11 ms·

The longest train ride in the world (2019)

178 points by admp 6y ago

Gys 6y ago
Posted in 2019 but all references are from 2010-2011. I assume many things have changed by now. Anyways, even at that time, why not start at Lisbon instead of starting in Porto to go to Coimbra and add even more time and distance to the trip.
- rhn_mk1 6y ago
  Certainly. The trail on the map between Warsaw and Moscow doesn't follow the actual route. That one enters Belarus more to the South. Trains in the Baltic states are really irregular, so it might be faster to wait for the visa. The train between Poland and Lithuania only works on summer weekends nowadays, the train between Lithuania and Estonia goes only every 4 days due to some complication in Latvia, if it even reaches Estonia in an unbroken connection at all. Either way it's so impractical that you might as well forget that it even exists (as my fragmentary memory proves).
  - jaakl 6y ago
    Baltic current route could be: Sat morning (weekend-only) Vilnius to Daugavpils local, to Riga local, to Valga local. Sunday morning to Tartu one modern train and then express to Tallinn. Overnight to Petersburg and finally supermodern express to Moscow by Monday noon or so.
    - rhn_mk1 6y ago
      To connect that to Warsaw: Friday afternoon-ish to Białystok, evening to Kaunas, then one more regular connection to Vilnius.
  - eCa 6y ago
    One option, if ferries are ok, is to take the Stockholm-Riga ferry. In a few years it might also be possible to travel north around the Baltic Sea uninterrupted by train to Helsinki, and then onwards.
- canada_dry 6y ago
  > many things have changed by now I know it's stating the obvious, but even aside from covid, China and Russia have sunk from high to almost bottom of my travel list. I would love to return to China - a few years ago I was there and loved it (and Hong Kong). But, the surveillance state and hostility towards Canada (i.e. two Cdns are currently being detained with very little of the customary consular accommodations) - makes it just too risky/unpredictable. Ditto for Russia. Hopefully a change in US leadership will help restore relations between East and West!
  - barry27 6y ago
    "But, the surveillance state and hostility towards Canada (i.e. two Cdns are currently being detained with very little of the customary consular accommodations) - makes it just too risky/unpredictable. Ditto for Russia." This is silly.
  - wdutch 6y ago
    I've also travelled in China and Russia in the past. I understand your concern regarding China and I have similar feelings. But I'm curious why you feel this way about Russia; have westerners been disappeared in Russia recently?
    - thrwway34 6y ago
      Paul Whelan, Trevor Reed.
    - canada_dry 6y ago
      > why you feel this way about Russia Putin's propaganda machine inside Russia (e.g. internal daily news) has been full-on anti-West for a while now. And so, where Russian people used to be generally positive about the West, now I believe that is somewhat diminished. What's your take?
- lazyant 6y ago
  You can start in Cadiz, Spain for a longer trip than from Lisbon. Actually I don't know the rules for this "longer route" since you could go zig-zagging.
lmm 6y ago
> From Poland, travellers have two options: travel through Belarus, which requires a transit visa one must apply for in person that takes days to process; or take the slightly longer but more sensible option, which is to continue north through the Baltic states and then continue east to Russia, which would add a day and some euro to your bill but would remove some of the hassle. Actually the sensible option is to turn south and go through Ukraine - the overnight train to Kiev is pretty pleasant, and from there you have plenty of options to Moscow.
- morceauxdebois 6y ago
  Are the routes through Donetsk and Luhansk safe though?
  - lmm 6y ago
    Donetsk is 600km away in the wrong direction. The Kiev-Moscow trains cross the border at Seredyna-Buda, which is open and safe. Ukraine has said that it will stop those trains, but it's also said that it will build a border wall; whether anything will actually come of it I rather doubt.
OnlyRepliesToBS 6y ago
I WANT TO GET OFF MR. BONES WILD RIDE
axus 6y ago
Reminds me of a game I spent my "Google Rewards" on recently: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inkle.eightydays https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inkle.eigh...
snicky 6y ago
We took a part of this route (Warsaw to Hong Kong via Mongolia and China) with some friends during summer vacations in 2006. We even "accidentally" landed in Tibet for 2 weeks and visited the Everest Base Camp near Shigatse. The entire trip that took more than 2 months cost 2-3k USD back then. I was quite amazed by how different and cheap everything gets once you cross the border near Brest. Now when I'm writing this with one hand and holding my sleeping son in the other it feels like it was in a previous life entirely. Happy times. Too bad Belarus didn't change too much since then from what we hear.
- netsharc 6y ago
  > We even "accidentally" landed in Tibet for 2 weeks and visited the Everest Base Camp near Shigatse. Presumably with an entry permit and guide? I visited this camp, the one next to the Rongbuk Monastery, last year. It was quite a touristy spot. And the toilet facilities were horrendeous. There was an another base camp closer to the Everest, but only accessible if you have an "Everest permit". How was it 14 years ago?
  - snicky 6y ago
    We had a local driver and a permit we got from a travel agency in Lhasa if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, I can't recall which base camp it was. The toilets were indeed horrible, one of the worst I've seen in my life for sure. There weren't that many tourists at that time. I remember a Chinese couple that had to use oxygen due to altitude sickness and some very fit Russians.
lqet 6y ago
