Eastern and Oriental Express

A Bangkok-bound Eastern & Oriental Express train at the old Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, Malaysia.

The Eastern & Oriental Express carries passengers in luxury between Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. It has been awarded a place on the "World's Top 25 Trains" list by The Society of International Railway Travelers for its beauty, service, dining, and off-train experiences.^[1]

It runs between Singapore's Woodlands Train Checkpoint and Hua Lamphong, Bangkok, stopping at Kuala Lumpur, Butterworth and Kanchanaburi, taking three days (two nights). Since 2007 the train has also travelled between Bangkok and Vientiane, the capital city of Laos.

The train is currently operated by the State Railway of Thailand and Keretapi Tanah Melayu. It runs a couple of times in most months of the year.

Rolling stock

This luxury train was built in Japan in 1972 and operated as the Silver Star in New Zealand. All 31 carriages were later operated by Orient-Express Hotels, which in 2014 changed its name to Belmond Ltd. Twenty-four carriages were regauged from New Zealand's 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge to 1,000 mm gauge for Thai and Malaysian railway lines by A & G Price of Thames, New Zealand. An extensive internal rebuild and fit-out plus exterior painting and badging was undertaken by the new owners at their (then) newly constructed maintenance depot on KTMB land in Singapore's Keppel Road rail yards. The design of the remodelling was by Gérard Gallet, the man behind much of the design and refurbishment of other Belmond products such as the British Pullman and the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.

The train has two dining cars with tables that seat two or four; it has two bar cars, one of which has a large open-air observation deck. It also has a library car and a saloon car for overflow dining. The train is fully air-conditioned, and has two presidential sleeping cabins, state compartments (four to a carriage), and Pullman compartments. The smaller Pullman compartments are not offered on the six-night program.

Train schedule

The Eastern and Oriental Express operates nine routes. In 2010 it began new all-inclusive tour programs of six nights. For example, Epic Thailand starts and ends in Bangkok, and visits a number of villages, temples, and Chiang Mai before returning to Bangkok.

The busiest route is Singapore–Bangkok:

References

External links

• Eastern & Oriental Express Luxury Train - Official Website
• Train journeys on the Eastern & Oriental Express and Thailand's 'Death Railway' - Daily Telegraph.

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