Flightmussy/trainrouter-atlas huggingface dataset:
Sagano Scenic Railway — Kyoto (Arashiyama) to Kameoka (scenic)
Train: Torokko open coaches
Operator: Sagano Scenic Railway (JR West)
Distance: 7 km
Top speed: 25 km/h
Duration: 25 min
Opened: 1991
Passengers per year: 1000000
Countries: Japan
A retired JR alignment above the Hozugawa rapids — twenty-five slow minutes of maples and gorge that the modern main line skips through tunnels.
Yufuin no Mori — Fukuoka to Yufuin (scenic)
Train: Kiha 71/72 “Yufuin no Mori”
Operator: JR Kyushu
Distance: 135 km
Top speed: 95 km/h
Duration: 2 h 10 min
Opened: 1989
Countries: Japan
Forest-green parlour cars with a buffet of Kyushu treats — over the Mino passes and along the Kusu valley to the boutique onsen town under Mount Yufu.
Saphir Odoriko — Tokyo to Izukyu-Shimoda (scenic)
Train: E261 all-Green-Car EMU
Operator: JR East · Izukyu
Distance: 168 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 2 h 30 min
Opened: 2020
Countries: Japan
All-Green-Car luxury down the Izu coast — nose windows, a fresh noodle bar, and Sagami Bay filling the glass roof beyond Atami’s tunnels.
SL Gunma — Takasaki to Minakami (classic)
Train: D51 498 · C61 20 steam
Operator: JR East
Distance: 59 km
Top speed: 65 km/h
Duration: ≈ 2 h
Opened: 1988
Countries: Japan
Restored D51 498 “Degoichi” and C61 20 haul retro coaches up the Joetsu Line on weekends — steam echoing off the Tone gorge under Tanigawa’s wall.
Seven Stars in Kyushu — Fukuoka to Fukuoka (night)
Train: DF200-hauled 77 series suites
Operator: JR Kyushu
Distance: 1000 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 days
Opened: 2013
Countries: Japan
Japan’s first luxury cruise train — ten suites and a piano bar on a slow lap of Kyushu’s volcano country; berths routinely go to a lottery.
Twilight Express Mizukaze — Osaka to Shimonoseki (night)
Train: 87 series sleeper
Operator: JR West
Distance: 720 km
Top speed: 110 km/h
Duration: ≈ 27 h
Opened: 2017
Countries: Japan
Heir to the beloved Twilight Express — emerald art-deco suites and open observation decks drifting along the San’in coast’s empty beaches.
Limited Express Hida — Nagoya to Toyama (scenic)
Train: HC85 hybrid DMU
Operator: JR Central
Distance: 256 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 3 h 50 min
Opened: 1968
Countries: Japan
Hybrid HC85s shadow the jade-green Hida River for hours of gorge — riverside onsen at Gero, morning markets at Takayama, then down to Toyama Bay.
Limited Express Azusa — Tokyo (Shinjuku) to Matsumoto (classic)
Train: E353 EMU
Operator: JR East
Distance: 225 km
Top speed: 130 km/h
Duration: 2 h 23 min
Opened: 1966
Countries: Japan
The alpinists’ express — E353s bank through Katsunuma’s vineyards and the Suwa lake basin to Matsumoto’s black castle, gateway to the Japan Alps.
Limited Express Sonic — Fukuoka to Oita (classic)
Train: 883 “Sonic” tilting EMU
Operator: JR Kyushu
Distance: 200 km
Top speed: 130 km/h
Duration: 2 h 05 min
Opened: 1995
Countries: Japan
The blue “wonderland express” — tilting 883s reverse at Kokura and chase the coast past Nakatsu to the steaming hells of Beppu and Oita.
Spacia X — Tokyo (Asakusa) to Nikko (classic)
Train: Tobu N100 “Spacia X”
Operator: Tobu Railway
Distance: 136 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 1 h 50 min
Opened: 2023
Countries: Japan
Tobu’s champagne-white flagship to Nikko’s shrine forest — a cockpit lounge, craft beer on draught, and Tokyo Skytree receding from the rear window.
