Take a ride on the reimagined Orient Express train

Miyo McGinn

July 27, 2022

The famous train is set to run again after a history student rediscovered original luxury carriages on—get this—YouTube.

The Orient Express isn’t just the location of a murder (or man) in one particular Agatha Christie novel. It’s a real, deluxe transcontinental passenger train line that started in the late 19th century and ran, in one form or another, until 2009. But over a decade since the train has been in use, it’s making a comeback. All thanks to a sleuthing PhD student named Arthur Mettetal.

The history of the Orient Express is slightly convoluted. The terminuses, routes, train cars, and companies that ran the Orient Express were all changed over the years, and sometimes more than one train by that name was in operation. That’s because the Orient Express isn’t a single particular train, but instead, a service. In fact, the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (operated by Belmond) is in operation now as well, running from London to Venice.

But the first of its kind (then called Express d’Orient) ran from Paris to Vienna in 1883. Its title was changed in 1991 to the English one we now know it by. At its zenith, the line ran across the European continent from London or Paris to Istanbul or Athens, and once even went all the way to Tokyo. It began as a more barebones operation (no bar or piano cars), but evolved into a more glamorous experience, with carved wood panels, lush carpets and upholstery, and the finest furnishings. The Orient Express became known as a comfortable, luxurious way to travel across Europe at a time when such a journey was long and arduous.

Although the literal route and physical train cars changed over the years, the Orient Express—the name and the idea of the glamorous train—has been cemented in our shared cultural imagination through popular media. Agatha Christie’s famous 1934 novel, Murder on the Orient Express, has been remade into multiple movies. James Bond jumps off of the Orient Express in From Russia, With Love, and dozens of films, books, and television shows reference the train.

After the real Orient Express made its final run and the route officially disappeared from rail timetables, the physical cars disappeared into the vast, sprawling infrastructure that is the European railroad system. They remained lost to the railway’s dusty corners until 2015, when the discovery of 13 original 1920s carriages by French PhD student Arthur Mettetal started the next chapter of the train’s storied history.

And it all started with some YouTube-ing.

Mettetal was watching YouTube videos when he spotted what looked like the signature blue cars of the Orient Express in the background of a shot of a railyard. Mettetal, who studies history, was doing his thesis on the famed train and searching for remaining train cars as part of his research.

When he spotted the tell-tale blue, Mettetal did what any internet sleuth would do: paused the video, zoomed in on nearby signage, Google searched the visible name—Małaszewicze, a relatively common Polish name—and dropped in the little yellow figure to do some recon on street view. Eventually, he narrowed it down to a railyard on the Belarus-Poland border.

Upon his arrival in Małaszewicze, Mettetal confirmed that the 13 cars—nine of which were sleeper cars—were indeed from the original 1920s Orient Express.

“It is an indescribable feeling,” Mettetal told CNN. “We were looking at the object of our research, the train we had seen through the Google 3D views.”

Besides rediscovering one of history’s most famous trains, Mettetal, who now works for Accor, can make a claim that few of us can: his YouTube binges were academically and professionally fruitful.

Luxury travel group Accor bought the Małaszewicze cars, along with another four found elsewhere, and brought them back to France. The Art Deco interiors were still in excellent condition, and have been entrusted to restoration architect Maxime d’Angeac to be rebuilt for the 21st-century comfort without losing touch with the train’s 20th-century glamor.

In 2024, the refurbished cars will once again take passengers from Paris across Europe in a high-end travel experience.

Accor say on their website that the reopening train line will be accompanied by a series of new Orient Express hotels along the route, including in Rome, Venice, and Riyadh. The company already has an Orient Express La Dolce Vida line to take passengers on tours of Italy, and hopes to reopen the Paris-Istanbul route that the cars traveled in the 20th century as the Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

It’s unclear what Accor’s self-described “complete ultra-luxury travel experience” will specifically involve. In their description of the Italian Dolce Vida line—the only one they’re currently advertising—the travel company promises to take you “to the heart of Italy through a selection of incredible itineraries from a route in search of the finest truffles to a journey through the heart of Tuscany to a unique visit through Rome and beyond.” It sounds not unlike any other all-inclusive trip, but with a sleeping car on a storied train instead of a room in a fancy hotel.

Of course, you don’t have to pay luxury-vacation money (nor should you, imho) for a unique visit to Rome. But if it’s your thing, you’d never catch us stopping you from living out your 20th-century murder mystery dreams.

Miyo McGinn

Miyo McGinn is a writer, fact-checker, and self-described aspiring ski bum based in Washington. Her bylines can be found at Grist, High Country News, and Outside. She covers US and global news stories for Adventure.com.