Up until 2 or 3 years ago, you could directly travel by night train from my (relatively minor) home town Freiburg to Moscow. There are direct trains from Paris to Freiburg or Frankfurt (where the night train also stopped), so this could've saved the layover in Warsaw. https://www.bahnbilder.de/1200/wlbm-172-am-ende-eines-777062.jpg https://www.bahnbilder.de/1200/wlbm-172-am-ende-eines-777062... Note that there are already regular freight train connections from Duisburg, Germany to China: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Trans-Eurasia-Express.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Trans-Eu...
- martopix 6y ago
  I believe the longest single train trip in Europe is still Nice-Moscow via Genoa, Milan, Austria, Poland, etc.
sharpercoder 6y ago
So where can I buy a ticket to ride?
- lqet 6y ago
  For the Porto -> Moscow leg you should be able to get a SCIC (Special Conditions of International Carriage) ticket in any European train ticket office. The complete list of participating countries is here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeinsamer_Internationaler_Tarif_f%C3%BCr_die_Bef%C3%B6rderung_von_Personen#Beteiligte_Bahnen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeinsamer_Internationaler_Ta... However, an Eurail pass will most likely be cheaper and you will enjoy greater freedom in chosing your connections: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurail I suspect the Moscow -> Saigon leg to be a bit more complicated, but there are travel agencies specialized in offering exotic train rides.
  - runarberg 6y ago
    I think the Trans-Siberian rail still runs from Moscow to Beijing (with a link to the Trans-Mongolian rail at Ulan Ude or the Trans-Manchurian at Chita). From Beijing it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a single link to Hanoi. And from Hanoi there is a single sleeper that runs to Ho Chi Minh (I’ve taken this one in the other direction back in 2008). So if I’m not mistaken (or out of date) Moscow to Ho Chi Minh should be at most 3 connections (Ulan Ude/Chita, Beijing, and Hanoi).
- wdutch 6y ago
  Vietnam is currently closed to tourists but the trains are running as usual. I travelled along the south central coast hard seat class in July which has some amazing seaside and mountain views. I also did a personal first took the once-daily train along the branch line to Quy Nhon; highly recommended.
9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
Once the Kunming-Singapore link opens, you'll be able to ride to rails to the southernmost point in continental Asia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming%E2%80%93Singapore_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming%E2%80%93Singapore_rail... Despite the name it's actually a series of different routes, and while all of them still have gaps, the Boten-Vientiane link connecting China to Thailand (and hence Singapore) via Laos is scheduled to open in late 2021: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vientiane%E2%80%93Boten_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vientiane%E2%80%93Boten_railwa... Although the corresponding line on the Chinese side also needs to open (ETA 2022): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuxi%E2%80%93Mohan_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuxi%E2%80%93Mohan_railway
- mrandish 6y ago
  Thanks for posting this as I surprised that the route stopped in Saigon when I thought one would be able to find a way to Malaysia or maybe even Singapore (not sure if there are rails across the straight anymore). Hadn't thought of heading back around.
  - 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
    The line to central Singapore has been closed, but there is still a pathetic shuttle service that crosses the causeway from Johor Bahru: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTM_Intercity#Operational_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTM_Intercity#Operational_serv... There are plans to replace this with a metro service and eventually build high-speed rail between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, but both have been repeatedly bogged down by politics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johor_Bahru%E2%80%93Singapore_Rapid_Transit_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johor_Bahru%E2%80%93Singapore_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur%E2%80%93Singapore_high-speed_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur%E2%80%93Singapore...
- toomanybeersies 6y ago
  It's been a dream of mine to travel overland from Singapore to London. This would make it a lot easier, but probably a lot less fun.
9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
Here's a story of travelling a similar route, but finishing off by taking the highest train ride in the world to Tibet instead: https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/01/from-siberia-to-tibet-preamble-paperwork/ https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/01/from-siberia-to-tibet-...
owenversteeg 6y ago
I've ridden trains in all the Western European countries listed, and taken a lot of the listed routes at least partially. If you actually want to do this, you can make that confusing list much simpler: Lisbon-Hendaye with an overnight sleeper, then TGV Hendaye-Paris (a beautiful route), then the sleeper train Paris-Moscow, then Moscow-Beijing sleeper, Beijing-Hanoi sleeper, Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh. Also, you definitely don't want to get a Eurail pass for this trip. In general a Eurail pass isn't a good deal at all, with a few narrow exceptions. The specific country level passes, as well as buying discounted tickets, will nearly always be cheaper. This case is even worse, because even with an unlimited Eurail pass, you pay additional fees for almost every train on that list - Thalys, high speed, sleeper...
- icebergwarrior 6y ago
  France doesn't even honor / agree with the Eurail pass. So then you have to pay twice.
- bogomipz 6y ago
  >"Lisbon-Hendaye with an overnight sleeper .." Is this the coastal route once it crosses into Spain? I've heard the coastal route is my slower which is fine by me as I would imagine its quite scenic. If not could you recommend which one that would be? >"The specific country level passes, as well as buying discounted tickets, will nearly always be cheaper." Whats the discount are you referring to here? Is this just the booking far in advance discounted rate or something else?
  - owenversteeg 6y ago