Odakyu Romancecar — Tokyo (Shinjuku) to Hakone-Yumoto (classic)
Train: 70000 “GSE” observation EMU
Operator: Odakyu Electric Railway
Distance: 89 km
Top speed: 110 km/h
Duration: 1 h 15 min
Opened: 1957
Countries: Japan
Front-row observation seats since 1957, when the SE set a world narrow-gauge speed record — Shinjuku to Hakone’s hot springs without a change.
KTX Honam — Seoul to Mokpo (high-speed)
Train: KTX-Sancheon
Operator: Korail
Distance: 350 km
Top speed: 305 km/h
Duration: 2 h 15 min
Opened: 2015
Countries: South Korea
Korea’s second high-speed spine — across the Honam rice plain to Gwangju and Mokpo’s seafood quays, where ferries fan out to a thousand islands.
SRT — Seoul (Suseo) to Busan (high-speed)
Train: SRT 120000 series
Operator: SR
Distance: 400 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: 2 h 10 min
Opened: 2016
Countries: South Korea
The upstart from Gangnam — SRT slips out of Suseo through the 50 km Yulhyeon Tunnel and undercuts KTX fares all the way to Busan.
KTX Gangneung Line — Seoul to Gangneung (high-speed)
Train: KTX-Sancheon · KTX-Eum
Operator: Korail
Distance: 223 km
Top speed: 250 km/h
Duration: 1 h 54 min
Opened: 2017
Countries: South Korea
Built for the PyeongChang 2018 Games — under the Taebaek passes in a 22 km tunnel, out to Gangneung’s espresso beaches on the East Sea.
Baekdudaegan Canyon Train — Buncheon to Cheoram (scenic)
Train: V-train open-window coaches
Operator: Korail
Distance: 28 km
Top speed: 30 km/h
Duration: 1 h 10 min
Opened: 2013
Countries: South Korea
White-and-crimson canyon cars crawl the upper Nakdong gorge at 30 km/h — stove-warmed in winter, windows flung open over rapids no road reaches.
South-Link Line — Kaohsiung to Taitung (scenic)
Train: EMU3000 Tze-Chiang
Operator: Taiwan Railway
Distance: 160 km
Top speed: 130 km/h
Duration: 2 h 10 min
Opened: 1992
Countries: Taiwan
Taiwan’s last main line to be completed — 35 tunnels through the island’s southern spine to Duoliang’s celebrated platform above the Pacific.
Pingxi Line — Ruifang to Jingtong (scenic)
Train: DR1000 railcar
Operator: Taiwan Railway
Distance: 13 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: ≈ 50 min
Opened: 1921
Countries: Taiwan
A 1920s coal branch where railcars squeeze between Shifen’s shop-fronts as sky lanterns lift off — waterfalls and a cat village along the way.
Puyuma Express — Taipei to Taitung (classic)
Train: TEMU2000 tilting EMU
Operator: Taiwan Railway
Distance: 347 km
Top speed: 150 km/h
Duration: 3 h 55 min
Opened: 2013
Countries: Taiwan
Named for the Puyuma people — tilting trains lean through the Yilan curves, past Qingshui’s sheer sea cliffs, into the East Rift Valley’s rice paddies.
Mauritania Iron Ore Train — Nouadhibou to Zouérat (classic)
Train: SNIM ore consist + passenger coach
Operator: SNIM
Distance: 704 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: ≈ 18 h
Opened: 1963
Countries: Mauritania
The world’s longest trains — up to 2.5 km of ore hoppers across the open Sahara, with a single battered passenger coach swaying at the back.
Benguela Railway Express — Lobito to Luau (night)
Train: CFB air-con sleeper express
Operator: CFB
Distance: 1344 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: ≈ 30 h
Opened: 1929
Countries: Angola
Atlantic surf to the Congolese border — the Chinese-rebuilt Benguela line’s weekly sleeper climbs 1,344 km through Huambo’s highlands to Luau.
