This article explores the misconceptions surrounding the world's longest train journey, highlighting the challenges and complexities of such an endeavor. From the impracticality of the current route due to political conflicts to the ambiguous definition of 'longest journey,' the author debunks the myth of a simple, straightforward train trip from Portugal to Singapore.
Over the past year or two there’s been much in the media about the so-called “world’s longest train journey” – a route which runs (hypothetically) from Lagos in Portugal to Singapore. Consequently, I’ve had a steady trickle of enquiries from people who seem to think there’s a ticket booth at Lagos selling tickets to Singapore and a train leaving every Tuesday.
So here’s the truth about the world’s longest train journey, why it’s currently not (and never has been) possible (though it might be one day), and why even the definition of world’s longest train journey is not as simple as you think it is. What is the world’s longest train journey? If it were possible (it currently isn’t), it’s said that the world’s longest train journey is from Lagos in southern Portugal to Singapore. It isn’t one train or even one ticket: it’s a series of some 20 regular scheduled trains and 20 separate tickets bought on 15 or so different websites.Lisbon to Madrid (roughly a whole day)Taking the weekly Paris-Moscow Express. Alternatively, you could take a train to Berlin then the twice-weekly Berlin-Moscow sleeper; or a train to Warsaw and then the daily Warsaw-Moscow sleeper. All these trains were suspended in 2019.Taking either the weekly Chinese Moscow-Beijing train (the Trans-Mongolian), or the weekly Russian Moscow-Beijing train (the Trans-Manchurian), covering roughly 8000 kilometres. Both trains were suspended in 2019.In 2021, the Laos-China Railway opened for business between Kunming and Vientiane, filling a missing link in the rails between Europe and Singapore.Taking the ETS electric train, run by KTM (Malaysian Railways).Again, taking the ETS electric train run by KTM (Malaysian Railways)Johor Bahru Sentral to Woodlands on Singapore island (5min)In 2021, the Laos-China Railway opened for business between Kunming and Vientiane, filling a missing link in the rails between Europe and Singapore. Someone (I forget who…) posted a graphic showing that the world’s longest train journey was now from Portugal to Singapore. In fairness, he may have mentioned that it wasn’t currently possible, but that’s been ignored and the story has been bouncing around the internet ever since.All travel to Russia is currently inadvisable due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. The Paris-Moscow, Berlin-Moscow and Warsaw-Moscow sleeper trains have all been suspended since 2019, initially due to the pandemic and now due to the war, sanctions and lack of travel. In fact, for the first time in my lifetime there are no international trains whatsoever from anywhere in western or central Europe to Belarus or Russia. A few adventurous souls will tell you it’s still technically possible, if you work your way to a certain Estonian local station near the Russian border and walk across to a Russian station on the other side, but nipping across a dodgy border on foot into a hostile state isn’t quite what the “Lagos-Singapore Express every Tuesday” brigade had in mind (nor is it at all advisable). Similarly, both the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Manchurian Moscow-Beijing trains have been cancelled since 2019, initially due to the pandemic, now just “because” (though the sudden lack of western tourists has certainly played a part). True, domestic Russian trains are running between Moscow, Irkutsk and Vladivostok, and a weekly Irkutsk-Ulan Bator (Mongolia) route has allegedly been reinstated. An Ulan Bator to China sleeper has also been reinstated, but not to Beijing (where it used to go), but to a town in northern China which would then require an onward train to Beijing. Suffice to say, what was once straightforward is now a multi-train expedition through hostile territory, into which Australians are strongly advised by the government’sSort of. One could divert through Turkey, Iran and the Stans – if you can get an Iranian visa, of course. Or take the ferry across the Caspian Sea to avoid Iran – though ferries are like hen’s teeth, lest we forget that, once you incorporate a ferry or bus, it’s no longer the world’s longest train journey. The Moscow-Beijing trains were an easy and practical option, anything else is something of an expedition.The definition of “world’s longest train journey” is not straightforward, as soon as you allow changes of train. Lagos to Singapore is usually quoted as the longest journey, starting with a train to Lisbon. But it isn’t. Villa Real de San Antonio (VRdeSA) to Lisbon is longer than Lagos to Lisbon. There’s no rail connection east into Spain from VRdeSA, the shortest rail route from VRdeSA to Singapore is via Lisbon just as it is from Lagos. So VRdeSA to Singapore is the world’s longest train journey. But, you cry, VRdeSA is east of Lagos so closer to Singapore, so you’re sort of doubling back – and that’s not allowed!I’m reliably informed that if you measure distance directly over the Earth’s surface, Sintra (only 29 km west of Lisbon) is further from Singapore than Lagos, therefore Lagos to Singapore is disallowed by exactly the same logic as VRdeSA to Singapore. So Sintra to Singapore is the world’s longest train journey. Except that the concept of train ride between the two furthest-apart points on the Earth’s surface directly linked by rail and the concept of World’s longest train journey are not identical. Then there’s the un-stated but assumed condition of the “longest train journey”, that it has to be via the shortest route. So doing loop-the-loops with the route to make it longer isn’t allowed. But trains don’t always take the shortest route. I recall setting my SatNav to “shortest route” when driving from Portsmouth to Buckinghamshire, and it took me down every village road and farm track. Similarly, the shortest route from Lisbon to Moscow would take you down various minor French regional lines, where the French themselves joke about there being just three trains a day: one’s cancelled, one’s a bus, and one only runs on June 23.In practice, you’d zip into Paris on a high-speed train and zip out again. But if the world’s longest train journey has to be by the shortest route, in practice you wouldn’t travel that way, paradoxically you’d make a longer train journey than the world’s longest, at least in terms of distance.Maybe the metro counts. But there’s no metro between stations in Vientiane, and it’s a fair few km between stations there. How long can a transfer be before the journey ceases to be considered all-rail? Best not to ask. If you walk from Woodlands Train Checkpoint to the nearest MRT (Singapore metro) station and take the MRT train to downtown Singapore, does the MRT train ride count, or does the world’s longest train journey end at Woodlands (given the Singapore government unwisely ripped up the 13 km from Woodlands to Singapore station in 2011)?My advice? If (as I fervently hope) the war ends and such a journey becomes safe and practicable once more, don’t bother starting from Portugal. Start from anywhere in Europe and take the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Far East. Your journey will be amazing enough – there’s no need to chase a flawed, and possibly unattainable, concept. Mark Smith is the founder of the The Man in Seat 61 website, which offers expert guides and advice about rail travel not only in Europe but around the world. Se
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