Orient Express, the luxurious French train company made famous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by passengers like the Mata Hari and, later, immortalized by novelists like Agatha Christie, is being revived, though not to offer rail service, at least not at first.
S.N.C.F., the state rail company of France, has planned a relaunch of the brand, which it has owned since 1977, beginning with a series of merchandising partnerships to create a line of upscale travel products, which so far include luggage by Moynat, beds and bedding by Cauval's Treca Interiors and specialty teas blended by Dammann Frères.
"We want to develop a brand that has luxury travel and French lifestyle at its center," Frank Bernard, the brand's managing director told The Financial Times in January.
The initiative is S.N.C.F.'s first commercial venture with the brand since it granted the Orient Express Hotels Group license to use the name in 2001. (The two companies recently ended their licensing agreement and the hotel group rebranded itself under the name Belmond. Belmond's Venice Simplon-Orient-Express rail service is a completely separate venture.)
More partnerships are in development, but resurrecting that glamorous leisure train service may take a while. And although Mr. Bernard said that service between Paris and Vienna was likely to begin within the next five years, the company said that no schedule or route had been determined at this point.
The one thing certain? If service does resume, it will be in cars designed in contemporary style, with luxurious modern amenities, "a cruise train," as the company described it in a press release, "envisioned as a place where one can fully savor the sweeping landscapes, free of time's constraints, in a contemporary setting that embodies French savoir-faire and consummately civilized hospitality."
The first Orient Express took passengers from Paris to Bucharest, beginning in 1883. Later, in 1889, the route expanded to include a direct line to Constantinople, which is now Istanbul. But the popularity of low-cost airlines and high-speed trains in the last decades forced the company to shrink its service in the 1970s and end it completely in 2009.
In the meantime, travelers can get a look at the train's former glory at "The Orient Express: Once Upon a Time," an exhibition sponsored by S.N.C.F. and the Arab World Institute in Paris, where it is on view through August. Susanne Fowler has a report on that here.
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