Transcamerounais — Yaoundé to Ngaoundéré (night)
Train: Train 191/192 couchette
Operator: Camrail
Distance: 622 km
Top speed: 70 km/h
Duration: 12 h 10 min
Opened: 1974
Countries: Cameroon
Cameroon’s nightly lifeline — couchettes climb from Yaoundé’s hills to the Adamawa Plateau, railhead for the country’s wild north.
La Gazelle — Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire (classic)
Train: Korean-built air-con express
Operator: CFCO
Distance: 510 km
Top speed: 70 km/h
Duration: ≈ 16 h
Opened: 1934
Countries: Republic of the Congo
Silenced by war in the Pool, rolling again since 2023 — the Congo-Océan line dives through the Mayombe forest to the Atlantic at Pointe-Noire.
Algiers–Oran Express — Algiers to Oran (classic)
Train: Alstom Coradia Polyvalent
Operator: SNTF
Distance: 421 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 5 h 30 min
Opened: 1871
Countries: Algeria
Algeria’s premier inter-city — bimodal Coradias sweep the 1871 French-built mainline through the Chélif valley, Algiers to Oran in an afternoon.
Algiers–Constantine Express — Algiers to Constantine (classic)
Train: Alstom Coradia Polyvalent
Operator: SNTF
Distance: 464 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 6 h 44 min
Opened: 1886
Countries: Algeria
East across the high plains of Sétif to Constantine, the “city of bridges” strung over the Rhumel gorge — Algeria’s grandest station approach.
Alexandria–Aswan Express — Alexandria to Aswan (night)
Train: ENR air-con express coaches
Operator: Egyptian National Railways
Distance: 1090 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 16 h 40 min
Opened: 1856
Countries: Egypt
One seat, the whole of Egypt — from the Mediterranean up Africa’s oldest main line, waking to palms, feluccas and temples along the Nile to Aswan.
Al Atlas Night — Tangier to Marrakech (night)
Train: ONCF couchette train
Operator: ONCF
Distance: 620 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 9 h 36 min
Opened: 1928
Countries: Morocco
Morocco’s night train — out of Tangier at 23:25, couchettes rolling south past Asilah and Casablanca to dawn beneath the Koutoubia in Marrakech.
Victoria Falls Overnight — Bulawayo to Victoria Falls (night)
Train: NRZ loco-hauled coaches
Operator: National Railways of Zimbabwe
Distance: 472 km
Top speed: 70 km/h
Duration: ≈ 13 h
Opened: 1904
Countries: Zimbabwe
Revived in October 2025 — the 1904 line to the Falls leaves Bulawayo at dusk, skirts Hwange’s elephant country and arrives with the spray in sight.
Kisumu Safari Train — Nairobi to Kisumu (night)
Train: Metre-gauge sleeper
Operator: Kenya Railways
Distance: 405 km
Top speed: 70 km/h
Duration: ≈ 13 h
Opened: 1901
Countries: Kenya
The old Uganda Railway reborn as a festive-season sleeper — down the Rift wall past Naivasha and Nakuru to Lake Victoria’s shore at Kisumu.
Lézard Rouge — Metlaoui to Selja Gorges (scenic)
Train: Restored beylical saloons (1910)
Operator: SNCFT
Distance: 43 km
Top speed: 30 km/h
Duration: ≈ 1 h 45 min (round trip)
Opened: 1910
Countries: Tunisia
The Bey of Tunis’s 1910 saloon cars, freshly restored — creeping into the Selja gorge’s ochre cliffs, photo stops included, in phosphate country.
Tanzania SGR — Dar es Salaam to Dodoma (classic)
Train: CRRC EMU & loco-hauled sets
Operator: Tanzania Railways Corporation
Distance: 460 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 3 h 42 min
Opened: 2024
Countries: Tanzania
East Africa’s first electric railway — 160 km/h from Dar’s Indian Ocean humidity to the capital in under four hours, opened 2024 and already packed.
Warri–Itakpe Train — Warri to Itakpe (classic)
Train: NRC standard-gauge coaches
Operator: Nigerian Railway Corporation
Distance: 326 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 h
Opened: 2020
Countries: Nigeria
Begun in 1987 and finished 33 years later — the standard-gauge line linking the Niger Delta’s creeks with the iron hills of Kogi State.
