from tracks 1 and 5. After

923-648: A three-phase power supply of 3,400 volts at 15.8 Hz using two overhead wires with the track acting as the third conductor. BBC had no electric locomotives and initially acquired three locomotives built for the Ferrovia della Valtellina —the owner of the lines from Colico to Chiavenna and Tirano , which had been electrified with this system in 1901 and 1902 —from their owner, the Rete Adriatica (Adriatic Network) railway company. These three locomotives (which became FS Class E.360 ) hauled all traffic through

994-470: A through sleeping car from Paris to Bucharest was only operated until 1982, and also a through seating car was only operated seasonally. This meant that, as Paris–Budapest and Vienna–Bucharest coaches were running overlapped, a journey was only possible with changing carriages – despite the unchanged name and numbering of the train. In 1991 the Budapest-Bucharest leg of the train was discontinued,

1065-606: A world record at the time. Temperatures up to 56 °C (133 °F) have been measured inside the tunnel. Work on the first tube of the Simplon Tunnel commenced in 1898. The Italian king Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and the president of the Swiss Confederation (presiding the Federal Council of Switzerland for that year) Ludwig Forrer opened the tunnel at Brig on 19 May 1906. The builders of

1136-809: Is a railway terminal in Istanbul , Turkey . The terminal is located in Sirkeci , on the tip of Istanbul's historic peninsula , right next to the Golden Horn and just northwest of Gülhane Park and the Topkapı Palace . Sirkeci Terminal on the European side of the Bosporus strait , along with Haydarpaşa Terminal on the Asian side, are Istanbul's two intercity and commuter railway terminals. Built in 1890 by

1207-589: Is a railway tunnel on the Simplon railway that connects Brig , Switzerland and Domodossola , Italy, through the Alps , providing a shortcut under the Simplon Pass route. It is straight except for short curves at either end. It consists of two single-track tunnels built nearly 15 years apart. The first to be opened is 19,803 m (64,970 ft) long; the second is 19,824 m (65,039 ft) long, making it

1278-643: Is aimed at leisure travellers. Tickets start at US$ 3,262 per person and it operates on multiple different routes most notably Paris - Istanbul via Vienna and Budapest . Despite its name, the train runs via the Brenner Pass instead of the Simplon tunnel. Belmond also offers a similarly themed luxury train in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, called the Eastern and Oriental Express . Sherwood also operated

1349-637: The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express , initiated by James Sherwood in 1982, which offers nostalgic journeys through Europe in restored 1920s and 1930s CIWL carriages, including the original route from Paris to Istanbul. Since December 2021, an ÖBB Nightjet runs three times per week on the Paris-Vienna route, although not branded as Orient Express. Beginning in 2025, Accor will launch its own Orient Express with journeys from Paris to Istanbul. In 1882, Georges Nagelmackers ,

1420-603: The Crimean War , the Ottoman authorities concluded that a railway connecting Europe with Istanbul was necessary. The first contract was signed with Labro, a British member of parliament, in January 1857. The contract was cancelled three months later because Labro was unable to provide the investment capital required. Similar second and third contracts signed with British and Belgian entrepreneurs in 1860 and 1868 ended with

1491-849: The Gare de l'Est in Paris , with farewell music from Mozart 's Turkish March . The train was a project of Belgian businessman Georges Nagelmackers . The route passed through Strasbourg , Karlsruhe , Stuttgart , Ulm , and Munich in Germany, Vienna in Austria, Budapest in Hungary, Bucharest in Romania, Rousse and Varna in Bulgaria , ending in Sirkeci. The journey of 3,094 kilometres (1,923 mi) took 80 hours. The direct Orient Express

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1562-751: The Gotthard Pass and Western Switzerland supported the Simplon route. In 1871, the first line was completed through the Alps, connecting Italy and France with the Fréjus Rail Tunnel . The Compagnie de la Ligne d'Italie was founded in 1856 to build a connection between Romandy and Italy through the Canton of Valais and the Simplon . On 1 June 1874, it was taken over by the Simplon Company ( French : Compagnie du Simplon , S), which

1633-507: The Orient Express name, or variations. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name became synonymous with intrigue and luxury rail travel . The city names most prominently served and associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Istanbul, the original termini of the timetabled service. The rolling stock of the Orient Express changed many times. However, post-World War II,

1704-535: The Orient Express , the Simplon Orient Express , and also the Arlberg Orient Express , which ran via the Arlberg railway between Zürich and Innsbruck to Budapest, with sleeper cars running onwards from there to Bucharest and Athens . During this time, the Orient Express acquired its reputation for comfort and luxury, carrying sleeping cars with permanent service and restaurant cars known for

