posted
What’s the longest train ride in the world? There are a lot of answers, of course—the Red Express on the trans-Siberian railway that goes from what used to be Leningrad and is now, mercifully, once more Petrograd (St. Petersburg) near the Baltic to Port Arthur on the Pacific, is probably the best one.
The old Blue Train that used to run from Cairo, Egypt to Capetown, South Africa, was certainly in the running, as was the world-renowned Orient Express that ran from London to Dover, then to Calais via boat, and from there to Istanbul, Turkey. For seeming to be long without actually being all that long, there’s a stretch of track that runs in a perfectly straight line for almost 300 miles across Nullarbor (which means no trees, and it ain’t kiddin’) Plain in Australia, which will probably qualify. Another candidate has to be the original run of what is now Amtrak’s Train #1, the Sunset Limited, when in the 1920’s it ran from Chicago to San Francisco via St. Louis, Memphis, Jackson, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara on the Illinois Central, Texas & New Orleans, Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio, and Southern Pacific. The Sunset Limited’s current Amtrak run, from LA to Jacksonville, Florida, might be in the game, too. click link for answer. http://www.texfiles.com/ERAmay02/trainride.htmPosts: 562 | From: Beaumont Texas | Registered: Jul 2005
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The Blue Train was within South Africa only. The Cairo to Cape Town railway was a long term dream, but several segments were never built. It is certainly not possible now.
Your Sunset Limited from Chicago is also news to me. Do you have any form of schedule on that? I do believe that at one time it went through to New York on the Crescent Limited route.
I was also of the impression that the Trans Siberian trains began at Moscow and went to Valdivostok and was and is by far the longest train ride in the world. Seven time zones, I believe it is.
At this point I can not access your link, along with quite a few other web sites, not sure of the source of the reason.
George
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Certainly the Trans-Siberian route in Russia would be the longest passenger-train ride in the world. But one should certainly mention the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National routes from Montreal to Vancouver that existed up until 1990. Via Rail's Canadian that still runs from Toronto to Vancouver taking almost 74 hours over 4466 km (about 2775 miles) should be in the running for one of the longest train rides in the world.
Posts: 524 | From: Toronto Ont. Canada | Registered: Mar 2001
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I would argue that the article posted above is *not* the longest journey in the world - after all, the train (or bits of it), returned back to the *starting* point of its original journey before setting out again. Therefore, it cannot reasonably be considered to be one journey.
Trans-Sib is definitely the longest continuous passenger journey in the world - but Vladivostok to Moscow (6152mi) is not the longest - there is (or used to be) a through car to Pyongyang off the Rossiya train, plus a through train from Ukraine to Vladivostok.
What is the longest distance one can travel by several trains, without doubling back, or using other forms of transport (except to change trains at different stations in a city centre, perhaps)? Can one start in South Africa and travel to Vladivostok in this way?
Geoff M.
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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My wife once took what she calls THE LONGEST TRAIN RIDE IN THE WORLD.
It was aboard Amtrak's Carolinian from Cary, NC to Trenton, NJ. Things were fine until Selma but then they hit the CSX black hole and lost a couple of hours. The train had two speeds.....moving at a slow crawl or stopped altogether. Then, north of Washington, the locomotive failed and they waited without lights or heat for another two or three hours until a new train came to rescue them. Oh.....and it was snowing outside.
Ultimately a nine hour trip took about fifteen hours. Through the entire trip the crew didn't make much of an effort to keep the passengers informed and eventually just disappeared to avoid answering hostile questions.
It was, to quote my wife, "the longest train ride in the world."
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by George Harris: Your Sunset Limited from Chicago is also news to me. Do you have any form of schedule on that? I do believe that at one time it went through to New York on the Crescent Limited route. George
First, Sunset Limited to Chicago is news to me as well, and I have been following railroad industry affairs for now over fifty years.
"Once upon a time", the Sunset Limited's route was New Orleans-San Francisco. "SP think" had it that LA was simply an intermediate stop. A SF to LA train such as either The Lark of the Coast Daylight, was traveling South insofar as the general public was concerned, as faras SP was concerned, it traveled East. Likewise, the Portland to Oakland Cascade or Shasta Daylight were Westbound trains.
The SP Sunset interchanged through Sleepers at New Orleans with the L&N's Crescent (via Mobile-Montgomery-Atlanta-NY), until that train was downgraded to a Coach only operation circa 1967.