Puffing Billy Railway — Belgrave to Gembrook (scenic)
Train: NA-class steam, open-sided cars
Operator: Puffing Billy Railway
Distance: 24 km
Top speed: 25 km/h
Duration: 1 h 50 min
Opened: 1900
Passengers per year: 400000
Countries: Australia
Legs out the window over Monbulk Creek trestle — century-old narrow-gauge steam through Dandenongs fern gullies, Australia’s best-loved heritage line.
Spirit of the Outback — Brisbane to Longreach (night)
Train: Loco-hauled sleeper, Tuckerbox diner
Operator: Queensland Rail
Distance: 1325 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: ≈ 25 h
Opened: 1993
Countries: Australia
Up the coast to Rockhampton, then dead west into Matilda country — sleepers and the Tuckerbox diner, 1,325 km to the stockman’s capital.
The Gulflander — Normanton to Croydon (scenic)
Train: RM93 railmotor (1950)
Operator: Queensland Rail
Distance: 152 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: ≈ 5 h
Opened: 1891
Countries: Australia
“From nowhere to nowhere” once a week — the 1891 Gulf line’s hollow steel sleepers shrug off every wet-season flood; the old railmotor just keeps going.
West Coast Wilderness Railway — Queenstown to Strahan (scenic)
Train: Abt rack steam locomotives
Operator: West Coast Wilderness Railway
Distance: 35 km
Top speed: 20 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 h
Opened: 1896
Countries: Australia
Hauling itself up 1-in-16 grades on Abt rack cogs — the 1896 copper railway, from Queenstown’s bare hills into King River rainforest, steaming again.
Taieri Gorge Railway — Dunedin to Pukerangi (scenic)
Train: Heritage carriages, DJ diesels
Operator: Dunedin Railways
Distance: 58 km
Top speed: 50 km/h
Duration: 2 h 5 min
Opened: 1889
Countries: New Zealand
Out of Dunedin’s bluestone palace of a station and into the Taieri’s schist canyon — wrought-iron viaducts of 1889 carrying every train still.
Capital Connection — Palmerston North to Wellington (classic)
Train: Refurbished loco-hauled carriages
Operator: KiwiRail
Distance: 136 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: 2 h 15 min
Opened: 1991
Countries: New Zealand
The Kāpiti Coast’s own express — one morning run to Wellington beneath Paekākāriki’s escarpment, home again each evening since 1991.
Pichi Richi Railway — Port Augusta to Quorn (scenic)
Train: Afghan Express steam
Operator: Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society
Distance: 39 km
Top speed: 30 km/h
Duration: 2 h 20 min
Opened: 1879
Countries: Australia
The original Ghan route through Pichi Richi Pass — 1879 stonework, volunteer-run steam and the 1928 “Barwell Bull” railcar to quaint Quorn.
Mary Valley Rattler — Gympie to Amamoor (scenic)
Train: C17 steam No. 45
Operator: Rattler Railway Company
Distance: 20 km
Top speed: 25 km/h
Duration: 1 h
Opened: 1915
Countries: Australia
A 1920s C17 barks out of Gympie across Deep Creek bridge — the 1915 fruit branch through the Mary Valley, saved twice and steaming on weekends.
The Inlander — Townsville to Mount Isa (night)
Train: Loco-hauled outback train
Operator: Queensland Rail
Distance: 977 km
Top speed: 80 km/h
Duration: ≈ 21 h
Opened: 1953
Countries: Australia
Queensland’s grand old night train since 1953 — Coral Sea to Cloncurry’s red plains and the smokestacks of Mount Isa, 977 unhurried kilometres.
The Westlander — Brisbane to Charleville (night)
Train: Loco-hauled night train
Operator: Queensland Rail
Distance: 777 km
Top speed: 80 km/h
Duration: ≈ 17 h
Opened: 1954
Countries: Australia
Over the Toowoomba range by night and out across the Darling Downs — twice a week until the wheat gives way to mulga at Charleville.
