The longest train journey in the world in 2021
jonworth.euI've been planning a trip pretty similar to this for years, and like to think that I would have done it in summer 2020 had COVID not happened (my planned route is Skye-Bali and involves a couple of ferries so not 100% train).
I cosign everything in the OP article regarding logistics, current availability, the Vientiane Gap, etc. The only thing I'd note is that there's a different route available that is about 1000km shorter, via Barcelona-Nice-Milan-Venice-Vienna-Bucharest-Istanbul-Baku-Astrakhan-Almaty-Urumqi-Kunming-etc.
I've done nearly the full Trans-Siberian and while it's a cool experience (esp if you speak Russian and can talk with people on the train), watching pine trees go by gets boring after day 3. I personally think that if you're going to commit to a Europe-Asia train trip, it's better to take the scenic route.
The even more exciting option will be when China finishes the Dushanbe-Kashgar and Lhasa-Chengdu railways. That will facilitate an absolutely epic ride through the top of the world.
Over a 6 month period in 2016 I did London to Beijing by train. I blogged/tweeted the The Trans Siberian leg of it https://tombh.co.uk/tweets-from-trans-siberia
How much was it.
From your tweets, looks like most people were friendly, if I was to do this, I think I'd rent an entire room though.
I don't actually remember, I think it was something like $250. And that was through an agency, so surely it could have been even cheaper if I understood enough Russian to buy the ticket directly.
There are first class rooms as well, for even more comfort and privacy. I can't imagine they'd be bank-breakingly expensive either.
Russian Railways have a decent web site so you probably don't need to read Russian even, but as time goes it may no longer be that cheap.
It occurs to me that I've done nearly every leg on this route at some point. Except of course taking a different route through china and Vietnam since that high speed link through laos didn't exist 20 years ago.
I did that Thailand night train back and forth to Surat Thani at least a half dozen times back when I'd spend my winters there. It's probably my favorite of the bunch for sheer atmosphere.
It's a shame that night trains in general are vanishing these days. You used to be able to do Europe without ever staying in hostels, hopping the longest train you could find each night and waking in a new city.
Now you can go back and forth between Paris and Venice, and that's about it.
I read that the EU is planning on giving high priority to trains, including night trains.
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/europe-is-undergoing-a-slee...
I would really like to be able to use one of those
They are bringing them back.
Switzerland has also started Zürich to Amsterdam again just last month. They are using trains from the 70s as they currently do not have newer night travel equipped rail cars but are planning on adding a lot more routes. The Austrian rail ÖBB has been running nightjets for a while also from Zürich.
Although quite expensive the night rail has become very popular again.
Last time I took the high speed train they left us a reminder on the ticket about how much less carbon the travel was with them. I wondered then, why was it still cheaper to fly? I took the train that time for convenience as it was direct but not much cheaper.
Infrastructure. A train isn't just a vehicle but thousands of miles of track that must be maintained. The higher the speed, the greater the cost to build and maintain that track. Airplanes need runways, but those are a pittance to maintain compared to rail lines. Land is also 2d finite resource that must be dedicated to rail travel. Airspace is 3d.
There's much less competition (if any) in rail travel for any given route.
There's also no tax on jet fuel.
A high speed train almost always has a lower speed competitor, although it may be run by the same company.
Definitely not the case in EU and where so, it's only because of governmental inference in the market. Czechia deregulated few years ago and instantly (literally the first day the deregulation came into effect) there was 10+ new rail travel companies operating on basically every conceivable route.
I did cologne to vienna this summer and it was lovely. Look up nightjet
Some comments from ~10 days earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29570640
That's a different text with classical pre-COVID route.
This newer HN post includes an anchor link to a specific section of the page about COVID impacts, but it's the same page/text.
You don't need to take a metro in Moscow to change between Petersburg and Vladivostok trains. Two terminals are located 50m apart. So, from Vyborg, just take a train to Moscow. Or go to Tver and get on any eastbound train, going to Kazan or Samara or Ryazan for that matter, if you want to skip Moscow entirely.
The advertised Vyborg-Tver train is a scenic route which runs once in a blue moon.
You might also enjoy this blog from someone who travelled the whole Vienna-Pyongyang route: https://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/
Moscow – Vladivostok is a great adventure