    There's only one sleeper train between Hendaye and Lisbon, and it's this one [0]. It stays pretty close to the coast for the short distance from Hendaye to San Sebastián, and then turns inland. Due to the mountain Jaizkibel (which is beautiful up closer, but less impressive from a distance), you won't be seeing the Atlantic for long at all, unfortunately. You do get a view of the Tagus (river, and then it turns into a bay) for a little while as you come into Lisbon. If you're looking for spectacular views, I'd probably recommend another sleeper train, to be honest. Booking a good bit in advance is usually one good strategy for a lot of European trains if you want to save money. But there are plenty of other options. Slower trains, off peak times, budget brands like Ouigo etc. can make train travel very cheap. If you want the flexibility afforded by a Eurail pass, there are country-specific options that not only give more flexibility than Eurail, but are also cheaper and don't require a supplemental charge for most trains. Discount cards are another big one: you can easily get 20-50% off the "normal" price with some sort of discount card, like the Carte Jeune in France. Good luck with whatever your train travels might be, and feel free to ask me whatever! [0] https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/sud-express-from-irun-and-san-sebastian-to-lisbon.htm https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/sud-express-from-ir...
abraxas 6y ago
There is something magical about train travel for me. I find boarding and riding trains extremely soothing. Flying has the exact opposite effect. It's not entirely rational but that's how it is for me.
- staplers 6y ago
  It offers the quintessential road trip without the stress of driving or traffic. Pretty easy to see why it's romanticized.
- macintux 6y ago
  I'm not sure what part of that wouldn't be rational. Between the lack of TSA security theater (although I did in fact encounter a TSA checkpoint boarding Amtrak in Chicago about 7 years ago), the freedom to move around while riding, the much more open seating, the scenic views even without a window seat... Were it not for the slow speeds, inconvenient routes, and generally abysmal state of train service in the U.S., I'd never fly again.
  - abraxas 6y ago
    Yeah, luckily in Europe the all cavity search hasn't (yet?) caught on as a ritual of the train station experience.
  - wenc 6y ago
    Well, I have to say, with TSA Precheck, security lines have tended to be less of an issue in recent years. When I was still traveling, I would get through security lines at O'Hare in under 10 minutes. (that said, O'Hare ranks #1 in the country for fastest TSA lines, so there's that) But travel on high speed trains (in Europe and Asia) is definitely a much more pleasant experience.
- bob1029 6y ago
  I feel the same way. Something about the mode of transport makes it so much more reassuring to me. Accidents even when they do happen seem to rarely impact passengers. Its usually things in the way of the train that meet unfortunate outcomes. The Shinkansen has a perfect safety record and has been in operation for 53 years, carrying over 10 billion passengers. This is a train I could sleep on. It's probably safer than being in my house.
abeppu 6y ago
The table at the end including the $2.27 to get between stations within Paris is cute.
flyinghamster 6y ago
A 2008 trip from Vienna to Pyongyang: http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ This featured, for part of the way, a ride in the North Korean sleeper car from Moscow to Pyongyang, as far as I know still the world's longest single continuous rail trip without changing trains. Something like this could pretty well never be done again, though. The Khasan-Tumangang border crossing is really only open to North Koreans and Russians, and they managed to get in only on the technicality that Tumangang was listed on their visas as a valid port of entry. They were lucky they didn't end up in a North Korean jail - or a Russian one.
- vaughnegut 6y ago
  Wow, thanks for sharing this link! I took the train to Pyongyang in 2009 (from Wuhan via Beijing), so the photos of the North Korean train bring back some memories, I even have a copy of a propaganda magazine in this photo I took off the train on the way back.
  - peterburkimsher 6y ago
    Which tour company did you go in with? I guess Koryo. I went in with CYTS in 2010, and didn't understand a word because it was all in Chinese XD. But it was only 1000€ instead of 3000€! These days Young Pioneer Tours are much cheaper, somewhere around the $500 mark depending on the number of days.
    - vaughnegut 6y ago
      I went with some Dutch Company called VNC Asia, I have no recollection of how I found them and their website doesn't even offer an English option anymore. It was 1235 Euros, which honestly was pretty good, although at the time I'd been living in China for a year so it was crazy expensive to me. The tour was a great deal, my buddy and I got a private car with two guides and a driver dedicated specifically to us, so they spoke great English. I was hoping to see them in the blog linked above, but the only person I recognized was a woman in a military uniform at the museum - she showed us around the USS Pueblo. It's crazy you can go there for 500 dollars nowadays, I wonder how travel has changed.
mmhsieh 6y ago
for those interested in very long train rides, don't miss Bong Joon Ho's "Snowpiercer."
- durpkingOP 6y ago
  Movie & TV Show
- mumblerino 6y ago
  I found the movie so far-fetched it was hard to enjoy it. Loved Parasite though (same director)
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
bogomipz 6y ago
For those who enjoy traveling by rail. "The Man in Seat 61" is a great resource: https://www.seat61.com/ https://www.seat61.com/
oefrha 6y ago
(2011) although the byline says 2019 (probably a reposting date). There's a 2013 snapshot on Wayback Machine dating the article to November 28, 2011, plus the references are from 2011: http://web.archive.org/web/20130807195501/https://basementgeographer.com/the-longest-train-ride-in-the-world/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130807195501/https://basementge...
guruparan18 6y ago