Byron Bay Solar Train — Byron Beach to North Beach (scenic)
Train: 1949 600-class railcar, solar-powered
Operator: Byron Bay Railroad Company
Distance: 3 km
Top speed: 25 km/h
Duration: 10 min
Opened: 2017
Passengers per year: 100000
Countries: Australia
The world’s first fully solar-powered train — a 1949 “red rattler” gliding three kilometres of resurrected line to Byron Bay’s beaches.
Great Southern — Adelaide to Brisbane (night)
Train: Gold & Platinum sleeper
Operator: Journey Beyond
Distance: 2885 km
Top speed: 115 km/h
Duration: ≈ 3 days
Opened: 2019
Countries: Australia
The Ghan’s summer sibling — Adelaide to Brisbane the long way round, with Grampians sunsets, Canberra and a Coffs Harbour beach stop en route.
Shanghai–Kunming HSR — Shanghai to Kunming (high-speed)
Train: CR400AF Fuxing
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 2252 km
Top speed: 350 km/h
Duration: ≈ 11 h
Opened: 2016
Countries: China
China’s longest east–west high-speed line — 2,252 km from the Bund to the Yunnan plateau, vaulting Guizhou’s canyons on some of the world’s highest bridges.
Southeast Coastal HSR — Hangzhou to Shenzhen (high-speed)
Train: CRH & Fuxing EMUs
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 1450 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: ≈ 6 h
Opened: 2013
Countries: China
D-trains skim 1,450 km of fishing ports, tea hills and sea bridges between the Yangtze and Pearl deltas — China’s window seat on the East China Sea.
Chengdu–Chongqing HSR — Chengdu to Chongqing (high-speed)
Train: CR400AF Fuxing
Operator: China Railway Chengdu Group
Distance: 307 km
Top speed: 350 km/h
Duration: 1 h 02 min
Opened: 2015
Countries: China
Fuxings at 350 km/h stitch the twin megacities of the southwest into 62 minutes — hotpot in Chengdu, riverside neon in Chongqing before it cools.
Xi’an–Chengdu HSR — Xi’an to Chengdu (high-speed)
Train: CRH3A
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 658 km
Top speed: 250 km/h
Duration: 3 h 07 min
Opened: 2017
Countries: China
The first bullet line across the Qinling — 127 km of tunnels under the range that divides north and south China, Terracotta Army to pandas in three hours.
Hainan Ring HSR — Haikou to Sanya (high-speed)
Train: CR300AF Fuxing
Operator: China Railway Guangzhou Group
Distance: 653 km
Top speed: 250 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 h 30 min
Opened: 2015
Countries: China
The world’s only circular high-speed railway — 653 km looping a tropical island past surf beaches, rocket launch pads and coconut groves.
Guangzhou–Hong Kong XRL — Guangzhou to Hong Kong (high-speed)
Train: Vibrant Express (CRH380A)
Operator: China Railway Guangzhou · MTR
Distance: 142 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: 47 min
Opened: 2018
Countries: China|Hong Kong
Under the Pearl River Delta in 47 minutes — dim sum in Guangzhou, and the harbour skyline rising over West Kowloon’s station roof by mid-morning.
Beijing–Zhangjiakou HSR — Beijing to Zhangjiakou (high-speed)
Train: CR400BF-C smart Fuxing
Operator: China Railway Beijing Group
Distance: 174 km
Top speed: 350 km/h
Duration: 47 min
Opened: 2019
Countries: China
The world’s first autonomous 350 km/h railway, built for the 2022 Winter Games above Zhan Tianyou’s 1909 line — one station lies 102 m beneath the Great Wall.
Harbin–Dalian HSR — Harbin to Dalian (high-speed)
Train: CRH380BG (cold-climate)
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 921 km
Top speed: 350 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 h
Opened: 2012
Countries: China
The world’s first alpine high-speed line — 921 km from Siberian-cold Harbin to the ice-free port of Dalian on EMUs winterised for −40 °C.
