The orient Express began trips from Pars, France, to Bulgaria on 5 October 1883 and from 1889 went as far as Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. It was the first trans-European train and traveled a total of 2,736km across six countries in great style. It stopped running in 1977, but was re-launched five years later.
20th Century Limited
The luxurious 20th Century Limited ran between New York and Chicago from 1902 to 1967.
Trans-Siberian Express
The Trans-Siberian Express travels 9,297km between Moscow and Vladivostok. The line opened in 1914 and is the world's longest continuous rail line.
Flying Scotsman
The Flying Scotsman provided a luxurious non-stop journey from King's Cross, London to Edinburgh, Scotland. It ran for 40 years, from 1923 until 1963.
Golden Arrow
From 1929 to 1971, the Golden Arrow ran from Victoria, London to Dover. From there passengers could sail across the Channel and then take the French Fleche d'Or to Paris.
Blue Train
This is one of the world's most luxurious trains and it has operated between Cape Town and Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa since 1939. The train, carriages and d'cor are mainly blue-hence the name.
Bullet Train
Japanese bullet trains (shinkansen) are the world's fastest scheduled rail services. They were introduced in 1964 to coincide with the Tokyo Olympic Games.
TGV
The French TGV (train a Grande Vitesse, or high speed train) was launched in 1981 and is an electric train service between Paris and Lyon. A specially modified TGV the Atlantique, set a world speed record of 515.3km/h on 18 May 1990.
Eurostar
The Eurostar serviced was launched on 14 November 1994 to carry passengers between London, Paris and Brussels through the Channel Tunnel. It can reach speeds of 300km/h. in its first ten years it carried a total of 59 million passengers.
Ghan
The Ghan is the first rail service from Adelaide to Darwin on the north-south route across Australia. It was named after the camel trains that were once the only way to cross the desert. The first train ran in 2004. It had 43 carriages, measured more than 1km in length, and carried 330 passengers.
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