Longest European journey?

[anti-pacer]

If you have travelled on the continent, what was your longest journey, and what was the experience like?

I quite fancy going by train to Zagreb, then onwards by coach to Dubrovnik.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Longest single train journey was Ankara-Kars which took 28 hours or so

 

[CarltonA]

Many years ago I went skiing and travelled from Winchester/Waterloo/W East/Dover Marine/Ostend/Aachen/Stuttgart/Ulm to Sonthofen in Bavaria. That took over 25 hours. The last part was on rock hard seats on a DB local DMU.
I suppose it is possible to travel the old Orient Express routes to Istanbul though you would need to change a few times nowadays.

 

[davetheguard]

Many years ago I went skiing and travelled from Winchester/Waterloo/W East/Dover Marine/Ostend/Aachen/Stuttgart/Ulm to Sonthofen in Bavaria. That took over 25 hours. The last part was on rock hard seats on a DB local DMU.
I suppose it is possible to travel the old Orient Express routes to Istanbul though you would need to change a few times nowadays.

Yes, indeed!

About four years ago we travelled from Oxfordshire to Istanbul (-and on through Turkey to near the Syrian border) all by train.

However we did do it as a holiday, so it wasn't all in one go; we stayed overnight in Venice, Ljublijana (Slovenia), Zargreb (Croatia), Belgrade (Serbia), & Sofia (Bulgaria).

So it was very "long" in terms of total distance, but not so "long" in terms of hours travelled in one go. We eventually flew back from Amman in Jordan.

I think you'd have to take a different route down through the Balkans now as there don't appear to be any Venice - Ljublijana cross-border trains between Italy & Slovenia anymore.

In terms of overnight travel, we had a couchette from Paris Bercy to Venice; a sleeper from Sofia to Istanbul; and another sleeper from Istanbul to Konya in central Turkey. And a final sleeper from Konya to a place called Gazientep near the Syrian border.

Of the lot, the Turkish sleeper from Istanbul was the best: modern, clean, and air-conditioned and the train had a restaurant car for dinner & breakfast too!

 

[eastwestdivide]

Longest in terms of wishing it would end soon was sharing the very limited seating accommodation on the overnight Turin-Paris train with a bunch of Celtic supporters who had just lost to Juventus.

 

[anme]

I don't know if you count it as European, but your local station is only a few changes from Vladivostok and Beijing. Even Pyongyang. The Deutsche Bahn website will give you itineraries.

 

[ainsworth74]

Yes full credit to DB they have got one hell of a journey planner! Redcar to Vladivostok, whilst it won't sell you tickets it will give you an itinerary (and it's five changes by the by).

 

[tony6499]

I love looking up on DB planner and working out itineries for journeys I want to do, longest I've done in one hit is Berlin to London in 1 day

 

[leightonbd]

Salzburg to Athens! roughly 40 hours. Left Salzburg around midnight and arrived Athens around 5 pm 2 days later. No couchette or even seat booking, spent the great majority of the time in the corridor.

This was in 1980. Just looked and I see the journey is no longer possible as Greece has stopped international trains.

 

[deltic]

Lisbon to Paris about 24hrs due to breaking down for about 4hrs in Portugal - everyone just got off and sat on the embankment in the sun till the driver sounded the horn and we all got back on again. The couchette attendant meanwhile had sold my berth to someone else - a kindly Portuguese lady got the attendant to find me another which worked out better as the air conditioning worked in the new compartment but had not in the old one. Arrived in Paris late evening having missed onward connection to Dieppe and spent most of the night in a strip club! Remember walking to St Lazarre station about 6 in the morning and the street near the station was full of prostitutes. This was some 25yrs ago - happy memories!

 

[reb0118]

My longest trip on a single train was from Chisinau (Moldova) to Krakow (Poland) we had transit visas for Ukraine but didn't set foot in the country as we had a through coach all the way. About 32 hours. My travelling companion said it was just as well blokes could not get married 'cause he'd divorce me!