There used to be equally enjoyable and intriguing, the world's longest bus trip, from London (UK) to Calcutta (India) in mid 1970s. It appears there was quite a bit of fanfare for it. People used to take the bus and then ship to Australia then on. https://curlytales.com/this-was-the-worlds-longest-bus-route-from-kolkata-to-london/ https://curlytales.com/this-was-the-worlds-longest-bus-route...
hlfy_hn 6y ago
"The longest train ride in the world" Longest bullshit post. With changing trains, it does not mean much. BTW, the China - Thailand Railway opens soon. Then you can go to Singapore from Lisbon. Or from Marrakesh to Beijing if you take the ferry to Spain. "All prices were hastily sourced from various travel sites." TLDR: No idea what I am writing about, but I collected some stuff from the internet. For some real world experience: https://www.seat61.com https://www.seat61.com
- Gys 6y ago
  > the China - Thailand Railway opens soon Very interested! Do you have any reference that I keep an eye on?
eequah9L 6y ago
> Using the shortest timetable, the distance from the > coastal centre of Porto to the Polish capital of Warsaw > can be covered in 40 hours and 33 minutes (including time > zone changes) with just four transfers. Wait, what? How are timezones relevant? If I travel one hour across the date line, does it mean the trip took me minus 23 hours? Not that I don't care what time it is when I get off the train, but that has no bearing on the time that the distance can be covered in.
- gregoriol 6y ago
  The author probably wanted to say that by looking at timetables, times being indicated in the timezone of the station, if you cross a timezone you have to add/remove hours to get the real duration of the trip.
robga 6y ago
I went from London to Saigon by train, and then various overland options to southern Thailand, back in 2007. It feels like yesterday. From London it was 2 hours to Brussels, 3 hours to Cologne, 34 hours to Moscow, 100 hours to Ulaanbataar, and 30 hours to Beijing. So that’s 170 hours of train from London to Beijing. From there, I criss crossed China for a month before travelling the length of Vietnam, then through Cambodia to Thailand, ending 90 days of overland travel. Great times.
- iso1210 6y ago
  > back in 2007. It feels like yesterday As you get older, memories of time compress dramatically. What used to be measured as "oh wow that's a year away" is now measured in decades. It's depressing, and inevitably leads to a mid-life crisis.
  - alltakendamned 6y ago
    while at the same time, I can't remember what I had for lunch the day before yesterday...
growlist 6y ago
Almost $400 for Koln to Warsaw?! A quick search shows that's out by an order of magnitude compared to the cheapest tickets on offer. I did this journey in winter once - something very atmospheric about trundling through central Europe in the snow.
interactivecode 6y ago
Does anyone know the best directish train route from Amsterdam to Athens?
- eCa 6y ago
  Currently, Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Vienna-Zagreb-Belgrade-Skopje-Thessaloniki-Athens. Or Köln-Munich instead of Frankfurt-Vienna. Also, south of Belgrade I think the schedule is a bit sketchy. Source, as always, https://seat61.com https://seat61.com
  - eythian 6y ago
    In December an Amsterdam-Vienna night train service will start.
- railaway 6y ago
  I just did this last month with my partner and 2 kids. We didn't go as fast as possible, but took 5 days to let us break up the trip and see stuff along the way. We went from Amsterdam to Munich on day 1 via ICE trains (changing in Duisburg), had dinner at a biergarten and stayed overnight in Munich. Day 2 we explored Munich and that night got on the Nightjet sleeper train to Rome. Woke up in Italy on Day 3, enjoyed the views, arrived in Rome around 9 AM. Explored Rome , and stayed overnight. Took a Frecciargento train to Bari in Apulia on Day 4 and from there an overnight ferry to Patras in Greece, arriving Day 5. Took a taxi from there to Athens, which was pricey (€260) but sadly the trains don't run to Patras anymore and for our family this was a better option than the bus (and it was quicker, plus we stopped at Isthmia for souvlaki and to check out the canal.) Trains through the Balkans are not currently an option - they weren't running north of Thessaloniki even before COVID shut the borders. If you want to avoid flying or driving, you'll have to take a ferry from Italy to Greece. If we had to do it again, we might have taken the ferry from Venice or Ancona instead just because the port of Bari was so unwieldy for foot passengers and the Superfast I ferry was pretty bare bones and more geared towards truck drivers. Also, beware entry requirements to Greece, as they are constantly changing. Right now you couldn't actually do this trip because people arriving from the Netherlands have to show proof on arrival of a negative COVID test taken within the last 72 hours.
tromp 6y ago
> Once in France, it’s a transfer onto the TGV (but not the high-speed trains, which won’t ply this particular route until 2017) At first I thought, oh, this is an old article from before 2017. But scrolling back to the top, I see it's from June 2019, so it's puzzling why they would write that.
tzot 6y ago
> Once in France, it’s a transfer onto the TGV (but not the high-speed trains It's a little funny to say you transfer onto the Trains-à-Grande-Vitesse (high-speed trains) but not onto the high-speed trains :)
gorbypark 6y ago
I've always had a dream of travelling around the world via the "surface". Probably home to NYC via train ->Southhampton, UK via a swanky cruise ship -> train from there to Beijing or Shanghai -> some sort of ferry/boat to Japan -> Cruise (or freighter 'direct' to the West Coast) to Hawaii -> West Coast US/Can -> train back home. I should really do it, one day.
- jack2222 6y ago
  You should check out the travel documentary 'around the world in 80 days' by Michael Palin.
LoSboccacc 6y ago
> longest single uninterrupted train journey > with just four transfers I don't understand the rules set forth from the article for its calculation
- 0-_-0 6y ago
  I think it means "train ride between the 2 furthest possible points", so using train only.