1775-409: The Orient Express , was shortened to start from Strasbourg , leaving daily after the arrival of a TGV from Paris. On 14 December 2009, the Orient Express ceased to operate entirely and the route disappeared from European railway timetables, a "victim of high-speed trains and cut-rate airlines". In contemporary times, the legacy of the Orient Express has been revived through private ventures like

1846-497: The Oriental Railway as the eastern terminus of the world-famous Orient Express that once operated between Paris and Istanbul in the period between 1883 and 2009, Sirkeci Terminal has become a symbol of the city. As of 19 March 2013, service to the station was indefinitely suspended due to the rehabilitation of the existing line between Kazlıçeşme and Halkalı for the new Marmaray commuter rail line. On 29 October 2013,

1917-585: The Simplon Orient Express . This was replaced in 1962 by a slower service called the Direct Orient Express , which ran daily cars from Paris to Belgrade, and twice weekly services from Paris to Istanbul and Athens. In 1971, the Wagon-Lits company stopped running carriages itself and making revenues from a ticket supplement. Instead, it sold or leased all its carriages to the various national railway companies, but continued to provide staff for

1988-576: The longest railway tunnel in the world for most of the twentieth century, from 1906 until 1982, when the Daishimizu Tunnel opened. Culminating at a height of only 705 m (2,313 ft) above sea level, the Simplon Tunnel was also the lowest direct Alpine crossing for 110 years, until the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016. The tunnel has a maximum rock overlay of approximately 2,150 m (7,050 ft), also

2059-595: The tensioned cable normally used for overhead electrification so that the required 4.90-metre (16 ft 7 ⁄ 8  in) height clearance could be achieved. In the late 1980s, a one kilometre (0.62 mi) long overhead electric rail had been tested at 160 km/h (99 mph). Before this experiment, trains running under overhead electric rails in Switzerland had been limited to 110 km/h (68 mph) and internationally to 80 km/h (50 mph). Restricted rail operations were maintained during

2130-494: The 1920s and 1930s. It will carry passengers between Paris and Istanbul beginning in 2025. They will also offer journeys around Italy on Orient Express La Dolce Vita beginning in April 2025. The glamour and rich history of the Orient Express has frequently lent itself to the plot of books and films and as the subject of television documentaries. Sources: Simplon Tunnel The Simplon Tunnel ( Simplontunnel , Traforo del Sempione or Galleria del Sempione )

2201-408: The Asian side) with 6- to 10-minute intervals. Once the rehabilitation of the existing rail lines are complete, Marmaray commuter service will run west to Halkalı and east to Gebze. This service is expected to commence in 2016. Construction of the Marmaray tunnel started in 2004 and was expected to open in April 2009. However, due to several important archaeological discoveries at Yenikapı, the opening

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2272-637: The Bulgarian–Turkish border from 1951 to 1952 prevented services running to Istanbul during that time. As the Iron Curtain fell across Europe, the service continued to run, but the Communist nations increasingly replaced the Wagon-Lits cars with carriages run by their own railway services. By 1962, the original Orient Express and Arlberg Orient Express had stopped running, leaving only

2343-586: The Day by Thomas Pynchon , Reef Traverse, one of the novel's characters, works on the construction of the Simplon Tunnel. In the novel "The Couloir" by Richard Manichello, the Canton Valais is a major geographical setting for action and scenes. especially the Val de Bagnes. Brig and the Simplon Pass & Tunnel play an important role in the main plot, moving characters in and out of Western Swiss locations or over

2414-405: The Orient Express struggled to maintain its preeminence amid changing geopolitical landscapes and the rise of air travel. The route stopped serving Istanbul in 1977, cut back to a through overnight service from Paris to Bucharest , which was cut back further in 1991 to Budapest , then in 2001 to Vienna, before departing for the last time from Paris on 8 June 2007. After this, the route, still called

2485-818: The Paris-Vienna route, although it is not branded as Orient Express. One of the last known CIWL teak sleeping cars from the period before the First World War has been rotting away for decades on the Amfikleia station site in Greece. In 1976, the Swiss travel company Intraflug AG first rented, then later bought several CIWL-carriages. They were operated as the Nostalgic Istanbul Orient Express by Seattle-based Society Expeditions. The route went first from Zürich to Istanbul , following