However, pursuant to the 1969 Interstate Commerce Commission's Ex Parte 287 order establishing standards for sleeping and dining service on trains, and in this instance for the SP to be able to reduce the Sunset's frequency to tri-weekly, the SRY and SP again restored the NY-LA Sleeper line; this time howeve, the car was routed on the SRY Southerner on the same routing as today's Amtrak Crescent. This through Sleeper was maintained by Amtrak until Superliner equipment was assigned to the Sunset.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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gp35: I hope the writer of that aricle you linked considered it to be fiction. Much of it was.
The SP did have a through train that ran San Francisco, probably actually Oakland, to Chicago, but it went through Ogden and finished the job on the UP, then C&NW into Chicago.
The Orient Express never ran through to London. Not sure of the origin, whether Paris or maybe as close to England as Calais, but definitely not London.
His dismissal of the Australina route is also another exhibition of geographic ignorance. The Indian Pacific route Sydney to Perth has definitely got to be amongst the world's longest, although as Geoff notes, nothing apporaches the Trans-Siberian.
Geoff: No hope of going from southern Africa to Europe by rail. Can you even make it on the ground at all? You can, however make it from Saigon to Europe by rail, but it will definitely take a while. I would suspect some of the segments would be interesting, to say the least. Several changes of trains and three changes of gauge en route. Meter gauge in Vietnam, and I think also into south China, then standard gauge across China, then Russian five foot guage, then back to standard in Western Europe.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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I would agree that the Trans-Siberian is probably by far the longest single rail journey and has been since its completion.
The Indian-Pacific (Sydney to Perth) clocks in at 4352K or 2704 miles and the "new" Ghan (Adelaide to Darwin) is 2979K or 1851miles. We did the old routing Sydney to Alice Springs before the extension to Darwin and it was one of the best rail journeys of my life! A splurge on the "Deluxe Cabin" to celebrate my retirement helped.
I'm hoping to do some railriding when I'm in Australia in October, 2007. I'm just back from the Netherlands where my railing was limited to the train to Amsterdam Centraal Station from Schipol Airport and to and from Utrecht. Also the trams and the Metro (Snel Tram) in Amsterdam. They do know how to run trains and we were never asked for a ticket although we always had them.
Frank in, would you believe it, WET SBA.
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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Definitely a case of "What's wrong with this picture?".
The Sunset Limited originally ran from San Francisco to New Orleans, via Los Angeles, then its western terminus was changed to Los Angeles, but of course it never had the convoluted routing the article describes. Its normal route has always been thru Arizona, New Mexico & Texas, the "Sunset Route".
When Amtrak extended the service east of New Orleans, it first ran to Miami, then Sanford, & finally Orlando. Jacksonville was never its eastern terminus.
Altho a continuous rail link from Egypt to South Africa was a dream of the early railway builders (Sir Cecil Rhodes??), it has never been built. The Blue Train has always run within South Africa.
As far as London-Istanbul through service, that never existed either. Passengers traveled by rail London-Dover, detrained & boarded a ferry for Calais, where they boarded a train to Paris that carried through cars for Istanbul.
Posts: 73 | Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Geoff M: there is (or used to be) a through car to Pyongyang off the Rossiya train, plus a through train from Ukraine to Vladivostok. Geoff M.
There is definitely still service between Moscow and Pyongyang. I saw one of the trains last month while traveling through China.
Posts: 144 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Okay, a lot depends on whether you count through cars as "trains", but I'll take a whack at the longest possible rail journeys on several continents, as of today:
1) The Rossiya Express, from Moscow to Vladivostock, is certainly the longest through train journey in the world. Let's put it in Asia, even though Moscow is east of the Urals.
2) Montreal to Vancouver, in Canada, is just less than 4,000 miles.
3) Prior to its discontinuance east of New Orleans, the "Sunset Limited", from Miami to Los Angeles, may have been a longer trip than the one in Canada. So one or the other of those is the longest in North America.
4) In South America, there was at one time a through train from Buenos Aires to La Paz, Bolivia, but I believe it no longer operates. There are no other really long rail journeys available on that continent.
5) In Africa, the longest possible trip would be from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which is entirely 3'6" gauge, but no regular trains traverse this route. Longest is probably Cape Town to Johannesburg.
6) In Australia, the longest through train journey is of course the "Indian Pacific" from Sydney to Perth.