178 points by admp 6y ago

Gys 6y ago

Posted in 2019 but all references are from 2010-2011. I assume many things have changed by now. Anyways, even at that time, why not start at Lisbon instead of starting in Porto to go to Coimbra and add even more time and distance to the trip.

rhn_mk1 6y ago
Certainly. The trail on the map between Warsaw and Moscow doesn't follow the actual route. That one enters Belarus more to the South. Trains in the Baltic states are really irregular, so it might be faster to wait for the visa. The train between Poland and Lithuania only works on summer weekends nowadays, the train between Lithuania and Estonia goes only every 4 days due to some complication in Latvia, if it even reaches Estonia in an unbroken connection at all. Either way it's so impractical that you might as well forget that it even exists (as my fragmentary memory proves).
- jaakl 6y ago
  Baltic current route could be: Sat morning (weekend-only) Vilnius to Daugavpils local, to Riga local, to Valga local. Sunday morning to Tartu one modern train and then express to Tallinn. Overnight to Petersburg and finally supermodern express to Moscow by Monday noon or so.
  - rhn_mk1 6y ago
    To connect that to Warsaw: Friday afternoon-ish to Białystok, evening to Kaunas, then one more regular connection to Vilnius.
- eCa 6y ago
  One option, if ferries are ok, is to take the Stockholm-Riga ferry. In a few years it might also be possible to travel north around the Baltic Sea uninterrupted by train to Helsinki, and then onwards.
canada_dry 6y ago
> many things have changed by now I know it's stating the obvious, but even aside from covid, China and Russia have sunk from high to almost bottom of my travel list. I would love to return to China - a few years ago I was there and loved it (and Hong Kong). But, the surveillance state and hostility towards Canada (i.e. two Cdns are currently being detained with very little of the customary consular accommodations) - makes it just too risky/unpredictable. Ditto for Russia. Hopefully a change in US leadership will help restore relations between East and West!
- barry27 6y ago
  "But, the surveillance state and hostility towards Canada (i.e. two Cdns are currently being detained with very little of the customary consular accommodations) - makes it just too risky/unpredictable. Ditto for Russia." This is silly.
- wdutch 6y ago
  I've also travelled in China and Russia in the past. I understand your concern regarding China and I have similar feelings. But I'm curious why you feel this way about Russia; have westerners been disappeared in Russia recently?
  - thrwway34 6y ago
    Paul Whelan, Trevor Reed.
  - canada_dry 6y ago
    > why you feel this way about Russia Putin's propaganda machine inside Russia (e.g. internal daily news) has been full-on anti-West for a while now. And so, where Russian people used to be generally positive about the West, now I believe that is somewhat diminished. What's your take?
lazyant 6y ago
You can start in Cadiz, Spain for a longer trip than from Lisbon. Actually I don't know the rules for this "longer route" since you could go zig-zagging.

lmm 6y ago

> From Poland, travellers have two options: travel through Belarus, which requires a transit visa one must apply for in person that takes days to process; or take the slightly longer but more sensible option, which is to continue north through the Baltic states and then continue east to Russia, which would add a day and some euro to your bill but would remove some of the hassle. Actually the sensible option is to turn south and go through Ukraine - the overnight train to Kiev is pretty pleasant, and from there you have plenty of options to Moscow.

morceauxdebois 6y ago
Are the routes through Donetsk and Luhansk safe though?
- lmm 6y ago
  Donetsk is 600km away in the wrong direction. The Kiev-Moscow trains cross the border at Seredyna-Buda, which is open and safe. Ukraine has said that it will stop those trains, but it's also said that it will build a border wall; whether anything will actually come of it I rather doubt.

OnlyRepliesToBS 6y ago

I WANT TO GET OFF MR. BONES WILD RIDE

axus 6y ago

Reminds me of a game I spent my "Google Rewards" on recently: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inkle.eightydays https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inkle.eigh...

snicky 6y ago

We took a part of this route (Warsaw to Hong Kong via Mongolia and China) with some friends during summer vacations in 2006. We even "accidentally" landed in Tibet for 2 weeks and visited the Everest Base Camp near Shigatse. The entire trip that took more than 2 months cost 2-3k USD back then. I was quite amazed by how different and cheap everything gets once you cross the border near Brest. Now when I'm writing this with one hand and holding my sleeping son in the other it feels like it was in a previous life entirely. Happy times. Too bad Belarus didn't change too much since then from what we hear.

netsharc 6y ago
> We even "accidentally" landed in Tibet for 2 weeks and visited the Everest Base Camp near Shigatse. Presumably with an entry permit and guide? I visited this camp, the one next to the Rongbuk Monastery, last year. It was quite a touristy spot. And the toilet facilities were horrendeous. There was an another base camp closer to the Everest, but only accessible if you have an "Everest permit". How was it 14 years ago?
- snicky 6y ago
  We had a local driver and a permit we got from a travel agency in Lhasa if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, I can't recall which base camp it was. The toilets were indeed horrible, one of the worst I've seen in my life for sure. There weren't that many tourists at that time. I remember a Chinese couple that had to use oxygen due to altitude sickness and some very fit Russians.