Guiyang–Guangzhou HSR — Guiyang to Guangzhou (high-speed)
Train: CRH & Fuxing EMUs
Operator: China Railway
Distance: 857 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 h
Opened: 2014
Countries: China
Eighty-three percent tunnel and bridge — 238 bores through Guizhou’s karst down to the Pearl Delta, four hours where the road once took a day and a night.
Lhasa–Nyingchi Railway — Lhasa to Nyingchi (scenic)
Train: CR200J Fuxing
Operator: China Railway Qingzang Group
Distance: 435 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: 3 h 29 min
Opened: 2021
Countries: China
Oxygen-fed Fuxings trace the Yarlung Tsangpo at 3,500 m, crossing the great river 16 times between Lhasa and the peach orchards of Nyingchi.
Chengdu–Kunming Railway — Chengdu to Kunming (classic)
Train: CR200J Fuxing & slow trains
Operator: China Railway Chengdu Group
Distance: 1100 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: ≈ 7 h
Opened: 1970
Countries: China
The impossible mountain line of 1970 — 427 tunnels and 991 bridges through the Daliangshan, where 5-yuan slow trains still double as the Yi villages’ market bus.
Southern Xinjiang Railway — Urumqi to Kashgar (night)
Train: K/T-series sleepers
Operator: China Railway Urumqi Group
Distance: 1475 km
Top speed: 140 km/h
Duration: ≈ 15 h
Opened: 1999
Countries: China
All-night sleepers skirt the Tian Shan and the Taklamakan’s rim to Kashgar, the last great Silk Road bazaar before the Pamirs.
Arktika — Moscow to Murmansk (night)
Train: Arktika № 16/15
Operator: RZD
Distance: 1940 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: ≈ 35 h
Opened: 1916
Countries: Russia
Russia’s polar flagship crosses the Arctic Circle on the 1916 Murman railway — 35 hours north to a port where winter trains arrive in round-the-clock night.
Moscow–Kazan Double-Decker — Moscow to Kazan (night)
Train: Double-deck sleeper № 23/24
Operator: RZD
Distance: 793 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: ≈ 11 h 30 min
Opened: 2015
Countries: Russia
Two storeys of berths slip out of Kazansky station at 23:08 and pull in beneath the Tatar kremlin by breakfast — Russia’s double-deck night-train boom, eastbound.
Red Arrow — Moscow to Saint Petersburg (night)
Train: Krasnaya Strela № 1/2
Operator: RZD
Distance: 650 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: ≈ 8 h
Opened: 1931
Countries: Russia
Departing at 23:55 nightly since 1931 to the strains of ‘Hymn to the Great City’ — the crimson Soviet flagship that outlived the state that built it.
Circum-Baikal Express — Irkutsk to Port Baikal (scenic)
Train: Retro excursion train
Operator: RZD Travel
Distance: 215 km
Top speed: 40 km/h
Duration: ≈ 9 h
Opened: 1905
Countries: Russia
The Tsar’s ‘golden buckle’ — 38 tunnels blasted into cliffs a step above Baikal’s water, once the Trans-Siberian’s costliest link, now a slow shoreline excursion.
Baikal–Amur Mainline — Tayshet to Komsomolsk-on-Amur (night)
Train: RZD sleeper trains
Operator: RZD
Distance: 3800 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 days
Opened: 1984
Countries: Russia
Brezhnev’s ‘Project of the Century’ — the Trans-Siberian’s wilder northern twin: 3,800 km of permafrost, seven ranges and towns that exist only for the line.
Tbilisi–Batumi Intercity — Tbilisi to Batumi (classic)
Train: Stadler KISS double-decker
Operator: Georgian Railway
Distance: 378 km
Top speed: 120 km/h
Duration: 4 h 59 min
Opened: 2016
Countries: Georgia
Swiss double-deckers roll from the capital through Stalin’s Gori and the Imereti vineyards to palm-lined Batumi — Georgia crossed in five hours.
Baku–Tbilisi Night Train — Baku to Tbilisi (night)
Train: Stadler sleeper
Operator: ADY · Georgian Railway
Distance: 551 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: ≈ 9 h 30 min
Opened: 2026
Countries: Azerbaijan|Georgia
Back after six years in May 2026 — factory-fresh Stadler sleepers with showers and a VIP lounge leave the Caspian at night and wake above the Kura in Tbilisi.