 

[St Rollox]

1973 Sleeper Glasgow Central to London Euston.
Underground to ??? then on to Dover Marine.
Dover to Ostend.
Ostend to Austria by special train.
Think we changed trains in Munich for Bad Ishel.
Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon.
All paid by Glasgow Corporation.

 

[Gordon]

.


My most epic journey was Peterborough to Geneva to Istanbul in 1979. I was researching a Thomas Cook timetable guidebook using a 1 month Inter Rail.

24/7/79

I set off from Peterborough at 08.33 behind Deltic 55015 Tulyar to Kings Cross - Folkestone - Calais - Paris, overnight to Geneva from Paris Gare de Lyon

25/7/79

Arrived Geneva but changed straight onto a Swiss train without stopping to go and see my family - I did not know what 'rest day' meant as a young fit 19 year old! - for a day circuit around Switzerland:
Geneva - Bern - Interlaken - Brienz - Interlaken - Brig - Geneva. I did then stay the night with my family but was off again the next day

26/7/79

dep Geneva 12.05 on the Geneve - Venezia through train
Simplon - Milano - Venezia, then
Venezia - Trieste - Ljubljaana - Zagreb

Boarded the Hellas Express Munchen - Athens at Zagreb then via Vinkovci (where I photted active steam locos from the toilet window to be as incognito as poss) and other steam all the way through Yugo.

Alighted in Thessaoloniki next morning at 0625.

cHanged inot the Athens - Istanbul through coach (a single Polish built coach )attached to a greek internal express

27/7/79

dep 0855 for a long day growling across barren Greek countryside to Alexandroupolis and Pithion (arrive 22.00 ish

3 hours at border before being picked up by TCDD German built 4-8-0 46005

28/7/79
depart 0100 from Uzunkopru behind 46005

after various stops and crashing and banging and various loco sounds during the wee small hours wake up at 0655 to discover our coach had been left behind in a steam loco shed at Alpullu as the Turks had there census that day and there was a 24 hour curfew!

29/7/79

Spent the rest of the day marooned , but not unhappy as I was in a steam shed with locos in steam!

Eventually at 1645 we were picked up by TCDD CoCo GM DE24 121 hauling the Istanbul Express from the main line from Bulgaria . Departed in a long consist at 17.05 - moving for the first time since 2am that morning.

Eventually pulled into Istanbul Sirkeci 12 hours 50 minutes late, after almost 6 days of continuos travel.



.

 

[dutchflyer]

longest as by time or by distance? Breaks/changes allowed?
For me:
Time: through coach Milano-via Gottardo-Basel-Strasbourg-Luxembourg-Liege-Maastricht-Amsterdam, nearly 20 hrs, just a seat, very slow, long waits for shunting at some places-student years, around 1970.
Distance;
again through coach: AMsterdam-via Osnabruck-Hamburg-via Ferry-Copenhagen-Ferry-Helsingborg-Stockholm.
More or less in 1 go:
Amsterdam-Paris-Madrid-Lisboa (stay day in Madrid-last 2 rides overnight)

 

[anti-pacer]

Yes full credit to DB they have got one hell of a journey planner! Redcar to Vladivostok, whilst it won't sell you tickets it will give you an itinerary (and it's five changes by the by).

I did similar. Edinburgh to Vladivostok. It was a long, long journey! hock:

 

[Manchester77]

Wow DBs journey planner certainly is good, Trafford Park to Vladivostok - just 6 changes

 

[burns20]

Carlisle to Sofia via Debrecen and Bucharest is the longest single trip over ten days

 

[superted81]

I regularly do Trafford Park - Manchester Picc - London Euston - St Pancras - Brussels - Cologne - Berlin and return.

By regularly its generally once a month at the minute..., I prefer it to the flight...

 

[Techniquest]

On the continent, longest single journey. Hmm, almost certainly in my lifetime that'll be Poitiers to Paris, via Metro and buses and on foot then to Gare du Nord for a TGV to Lille and some ugly as fudge yellow EMU (well I think it was an EMU, I knew jack squat about trains in 2002!) to Calais.