lqet 6y ago

Up until 2 or 3 years ago, you could directly travel by night train from my (relatively minor) home town Freiburg to Moscow. There are direct trains from Paris to Freiburg or Frankfurt (where the night train also stopped), so this could've saved the layover in Warsaw. https://www.bahnbilder.de/1200/wlbm-172-am-ende-eines-777062.jpg https://www.bahnbilder.de/1200/wlbm-172-am-ende-eines-777062... Note that there are already regular freight train connections from Duisburg, Germany to China: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Trans-Eurasia-Express.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Trans-Eu...

martopix 6y ago
I believe the longest single train trip in Europe is still Nice-Moscow via Genoa, Milan, Austria, Poland, etc.

sharpercoder 6y ago

So where can I buy a ticket to ride?

lqet 6y ago
For the Porto -> Moscow leg you should be able to get a SCIC (Special Conditions of International Carriage) ticket in any European train ticket office. The complete list of participating countries is here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeinsamer_Internationaler_Tarif_f%C3%BCr_die_Bef%C3%B6rderung_von_Personen#Beteiligte_Bahnen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeinsamer_Internationaler_Ta... However, an Eurail pass will most likely be cheaper and you will enjoy greater freedom in chosing your connections: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurail I suspect the Moscow -> Saigon leg to be a bit more complicated, but there are travel agencies specialized in offering exotic train rides.
- runarberg 6y ago
  I think the Trans-Siberian rail still runs from Moscow to Beijing (with a link to the Trans-Mongolian rail at Ulan Ude or the Trans-Manchurian at Chita). From Beijing it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a single link to Hanoi. And from Hanoi there is a single sleeper that runs to Ho Chi Minh (I’ve taken this one in the other direction back in 2008). So if I’m not mistaken (or out of date) Moscow to Ho Chi Minh should be at most 3 connections (Ulan Ude/Chita, Beijing, and Hanoi).
wdutch 6y ago
Vietnam is currently closed to tourists but the trains are running as usual. I travelled along the south central coast hard seat class in July which has some amazing seaside and mountain views. I also did a personal first took the once-daily train along the branch line to Quy Nhon; highly recommended.

9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago

Once the Kunming-Singapore link opens, you'll be able to ride to rails to the southernmost point in continental Asia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming%E2%80%93Singapore_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming%E2%80%93Singapore_rail... Despite the name it's actually a series of different routes, and while all of them still have gaps, the Boten-Vientiane link connecting China to Thailand (and hence Singapore) via Laos is scheduled to open in late 2021: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vientiane%E2%80%93Boten_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vientiane%E2%80%93Boten_railwa... Although the corresponding line on the Chinese side also needs to open (ETA 2022): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuxi%E2%80%93Mohan_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuxi%E2%80%93Mohan_railway

mrandish 6y ago
Thanks for posting this as I surprised that the route stopped in Saigon when I thought one would be able to find a way to Malaysia or maybe even Singapore (not sure if there are rails across the straight anymore). Hadn't thought of heading back around.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
  The line to central Singapore has been closed, but there is still a pathetic shuttle service that crosses the causeway from Johor Bahru: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTM_Intercity#Operational_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTM_Intercity#Operational_serv... There are plans to replace this with a metro service and eventually build high-speed rail between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, but both have been repeatedly bogged down by politics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johor_Bahru%E2%80%93Singapore_Rapid_Transit_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johor_Bahru%E2%80%93Singapore_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur%E2%80%93Singapore_high-speed_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur%E2%80%93Singapore...
toomanybeersies 6y ago
It's been a dream of mine to travel overland from Singapore to London. This would make it a lot easier, but probably a lot less fun.

9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago

Here's a story of travelling a similar route, but finishing off by taking the highest train ride in the world to Tibet instead: https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/01/from-siberia-to-tibet-preamble-paperwork/ https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/01/from-siberia-to-tibet-...

owenversteeg 6y ago

I've ridden trains in all the Western European countries listed, and taken a lot of the listed routes at least partially. If you actually want to do this, you can make that confusing list much simpler: Lisbon-Hendaye with an overnight sleeper, then TGV Hendaye-Paris (a beautiful route), then the sleeper train Paris-Moscow, then Moscow-Beijing sleeper, Beijing-Hanoi sleeper, Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh. Also, you definitely don't want to get a Eurail pass for this trip. In general a Eurail pass isn't a good deal at all, with a few narrow exceptions. The specific country level passes, as well as buying discounted tickets, will nearly always be cheaper. This case is even worse, because even with an unlimited Eurail pass, you pay additional fees for almost every train on that list - Thalys, high speed, sleeper...