Baku–Ganja Express — Baku to Ganja (classic)
Train: Stadler KISS
Operator: Azerbaijan Railways (ADY)
Distance: 363 km
Top speed: 160 km/h
Duration: ≈ 4 h
Opened: 2021
Countries: Azerbaijan
Double-deck KISS EMUs since 2021, sprinting the Kura steppe to Azerbaijan’s second city — the quickest thing on rails between the Caspian and the Lesser Caucasus.
Yerevan–Tbilisi Night Train — Yerevan to Tbilisi (night)
Train: Sleeper № 371/372
Operator: South Caucasus Railway
Distance: 370 km
Top speed: 80 km/h
Duration: ≈ 10 h 30 min
Opened: 1902
Countries: Armenia|Georgia
An every-other-night time capsule down the Debed gorge past Alaverdi’s copper smelters — extended each summer through to the beaches of Batumi.
Almaty–Tashkent Talgo — Almaty to Tashkent (night)
Train: Talgo wide-body sleeper
Operator: Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ)
Distance: 1000 km
Top speed: 140 km/h
Duration: ≈ 16 h
Opened: 2024
Countries: Kazakhstan|Uzbekistan
Central Asia’s new international Talgo, daily since December 2025 — dinner leaving Almaty under the Tian Shan, lunch next day in Tashkent.
Tashkent–Khiva Night Train — Tashkent to Khiva (night)
Train: UTY night sleeper
Operator: Uzbekistan Railways
Distance: 1120 km
Top speed: 90 km/h
Duration: ≈ 14 h
Opened: 2018
Countries: Uzbekistan
Khiva had no railway until 2018 — now a sleeper crosses the Kyzylkum desert overnight and draws up beside the mud-walled Itchan Kala at breakfast.
Issyk-Kul Summer Train — Bishkek to Balykchy (scenic)
Train: Panoramic tourist cars
Operator: Kyrgyz Temir Zholu
Distance: 185 km
Top speed: 60 km/h
Duration: 4 h 05 min
Opened: 1948
Countries: Kyrgyzstan
A summer-weekend crawl up the Boom Gorge to Issyk-Kul, the world’s second-largest alpine lake — panoramic cars bolted on for the mountain walls.
Ashgabat–Türkmenabat Night Train — Ashgabat to Türkmenabat (night)
Train: TDY sleeper
Operator: Türkmendemirýollary (TDY)
Distance: 560 km
Top speed: 100 km/h
Duration: ≈ 13 h
Opened: 1886
Countries: Turkmenistan
Down the Tsarist Trans-Caspian mainline of 1886 — overnight past Merv’s ruined oasis and the Karakum sands to the Amu Darya’s banks.
Gornergrat Bahn — Zermatt to Gornergrat (scenic)
Train: Rack railway
Operator: Gornergrat Bahn
Distance: 9 km
Top speed: 30 km/h
Duration: 33 min
Opened: 1898
Countries: Switzerland
Europe’s highest open-air railway climbs from Zermatt to 3,089 m — the Matterhorn framed in the window from the first curve to the summit ridge.
Pilatus Railway — Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm (scenic)
Train: Stadler rack railcars
Operator: Pilatus-Bahnen
Distance: 5 km
Top speed: 12 km/h
Duration: ≈ 30 min
Opened: 1889
Countries: Switzerland
The steepest rack railway on Earth — 48 % grades since 1889, with Locher’s horizontal cog wheels gripping a ladder no ordinary train could climb.
Rigi Railways — Vitznau to Rigi Kulm (scenic)
Train: Rack railway
Operator: Rigi Bahnen
Distance: 7 km
Top speed: 20 km/h
Duration: ≈ 30 min
Opened: 1871
Countries: Switzerland
Europe’s first mountain railway (1871) still ratchets up from Lake Lucerne to the Queen of the Mountains — Mark Twain rode it and wrote home about it.