2556-464: The Pennine Alps for various intrigues and subplots involving action that traverses Swiss and Italian story settings. 46°19′25″N 8°00′11″E  /  46.32361°N 8.00306°E  / 46.32361; 8.00306 Istanbul Sirkeci Terminal Sirkeci railway station ( Turkish : Sirkeci garı ), listed on maps as Istanbul railway station ( Turkish : İstanbul garı ),

2627-544: The Rhone valley lines will be increased from 160 to 200 km/h (99 to 124 mph). On 9 June 2011, a 300 m (984 ft) section of the Simplon II tunnel's roof was seriously damaged when a northbound BLS freight train caught fire and stopped 3 km (1.9 mi) into the tunnel. The temperature exceeded 800 °C (1,470 °F) and took more than two weeks to cool back to normal. By agreement all repairs to

2698-680: The SOS joined with the Jura–Bern–Luzern Railway to create the Jura–Simplon Railway (French: Compagnie du Jura–Simplon , SOS). The participation of the Swiss government led to the signing of a treaty with Italy on 25 November 1895 concerning the construction and operation of a railway through the Simplon from Brig to Domodossola by the Jura–Simplon Railway. The route of the tunnel was determined by military considerations so that

2769-535: The carriages. 1976 saw the withdrawal of the Paris–Athens direct service, and in 1977, the Direct Orient Express was withdrawn completely, with the last Paris–Istanbul service running on 19 May of that year. The withdrawal of the Direct Orient Express was thought by many to signal the end of the Orient Express as a whole, but in fact a service under this name continued to run from Paris to Bucharest as before (via Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, and Budapest). However,

2840-509: The construction of a tunnel from Glis to Gondo, which would have been fully in Switzerland. From Gondo it would have continued on a ramp through the Divedro valley down to Domodossola . At a Swiss-Italian conference held in July 1889, it was agreed, however, to build a nearly 20-kilometre long (12 mi) base tunnel through the territory of both states. In order to secure credit for the tunnel,

2911-527: The context of a nationwide rail upgrading project, Rail 2000 , between 1985 and 2004. Further adjustments are proposed. In November 2004, the 7-kilometre long (4.3 mi) new line between Salgesch and Leuk in the Rhone Valley was completed to replace the last single-track bottleneck on the route. Under the ZEB ("Future rail development projects") package, the maximum speed on the long straight sections of

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2982-515: The early 1990s, a project to implement the rolling highway system of piggyback operations for transalpine freight on the Lötschberg –Simplon axis was implemented. Such operations were possible under the previous profile of the Simplon Tunnel, but capacity would have been heavily restricted because its height was too low to carry trucks at the permitted maximum corner height of four metres (13 ft 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  in). The clearance in

3053-505: The entire construction period. In order to expand the Lötschberg-Simplon axis into a powerful transit axis, various extensions to the access lines (from Bern and Lausanne in the north and from Novara and Milan in the south) have been made in recent years and decades. The largest projects have dealt with the northern access from Basel-Bern via Lötschberg. Between 1976 and 2007 there were three major transformations. First,

3124-652: The first Express d'Orient left Paris for Vienna via Munich . Vienna remained the terminus until 4 October 1883, when the route was extended to Giurgiu , Romania. At Giurgiu, passengers were ferried across the Danube to Ruse, Bulgaria , to pick up another train to Varna . They then completed their journey to Constantinople , as the city was still commonly called in the west at the time, by ferry. In 1885, another route began operations, this time reaching Constantinople via rail from Vienna to Belgrade and Niš , carriage to Plovdiv , and rail again to Istanbul. On 1 June 1889,

3195-677: The first direct train to Constantinople left Paris from Gare de l'Est . Istanbul, as it became known in English by the 1930s, remained its easternmost stop until 19 May 1977. The eastern terminus was the Sirkeci Terminal by the Golden Horn . Ferry service from piers next to the terminal would take passengers across the Bosphorus to Haydarpaşa Terminal , the terminus of the Asian lines of the Ottoman Railways . The train

3266-431: The new final station now becoming Budapest. In the summer season of 1999 and 2000 a sleeping car from Bucharest to Paris reappeared running twice a week, now operated by CFR . This continued until 2001, when the service was cut back to just Paris–Vienna, as a EuroNight train, though the coaches were actually attached to a regular Paris– Strasbourg express for that leg of the journey. This service continued daily, listed in

3337-457: The old route. The Treaty of Saint-Germain contained a clause requiring Austria to accept this train: formerly, Austria allowed international services to pass through Austrian territory (which included Trieste at the time) only if they ran via Vienna. The Simplon Orient Express soon became the most important rail route between Paris and Istanbul. The 1930s saw the Orient Express services at its most popular, with three parallel services running:

3408-493: The quality of their cuisine. Royalty , nobles , diplomats, business people, and the bourgeoisie in general patronized it. Each of the Orient Express services also incorporated sleeping cars which had run from Calais to Paris, thus extending the service from one end of continental Europe to the other. The start of the Second World War in 1939 again interrupted the service, which did not resume until 1945. During

3479-512: The remaining single-track line between Spiez and Brig was dualled. Later, adjustments were made to the tunnel profile for piggyback traffic; in places only widening one track was possible. Finally, the Lötschberg Base Tunnel partially opened in 2007, although the new tunnel still has a 21-kilometre (13 mile) single-track section; this was done in order to save costs for the construction of the longer Gotthard Base Tunnel , which

3550-459: The route of the Arlberg Orient Express . In 1983, the 100th anniversary of the Orient Express was celebrated by extending the route to run from Paris to Istanbul. The train ceased operations in 2007. In 1982, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express was established by businessman James Sherwood as a private venture and is currently owned and operated by Belmond . It operates restored 1920s and 1930s carriages on routes around Europe. It also offered

3621-474: The same result. On 17 April 1869 the concession for the "Rumeli Railroad" was awarded to Baron Maurice de Hirsch (Moritz Freiherr Hirsch auf Gereuth), a Bavaria -born banker from Belgium . The project foresaw a route from Istanbul via Edirne , Plovdiv and Sarajevo to the shore of the Sava River . The construction of the first 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Istanbul to Halkalı began on 4 June 1870 and

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3692-594: The southern section from the passing loop to the south portal. During the Second World War, on both sides of the border, there were preparations for the possible detonation of the tunnels. In Italy, the German army planned, as part of its 1945 withdrawal, to blow up the tunnel, but was thwarted by Italian partisans with the help of two Swiss officials and Austrian deserters. There is a car-carrying shuttle between Brig and Iselle di Trasquera , which provides

3763-508: The state border between the two countries was in the middle of the tunnel, allowing either country to block the tunnel in the event of war. On 1 May 1903, the Jura-Simplon Railway was nationalized and integrated into the network of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), which completed the construction of the tunnel. The construction of the tunnel was carried out by the Hamburg engineering company Brandt & Brandau, of Karl Brandau and Alfred Brandt  [ de ] . On average, 3,000 people

3834-559: The terminal building have largely changed since 1890. The Istanbul Railway Museum , which opened in September 2005, is located in the station. Members of the Mevlevi Dervish order regularly conduct ceremonies at Sirkeci Terminal, which tourists and other members of the public can observe for an admission fee. Until 2013, the terminal was the endpoint of the lines connecting Turkey to the rest of Europe. It connected to two neighbouring countries. One service connected Istanbul with Thessaloniki in Greece - this so-called Friendship Express

3905-408: The timetables under the name Orient Express , until 8 June 2007. With the opening of the LGV Est Paris–Strasbourg high speed rail line on 10 June 2007, the Orient Express service was further cut back to Strasbourg–Vienna, departing nightly at 22:20 from Strasbourg, and still bearing the name, but lost the train numbers 262/263 which it had borne for decades. The remains of the original train had

3976-431: The tunnel on 19 May 1906. Because of its length among other things, it has operated with electric traction rather than steam from the beginning. The official decision to use electricity was made only half a year before its opening by the then-still-new SBB. Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) were commissioned to carry out the electrification. They decided in 1904 to use the three-phase system being introduced in Italy, with

4047-422: The tunnel until 1908. On 2 March 1930, the Simplon tunnel was converted to 15 kV, 16.7 Hz AC (single-phase). Between 1912 and 1921, the 19,823-metre long (65,036 ft) second tube, known as Simplon II, was built. On 7 January 1922 the northern section from the north portal to the 500-metre long (1,640 ft) passing loop in the middle of the tunnel was brought into operation, followed on 16 October 1922 by

4118-414: The tunnel was therefore increased by lowering the rail trackbed. This work began in 1995 and lasted eight years. At the same time, the tunnel vault was rehabilitated, while the drainage tunnel was rebuilt. A total of 200,000 m (260,000 cu yd) of rock was removed with pneumatic breakers. In addition, a new railway electrification system was installed using overhead electric rail instead of

4189-421: The tunnel were Hermann Häustler and Hugo von Kager . Work on the second tube of the tunnel started in 1912 and it was opened in 1921. Shortly after the opening of the first railway in Switzerland, each region began to favour a separate north–south link through the Alps towards Italy. Eastern Switzerland supported a line through the Splügen Pass or the Lukmanier Pass , Central Switzerland and Zürich favoured