icebergwarrior 6y ago
France doesn't even honor / agree with the Eurail pass. So then you have to pay twice.
bogomipz 6y ago
>"Lisbon-Hendaye with an overnight sleeper .." Is this the coastal route once it crosses into Spain? I've heard the coastal route is my slower which is fine by me as I would imagine its quite scenic. If not could you recommend which one that would be? >"The specific country level passes, as well as buying discounted tickets, will nearly always be cheaper." Whats the discount are you referring to here? Is this just the booking far in advance discounted rate or something else?
- owenversteeg 6y ago
  There's only one sleeper train between Hendaye and Lisbon, and it's this one [0]. It stays pretty close to the coast for the short distance from Hendaye to San Sebastián, and then turns inland. Due to the mountain Jaizkibel (which is beautiful up closer, but less impressive from a distance), you won't be seeing the Atlantic for long at all, unfortunately. You do get a view of the Tagus (river, and then it turns into a bay) for a little while as you come into Lisbon. If you're looking for spectacular views, I'd probably recommend another sleeper train, to be honest. Booking a good bit in advance is usually one good strategy for a lot of European trains if you want to save money. But there are plenty of other options. Slower trains, off peak times, budget brands like Ouigo etc. can make train travel very cheap. If you want the flexibility afforded by a Eurail pass, there are country-specific options that not only give more flexibility than Eurail, but are also cheaper and don't require a supplemental charge for most trains. Discount cards are another big one: you can easily get 20-50% off the "normal" price with some sort of discount card, like the Carte Jeune in France. Good luck with whatever your train travels might be, and feel free to ask me whatever! [0] https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/sud-express-from-irun-and-san-sebastian-to-lisbon.htm https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/sud-express-from-ir...

abraxas 6y ago

There is something magical about train travel for me. I find boarding and riding trains extremely soothing. Flying has the exact opposite effect. It's not entirely rational but that's how it is for me.

staplers 6y ago
It offers the quintessential road trip without the stress of driving or traffic. Pretty easy to see why it's romanticized.
macintux 6y ago
I'm not sure what part of that wouldn't be rational. Between the lack of TSA security theater (although I did in fact encounter a TSA checkpoint boarding Amtrak in Chicago about 7 years ago), the freedom to move around while riding, the much more open seating, the scenic views even without a window seat... Were it not for the slow speeds, inconvenient routes, and generally abysmal state of train service in the U.S., I'd never fly again.
- abraxas 6y ago
  Yeah, luckily in Europe the all cavity search hasn't (yet?) caught on as a ritual of the train station experience.
- wenc 6y ago
  Well, I have to say, with TSA Precheck, security lines have tended to be less of an issue in recent years. When I was still traveling, I would get through security lines at O'Hare in under 10 minutes. (that said, O'Hare ranks #1 in the country for fastest TSA lines, so there's that) But travel on high speed trains (in Europe and Asia) is definitely a much more pleasant experience.
bob1029 6y ago
I feel the same way. Something about the mode of transport makes it so much more reassuring to me. Accidents even when they do happen seem to rarely impact passengers. Its usually things in the way of the train that meet unfortunate outcomes. The Shinkansen has a perfect safety record and has been in operation for 53 years, carrying over 10 billion passengers. This is a train I could sleep on. It's probably safer than being in my house.

abeppu 6y ago

The table at the end including the $2.27 to get between stations within Paris is cute.

flyinghamster 6y ago

A 2008 trip from Vienna to Pyongyang: http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ This featured, for part of the way, a ride in the North Korean sleeper car from Moscow to Pyongyang, as far as I know still the world's longest single continuous rail trip without changing trains. Something like this could pretty well never be done again, though. The Khasan-Tumangang border crossing is really only open to North Koreans and Russians, and they managed to get in only on the technicality that Tumangang was listed on their visas as a valid port of entry. They were lucky they didn't end up in a North Korean jail - or a Russian one.

vaughnegut 6y ago
Wow, thanks for sharing this link! I took the train to Pyongyang in 2009 (from Wuhan via Beijing), so the photos of the North Korean train bring back some memories, I even have a copy of a propaganda magazine in this photo I took off the train on the way back.
- peterburkimsher 6y ago
  Which tour company did you go in with? I guess Koryo. I went in with CYTS in 2010, and didn't understand a word because it was all in Chinese XD. But it was only 1000€ instead of 3000€! These days Young Pioneer Tours are much cheaper, somewhere around the $500 mark depending on the number of days.
  - vaughnegut 6y ago
    I went with some Dutch Company called VNC Asia, I have no recollection of how I found them and their website doesn't even offer an English option anymore. It was 1235 Euros, which honestly was pretty good, although at the time I'd been living in China for a year so it was crazy expensive to me. The tour was a great deal, my buddy and I got a private car with two guides and a driver dedicated specifically to us, so they spoke great English. I was hoping to see them in the blog linked above, but the only person I recognized was a woman in a military uniform at the museum - she showed us around the USS Pueblo. It's crazy you can go there for 500 dollars nowadays, I wonder how travel has changed.

mmhsieh 6y ago

for those interested in very long train rides, don't miss Bong Joon Ho's "Snowpiercer."

durpkingOP 6y ago
Movie & TV Show
mumblerino 6y ago
I found the movie so far-fetched it was hard to enjoy it. Loved Parasite though (same director)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

bogomipz 6y ago

For those who enjoy traveling by rail. "The Man in Seat 61" is a great resource: https://www.seat61.com/ https://www.seat61.com/

oefrha 6y ago

(2011) although the byline says 2019 (probably a reposting date). There's a 2013 snapshot on Wayback Machine dating the article to November 28, 2011, plus the references are from 2011: http://web.archive.org/web/20130807195501/https://basementgeographer.com/the-longest-train-ride-in-the-world/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130807195501/https://basementge...

guruparan18 6y ago

There used to be equally enjoyable and intriguing, the world's longest bus trip, from London (UK) to Calcutta (India) in mid 1970s. It appears there was quite a bit of fanfare for it. People used to take the bus and then ship to Australia then on. https://curlytales.com/this-was-the-worlds-longest-bus-route-from-kolkata-to-london/ https://curlytales.com/this-was-the-worlds-longest-bus-route...

