Orient Express
The story of the Orient Express begins in the 1860s , when the concept of globetrotting tourism was still new . For years , the ultra-rich had been the only people who could afford to travel through Europe . And though railroads were introduced in the first half of the 19 th century , they were often dirty and uncomfortable and jostled along fragmented routes that often ground to a halt at the continent ’ s many international borders . As rail travel expanded , luxury hotels began to pop up to cater to travellers ’ needs . But it took an entrepreneur named Georges Nagelmackers to combine trains and hotels in Europe . Nagelmackers was a member of a prominent Belgian banking family and had investments in European railroads .
While European travellers chugged along in sooty , jostling trains , Americans were beginning to travel in Pullman cars . These train cars , invented by George Pullman , were specially designed for long-distance travel . The hotel-like cars were clean and staffed by friendly workers who saw to the passengers ’ comfort . Above all , they contained something European trains did not : beds . Nagelmackers became fascinated by this comfortable mode of travel and even approached Pullman with a proposal to become his partner and spread his cars through Europe . When Pullman rejected him , Nagelmackers returned to Europe with a plan : copy Pullman and make his own even more luxurious train . Nagelmackers wasn ’ t content with the idea of mere sleeper cars . He wanted to create something entirely new : a luxury travel experience that carried passengers from Paris to Istanbul ( then Constantinople ) without stopping at borders . To do so , he recruited a powerful ally : King Leopold II of Belgium . The king was a notorious railroad enthusiast with family ties to some of Europe ’ s most powerful monarchs , and he helped Nagelmackers get permission to run his trains across international borders without interference .
In 1883 , the opulent train the press dubbed the “ Orient Express ” made its maiden voyage . ( It only went part of the eventual route due to infrastructure challenges .) It was unlike any other train Europe had ever seen . Instead of soot and bad service , it had gleaming wood surfaces , plush seats , and beds with silk sheets that rivaled those found in hotels . Inside was a restaurant that served fancy dishes like oysters and caviar , and musicians serenaded the passengers as they sped over borders . By 1889 , the train ’ s Ottoman Empire infrastructure was completed and it went all the way to Constantinople . And though it never went all the way to the Orient — and Nagelmackers ’ s company added and changed multiple routes over the years — its name suggested glamour and intrigue . Nagelmackers ’ s train made its last full journey in 1977 , and though copycat train lines still exist in Europe , they ’ ve never matched the opulence and mystery of the original . The Orient Express may be dead , but its reputation is still very much alive . Just the mention of its name brings to mind luxury , speed and intrigue — and that ’ s the way Nagelmackers would have wanted it .
London ’ s Underground
The first Underground trains ran on steam . Recent studies have found that London ’ s air quality below ground is 70 times worse than it is above and that , due to exhaust and poor ventilation , a 40-minute ride on the system is equivalent to smoking two cigarettes . This may shock modern sensibilities , but the earliest riders would hardly have been surprised . While steam locomotives , fed by coal , had been traversing the British countryside for decades , few were prepared for what awaited them in the smoky , sooty confines of the enclosed Underground system . For nearly 30 years , the entire Underground was steam-powered . The first electrical powered lines opened in 1890 , but a few steam-powered trains remained in regular use until 1961 . However , to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the system , a series of steam-powered trains travelled throughout parts of the system .
A popular stretch of the transit line is more expensive than traveling on the Orient Express . The shortest distance between two stops on the Underground is on the Piccadilly Line , connecting the Leicester Square stop with Covent Garden , just 0.161 miles away . With the train ’ s cheapest ticket costing roughly US $ 7 , this trip works out to more than US $ 40 per mile , more than it would cost to book a ticket on the famed
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