It is not possible to travel the length of either Africa or South America by rail at present. It is also not possible to travel from India to Europe by rail (there is a gap in Iran). But it is (in theory) possible to travel from Southeast Asia or China to Europe. Be prepared to take a lot of time at it; there are no through trains except a weekly one from Beijing to Moscow.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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3. My Spring 1995 timetable puts it at 3066 miles. Due to the shifting landmasses, timetables over the years vary by several miles. But in any case, substantially less than that of the Montreal ro Vancouver route.
4. I don't think it runs any more. Great Circle Mapper lists it as 1395 miles the way the crow flies, from airport to airport. On the ground it would be longer - especially once it gets to the mountains!
5. 2282mi CPT-DAR; 789mi CPT-JNB.
7. Europe. Somewhat harder as trains are more frequent, going shorter distances. Also, do you include "charter" trains like the luxury Orient Express (ignoring the standard overnight sleeper), which very occasionally still runs Calais to Istanbul (about 1500 miles)?
George, I see no reason why you can't travel overland from South Africa to Europe. There may be safety issues, and roads may be mud/sand tracks at times. Border crossings could be interesting. I know Michael Palin did it on Pole to Pole - although that was maybe 10 years ago now.
You're probably right: Vietnam to Europe - let's say Lisbon or Algerciras (Spain/Gibralter) - may well be the longest all-train route! Note that there'd be an extra gauge change upon entering Spain. That's over 8600 miles but only 10 trains!
Geoff M.
PS "shifting landmasses" was a joke.
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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The old MTA Metro-North New Haven Line, Grand Central Terminal to New Haven Union Station, leaving GCT Daily at 01:30 a.m. Train made every stop from 125th St to New Haven was especially brutal if there was a Rock Concert that night (Kiss or Led Zeplin crowds either passed out or loud) uncomfortable seats bright lights no leg room Ugh, fortunatly know they split trains express to Stamford CT local to New Haven, trip know cut to 115 minutes but still uncomfortable bright and no leg room.
Posts: 516 | From: New Haven, CT USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Geoff, You are definitely right. However far you could get into the southwest corner of Portugal would be the European extremity. Somehow I was thinking of northern Scotland, not even considering the possibility of a ferry (I guess they still exist, but then you are no longer all-rail) to Ireland, which would also give you another change of gauge. Without a map in front of me, I am thinking that Portugal would give you a more distant terminas that any point in Scandanavia.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Just as an aside (and this is not a passenger train) there have been some test runs of container service between coastal China and Narvik, Norway. Two breaks-of-gauge en route, between China and Kazakhstan and at the Finnish-Swedish border, but through cars between Beijing and Narvik. Now that has to qualify as one of the longest rail journeys in the world. It's called the Narvik East-West (NEW) Corridor.
Too bad it's not a passenger train!
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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By mileage the longest route in the world is the regular run from Moscow to Vladivoskok and the second longest may used to be run from LA to Miami, Florida. Even if and when the Sunset Limited is re-instated east from New Orleans to Orlando it will probably be the second longest.
Posts: 287 | From: Palatka, FL, USA | Registered: Feb 2004
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My longest continuous train journey was from Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, to Moscow, Russia. About 4 and a half days. I had traveled to Mongolia from Shanghai about 4 days previously.
Posts: 416 | From: St. Albans, Vermont | Registered: Feb 2003
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Jim: Someone I work with recently traveled through China, Mongolia, and other parts of southeast Asia by train. They changed the trucks on the train she was on to fit different gauges in different countries. Did you experience this also?
Mr. Harris probably knows something about this too.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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Trains between China and Russia via Mongolia have their trucks changed at the China - Mongolian border. China is standard gauge 1435 mm = 4'-8.5", while Mongolia and Russia are 1520 mm = 5'-0" (actually 4 mm less than 5 feet) If you come from southeast Asia, so far as I know the only rail link is between Vietnam and China. The Vietnamese track gauge is one meter exactly = 3'-3.375" that is three feet, three and three-eights inches. There are no through trains between these gauges, but a change of trains is required. The break of gauge point is not at the border, but somewhere inside China, but not too far. At that point you have to make what they refer to as a "cross platform" change of trains. So far as I know there is no rail connection between Vietnam and Cambodia or between Cambodia and Thailand. There is some railroad in Cambodia, also meter gauge and the railway system in Thailand, Malaysia, and into Singapore is all meter guage, and does connect up. I beleive a change of trains or two or three is required, but you can do Singapore to the Laos border by rail. The railway line into Singapore is owned and operated by the Malaysian Railway. Burma (Myanmar) is also meter gauge, but not connected to the Thai system.