hlfy_hn 6y ago

"The longest train ride in the world" Longest bullshit post. With changing trains, it does not mean much. BTW, the China - Thailand Railway opens soon. Then you can go to Singapore from Lisbon. Or from Marrakesh to Beijing if you take the ferry to Spain. "All prices were hastily sourced from various travel sites." TLDR: No idea what I am writing about, but I collected some stuff from the internet. For some real world experience: https://www.seat61.com https://www.seat61.com

Gys 6y ago
> the China - Thailand Railway opens soon Very interested! Do you have any reference that I keep an eye on?

eequah9L 6y ago

> Using the shortest timetable, the distance from the > coastal centre of Porto to the Polish capital of Warsaw > can be covered in 40 hours and 33 minutes (including time > zone changes) with just four transfers. Wait, what? How are timezones relevant? If I travel one hour across the date line, does it mean the trip took me minus 23 hours? Not that I don't care what time it is when I get off the train, but that has no bearing on the time that the distance can be covered in.

gregoriol 6y ago
The author probably wanted to say that by looking at timetables, times being indicated in the timezone of the station, if you cross a timezone you have to add/remove hours to get the real duration of the trip.

robga 6y ago

I went from London to Saigon by train, and then various overland options to southern Thailand, back in 2007. It feels like yesterday. From London it was 2 hours to Brussels, 3 hours to Cologne, 34 hours to Moscow, 100 hours to Ulaanbataar, and 30 hours to Beijing. So that’s 170 hours of train from London to Beijing. From there, I criss crossed China for a month before travelling the length of Vietnam, then through Cambodia to Thailand, ending 90 days of overland travel. Great times.

iso1210 6y ago
> back in 2007. It feels like yesterday As you get older, memories of time compress dramatically. What used to be measured as "oh wow that's a year away" is now measured in decades. It's depressing, and inevitably leads to a mid-life crisis.
- alltakendamned 6y ago
  while at the same time, I can't remember what I had for lunch the day before yesterday...

growlist 6y ago

Almost $400 for Koln to Warsaw?! A quick search shows that's out by an order of magnitude compared to the cheapest tickets on offer. I did this journey in winter once - something very atmospheric about trundling through central Europe in the snow.

interactivecode 6y ago

Does anyone know the best directish train route from Amsterdam to Athens?

eCa 6y ago
Currently, Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Vienna-Zagreb-Belgrade-Skopje-Thessaloniki-Athens. Or Köln-Munich instead of Frankfurt-Vienna. Also, south of Belgrade I think the schedule is a bit sketchy. Source, as always, https://seat61.com https://seat61.com
- eythian 6y ago
  In December an Amsterdam-Vienna night train service will start.
railaway 6y ago
I just did this last month with my partner and 2 kids. We didn't go as fast as possible, but took 5 days to let us break up the trip and see stuff along the way. We went from Amsterdam to Munich on day 1 via ICE trains (changing in Duisburg), had dinner at a biergarten and stayed overnight in Munich. Day 2 we explored Munich and that night got on the Nightjet sleeper train to Rome. Woke up in Italy on Day 3, enjoyed the views, arrived in Rome around 9 AM. Explored Rome , and stayed overnight. Took a Frecciargento train to Bari in Apulia on Day 4 and from there an overnight ferry to Patras in Greece, arriving Day 5. Took a taxi from there to Athens, which was pricey (€260) but sadly the trains don't run to Patras anymore and for our family this was a better option than the bus (and it was quicker, plus we stopped at Isthmia for souvlaki and to check out the canal.) Trains through the Balkans are not currently an option - they weren't running north of Thessaloniki even before COVID shut the borders. If you want to avoid flying or driving, you'll have to take a ferry from Italy to Greece. If we had to do it again, we might have taken the ferry from Venice or Ancona instead just because the port of Bari was so unwieldy for foot passengers and the Superfast I ferry was pretty bare bones and more geared towards truck drivers. Also, beware entry requirements to Greece, as they are constantly changing. Right now you couldn't actually do this trip because people arriving from the Netherlands have to show proof on arrival of a negative COVID test taken within the last 72 hours.

tromp 6y ago

> Once in France, it’s a transfer onto the TGV (but not the high-speed trains, which won’t ply this particular route until 2017) At first I thought, oh, this is an old article from before 2017. But scrolling back to the top, I see it's from June 2019, so it's puzzling why they would write that.

tzot 6y ago

> Once in France, it’s a transfer onto the TGV (but not the high-speed trains It's a little funny to say you transfer onto the Trains-à-Grande-Vitesse (high-speed trains) but not onto the high-speed trains :)

gorbypark 6y ago

I've always had a dream of travelling around the world via the "surface". Probably home to NYC via train ->Southhampton, UK via a swanky cruise ship -> train from there to Beijing or Shanghai -> some sort of ferry/boat to Japan -> Cruise (or freighter 'direct' to the West Coast) to Hawaii -> West Coast US/Can -> train back home. I should really do it, one day.

jack2222 6y ago
You should check out the travel documentary 'around the world in 80 days' by Michael Palin.

LoSboccacc 6y ago

> longest single uninterrupted train journey > with just four transfers I don't understand the rules set forth from the article for its calculation

0-_-0 6y ago
I think it means "train ride between the 2 furthest possible points", so using train only.