From the Glacier Express to the Orient Express, Timeless Trains

“The road is life,” wrote Kerouac in his literary masterpiece On the Road. A phrase that captures the essence of travel: not just reaching a destination, but savoring every kilometer of the journey.

It’s the same philosophy that drives some of the world’s most fascinating railway lines. Iconic engineering marvels not for their speed, but for the magic they offer those who watch the world go by from the window. Tracks that cross glacial valleys, red deserts, ancient forests. Train rides that tell stories of distant worlds, where time slows down and beauty flows by like a living poster.

Their story is also the story of the railway—the first great global infrastructure—capable of connecting cities, countries, continents, bringing people closer together and driving progress and development where none existed before.

Over time, trains running on railway lines across the globe have carried goods, armies, people seeking work, but they have also carried ideas, fashions, musical styles, contributing to the creation of what we now call a globalized world. In Europe, the invention of the railway reduced travel times from weeks to days. In America, the Transcontinental Railroad, first railroad in the United States completed in 1869, connected the Atlantic to the Pacific, essentially building the modern nation.

And today, in the era of low-cost flights and high-speed rail, the train remains a strategic and sustainable choice. Italy’s Frecciarossa, France’s TGV, Japan’s Shinkansen, and China’s Fuxing carry millions of passengers daily at speeds of 300 km/h. But paradoxically, it is precisely this speed that has rekindled the allure of trains that are in no hurry. Where time stands still, and the experience becomes a luxury.

“Express” is an ironic name for the swiss Glacier Express, the slowest train in the world. Traveling from Zermatt to St. Moritz, the train takes nearly eight hours to cover just 291 kilometers, but none of its passengers wish this Switzerland train tour were any quicker.

The Glacier Express train crosses 291 bridges and 91 tunnels, gliding through the Rhine Gorge and the snow-covered peaks of the Albula Massif. Built in 1930, interrupted during the war, and reopened afterward, today it is a Swiss icon.

The journey is not merely a transfer—it is an experience. Panoramic windows, quiet carriages, fine cuisine served on board while glaciers and pastures roll by outside. Once reserved for elite skiers, the Glacier Express route is now a symbol of tourist-friendly Switzerland, where slowness is transformed into luxury.

From the Alps to the Andes, another legendary train is the Tren a las Nubes—the “Train to the Clouds” in Argentina. The train line starts in Salta and climbs to 4,200 meters, crossing orange canyons and plains where llamas graze.

Built in the 1920s and ’30s to connect Argentina with Chile across the Cordillera, the railway line is now mainly frequented by tourists and takes hours to travel just a few dozen kilometers, stopping on viaducts suspended in mid-air.

In this case, slowness is inevitable because the altitude demands caution—though the real reason is the beauty. Those who board the Tren a las Nubes don’t want to arrive quickly. They’d rather float above the world, between sky and earth.

The most famous of the unhurried trains is undoubtedly the Orient Express. Born in 1883 from the vision of Georges Nagelmackers, the line connected Paris to Istanbul in three days, crossing half of Europe in luxury compartments with inlaid wood, crystal, golden lamps and luxury train services.

It was modernity meeting the exotic: Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Istanbul. Agatha Christie immortalized it in her novel Murder on the Orient Express, adding a touch of mystery. But in reality, the Orient Express forever changed how we perceive train rides, transforming it from transportation into an experience of status, culture, and connection.

Today its descendants, like the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, still run—always slowly, always in style.

There are also trains created to amaze with aesthetics and design. In South Korea, the Fashion Train was launched—a train internally decorated with contemporary art and design, conceived as a mobile showroom between Seoul and Busan.

Born from a collaboration between the rail industry and the Ministry of Culture, the Fashion Train shows that even in the land of superfast trains (KTX), slowness can become art.

The Trans-Iranian Railway is one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century. Completed in 1939, the railway line crossed a country still lacking modern infrastructure, overcoming mountain passes over 2,000 meters high, scorching deserts, and snowy valleys.

To build it, 190 tunnels were excavated—73 of them by Impresit, a historic Italian company that later merged into the Webuild Group. The new line not only facilitated freight transport but quickly became the engine of the nation’s modernization—a symbol of the Iran that wanted to join the ranks of modern nations.

The Trans-Iranian is also one of those lines where the journey matters even more than the destination. The route spans 1,394 kilometers, from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. It takes an average of 24 to 30 hours to complete. A breathtaking journey, especially when the train crosses the 200 bridges along the line.

If yesterday the railway lines meant progress, today it is the heart of the sustainable transition. Every kilometer traveled by rail produces far less CO₂ than road or air transport. Europe’s high-speed trains are at the center of the Green Deal, with the goal of shifting more freight and passenger transport to rail and public transport by 2050.

And yet, every time a traveler boards the Glacier Express or the Orient Express, they realize that the railway is not only about the future—but also about memory. Tracks that have witnessed wars, love stories, departures and returns, yet always remain the same: those that unite people, cultures, and stories. Trains that keep running—even when they choose not to hurry.