Having been meticulously restored to their former glory and glamour, the 17 vintage carriages are expected to roll down the tracks in Italy next year, Poland's onet.pl website has reported.
In 2025, the carriages are set to return to the Orient Express’ original route between Paris and Istanbul in Turkey, according to US broadcaster CNN.
Symbol of luxury
A symbol of luxury, wealth and extravagance, the trans-Europe Orient Express train ran between Paris and Istanbul from 1883 to 1977.
Immortalised in crime author Agatha Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express, the elegant train, with luxurious sleeping carriages and opulent restaurant cars, where exquisite food was served, carried aristocrats, diplomats and businessmen, among other distinguished passengers.
In later years, its route was shortened to Bucharest, Budapest and finally Vienna, before the Orient Express was withdrawn from service in December 2009, onet.pl reported.
Orient Express carriages found in Poland
In 2015, seventeen exclusive Orient Express carriages, including 12 sleeping cars, three leisure cars and one restaurant car, were spotted at Małaszewicze, a small railway station near Poland’s border with Belarus, according to onet.pl.
They had been abandoned there for years, all but forgotten, reporters were told.
Unexpectedly, the vintage train cars were “pretty well-preserved,” with “almost no damage” and all the decorations, including their Art Deco panels, intact, according to witnesses.
Restoration and return to service
Even so, when the hospitality group Accor purchased the rediscovered carriages, it hired Parisian architect Maxime d'Angeac to painstakingly restore them, CNN reported.
D’Angeac told the US broadcaster: "We absolutely must think about how this train would be perceived even further into the future, we needed to make sure that we maintained its strong roots."
He noted that the vintage carriages were smaller than modern train cars, but added that he enjoyed the challenge of "finding ways to achieve extreme comfort and luxury in particularly small spaces," as cited by CNN.
Now Accor has revealed the new designs for the Orient Express carriages. The released images portray “sumptuous interiors,” combining cozy “dark wood panels” with touches of color, such as green velvet couches, as well as “a stunning mirrored ceiling,” “theatrical corridors” and suites evocative of “the spirit of the 20s,” CNN reported.
The new-look carriages are set to be ready for passengers in 2023, when Accor launches an Italy-based Orient Express service before the kick-off of the Paris-Istanbul connection in 2025, according to the US broadcaster.
The famous train found its way to Poland in 1988, when an Orient Express homage made a 19-day, 15,000-kilometre journey from Paris to Hong Kong via Berlin, Moscow, Warsaw and Beijing, onet.pl reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: onet.pl, CNN