If you started in Singapore, you can go to the Thai-Cambodian border by rail, bus across Cambodia to Saigon (HoChi Minh City) then rail the rest of the way to Europe. I have heard that the bus across Cambodia was prohibited to foreignors, but not sure whether that is still true.
I would advise anyone thinking about doing this sort of thing to get the Lonely Planet guide books for all coutries involved. While not 100% accurate, particularly on some of the rail stuff, they are better than anything else I have ever seen.
George
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Another resource which I can strongly recommend (and it's free!) is Mark Smith's marvelous website, The Man in Seat Sixty-One.... He has extensive information on how to plan and book overland trips to some of the most remote corners of the world, Vietnam and China included. Great for us armchair travelers!
-------------------- --------Eric H. Bowen
Stop by my website: Streamliner Schedules - Historic timetables of the great trains of the past! Posts: 413 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Mar 2006
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i took a chinese train to the border of mongolia/china first, spent the night at a border town, and then crossed the border in a jeep full of Mongolians. Then I caught a Mongolian train from the other side. But yes, they change the trucks changed at the border. I believe there is about a 2 hour delay for trains crossing the border in order to do this.
Posts: 416 | From: St. Albans, Vermont | Registered: Feb 2003
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A few additions to George Harris' excellent post:
1) The Thai, Malay, and Singapore systems comprise a single unified network, much as in the US. Freight cars appear to be interchanged freely across borders.
2) In addition to the very expensive "Eastern and Oriental Ltd" between Bangkok and Singapore, the Thai Railways "International Express" runs through to Butterworth, Malaysia with sleepers and diner (about a 20 hour trip). Connections can be made there for Singapore. Once a week, there used to be a through first-class sleeper. Don't know if it runs any longer.
3) There used to be a connection between Thai and Burmese railways over Three Pagodas Pass. This is the infamous rail line built by the Japanese using POW labor (and local Thais), and was the setting for the book and movie "Bridge Over the River Kwai". The bridge is still there (cast iron spans salvaged from Indonesia by the Japanese) but the line stops not too far beyond the bridge, and there is no longer track over Three Pagodas Pass.
4) Thai Railways runs right up to the Mekong River, only a few miles from Vientiane, Laos. I understand a bus is available for the last part of the trip. Laos and Thailand have just reached agreement to build a rail bridge over the Mekong and several kilometers of track into Vientiane. This will be, AFAIK, the first railway in Laos.
5) I have been unable to determine whether the railways in Cambodia ever had physical connections with Thailand and Vietnam. The gauge is the same (meter gauge) but the Cambodian railway is barely operating at present.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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Re (3) "but the line stops not too far beyond the bridge" - there is a good 40 miles of track beyond that, to Nam Tok. Kanchanaburi (and the famous bridge) is a worthy and humbling visit. One can walk across the bridge but it's not for the faint-hearted as there are no hand rails and only rough decking between the rails, either side of which is a long way to fall down to the river below.
I also did Singapore to KL by train. This is the expensive way around, as you pay the fare in numbers of Ringgits (Malay currency) but in Singapore dollars - and the exchange rate is not 1:1. But cheap nonetheless. Singapore is an excellent place to visit if you like British-style semaphore signalling, complete with token sections and lever frames!
Geoff M.
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by 1702: Definitely a case of "What's wrong with this picture?".
The Sunset Limited originally ran from San Francisco to New Orleans, via Los Angeles, then its western terminus was changed to Los Angeles, but of course it never had the convoluted routing the article describes. Its normal route has always been thru Arizona, New Mexico & Texas, the "Sunset Route".
When Amtrak extended the service east of New Orleans, it first ran to Miami, then Sanford, & finally Orlando. Jacksonville was never its eastern terminus.
Altho a continuous rail link from Egypt to South Africa was a dream of the early railway builders (Sir Cecil Rhodes??), it has never been built. The Blue Train has always run within South Africa.
As far as London-Istanbul through service, that never existed either. Passengers traveled by rail London-Dover, detrained & boarded a ferry for Calais, where they boarded a train to Paris that carried through cars for Istanbul.
The original Sunset ran from San Francisco to New Orleans until WWII,when the Western terminal was cut back to Los Angeles.Under Amtrak,a through sleeper was operated,via the Southern Crescent, to New york.
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