4260-432: The tunnels are the responsibility of the SBB , which expected to reopen the tunnel in December 2011. The other tunnel remained in service. Repair work was completed in November 2011. In the 1957 novel From Russia, with Love by Ian Fleming , protagonist James Bond fights his enemy, SMERSH agent Donovan Grant, eventually killing him, while passing through the Simplon Tunnel on the Orient Express . In Against

4331-412: The walls of Topkapı Palace 's lower garden. The extension line was completed on 21 July 1872. In 1873, a "temporary" terminus station in Sirkeci was built. The construction of a new terminal building began on 11 February 1888. The terminus, which was initially named " Müşir Ahmet Paşa Station", was opened on 3 November 1890, replacing the temporary one. The architect of the project was August Jasmund ,

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4402-411: The war, the German Mitropa company had run some services on the route through the Balkans , but Yugoslav Partisans frequently sabotaged the track, forcing a stop to this service. Following the end of the war, normal services resumed except on the Athens leg, where the closure of the border between Yugoslavia and Greece prevented services from running. That border re-opened in 1951, but the closure of

4473-405: Was also modern, having gas lighting and heating provided by large tile stoves, made in Austria, in winter. The terminal restaurant became a meeting point for journalists, writers and other prominent people from the media in the 1950s and 1960s. The same restaurant, today called "Orient Express", is a popular spot among tourists. The station is preserved in its original state, but the areas around

4544-430: Was built almost straight, with only short curves at the two tunnel portals. On 24 February 1905, the two halves of the tunnel came together. They were out of alignment by only 202 mm (8 in) horizontally and 87 mm (3.4 in) vertically. Construction time was 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 years, rather than 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 years, due to problems such as water inflows and strikes. Operations commenced through

4615-457: Was completed in 2016. Clearances were also raised for the piggyback traffic on the Italian side as well on the Simplon southern approach. Here, too, for financial reasons, at times only one line was cleared for the rolling highway. South of Domodossola, the single line to Novara via Lake Orta was electrified and modernized. The classic approach to the Simplon from Paris and Lausanne —less important for today's transit traffic—was upgraded in

4686-426: Was completed on 4 January 1871. An extension of the line to Sirkeci was demanded as the starting point since Yeşilköy was too far away from Eminönü , the main business district of that epoch. The first proposed option for the line was a route from Beyazit down to the shore of the Golden Horn . The Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz decided and permitted the route to run on the shoreline of the Sea of Marmara bordering

4757-424: Was created to promote the project. This merged in 1881 with the company Western Swiss Railways (French: Chemins de Fer de la Suisse Occidentale , SO) to create the Western Switzerland–Simplon Company (French: Compagnie de la Suisse Occidentale et du Simplon , SOS). The French financiers of the SOS were able to secure finance for the tunnel in 1886. The company considered 31 proposals and selected one that involved

4828-439: Was officially renamed the Orient Express in 1891. The onset of the First World War in 1914 saw Orient Express services suspended. They resumed at the end of hostilities in 1918, and in 1919 the opening of the Simplon Tunnel allowed the introduction of a more southerly route via Milan , Venice, and Trieste . The service on this route was known as the Simplon Orient Express , and it ran in addition to continuing services on

4899-423: Was stopped in 2011 in the wake of the Greek government-debt crisis , but is planned to be reinstated. The other service was the Bosphorus Express , running daily between Sirkeci and Gara de Nord in Bucharest , Romania , with connecting cars to Sofia and historically to Belgrade . This train still reaches Istanbul, but now terminates at Halkali . On 4 October 1883, the first Orient Express departed from

4970-522: Was the founder of Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL), which expanded its luxury trains, travel agencies and hotels all over Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Its most famous train remains the Orient Express . The train was composed of: The first menu on board (10 October 1882): oysters, soup with Italian pasta, turbot with green sauce, chicken ‘à la chasseur’, fillet of beef with ‘château’ potatoes, ‘chaud-froid’ of game animals, lettuce, chocolate pudding, buffet of desserts. On 5 June 1883,

5041-413: Was withdrawn on 19 May 1977, and the Orient Express via Vienna was cut back, terminating at Budapest and later Vienna. With the opening in 2007 of a new high-speed line from Paris to Strasbourg , the Orient Express was cut again to run only from Strasbourg to Vienna, before finally being entirely withdrawn in 2009 after over 130 years. This is not to be confused with the Venice-Simplon Orient Express ,

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