As an enthusiast, if we include the bit in the UK:

January 2013

Hereford to Newport
Newport to London Paddington
Paddington to Kings Cross St Pancras (probably via Oxford Circus)
London St Pancras to Brussels Midi
Brussels Midi to Brussels Nord

Exclusively on the continent though:

Earlier this year, and it would be Luxembourg > Arlon (for some reason we had to change trains that day) > Brussels Nord > Oostende (on an all-stations from Gent stopper Class 18 working!), before heading back to Brussels.

Purely single journey, with no changes, would be Arlon to Brussels.

 

[nw1]

If you have travelled on the continent, what was your longest journey, and what was the experience like?

I quite fancy going by train to Zagreb, then onwards by coach to Dubrovnik.

St Denys to Wien Westbahnhof, but over two days, overnighting at Cologne.
The Frankfurt to Vienna section was pretty long, around 7 hours: I think that's the longest I've ever been on one train continuously. I generally like train travel and particularly continental travel but even so there were parts of that journey when I felt tired. It was good to feel I'd travelled so far purely on the train though.

Longest I've done in one day is Salzburg to St Denys (changing at Frankfurt, Brussels and London), depart 0751 CEST, arrive 2130-ish (?) BST, but with a long layover at Brussels to get a cheap fare: could have knocked about 2 hours off that otherwise. Daylight from Salzburg to London (it was July) but fairly poor weather much of the way, sadly. Out from the UK, where the clock works against you, Southampton Airport Parkway to Nice. Quite fancy trying to do London to Austria in one day though, at some point - I think Innsbruck and Salzburg can just about be reached from London in one day if you leave very early in the morning.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Yes full credit to DB they have got one hell of a journey planner! Redcar to Vladivostok, whilst it won't sell you tickets it will give you an itinerary (and it's five changes by the by).

So presumably only three changes from London (Brussels, Berlin and Moscow, at a guess?)

 

[reb0118]

Yes full credit to DB they have got one hell of a journey planner! Redcar to Vladivostok, whilst it won't sell you tickets it will give you an itinerary (and it's five changes by the by).

So presumably only three changes from London (Brussels, Berlin and Moscow, at a guess?)

A further change at Köln would be needed. Substitute Warsaw for Berlin too - not sure if there are still through cars to Moskau from there. The Russians have pulled out of through cars from Brussels & Amsterdam also.

There are direct services from Paris & Nice though.

So in theory just three changes from Dundee to Vladivostok (London, Paris, & Moscow) or just go to Dens Park for a true Siberian experience!

 

[Gordon]

So in theory just three changes from Dundee to Vladivostok (London, Paris, & Moscow) !

Or put another way, just four changes Dundee to Hong Kong by train!

 

[stut]

Longest single journey I've done solely in Europe was Moscow to Kislovodsk, in the Russian Caucasus. Was about 34 hours, and we were in 3rd class. It was quite something!

The longest non-continuous journey I've done was a circuit of Guildford - Folkestone - Calais - Antwerp - Amsterdam - Berlin - Warsaw - Krakow - Oswiecim - Budapest - Vienna - Prague - Venice - Florence - Siena - Rome - Geneva - Paris - Calais - Folkestone - Guildford. Travelling pretty much every day, although some journeys were shorter than other. This was as a teenager in 1992, and it was an incredible journey.

 

[Stonesourscotty]

My longest is Orrell-Wigan-Euston-St pancras-Lille-Perpignan Returned Perpignan-Paris-St Pancras-Euston-Wigan-Orrell

Ive also done Orrell-Wigan-Euston-Tube-Liverpool st-Harwich-Boat-Hook of Holland-Amsterdam-Eindhoven-Rotterdam-Hook of Holland-Boat-Harwich-Liverpool St-Tube-Euston-Wigan-Orrell

 

[DiscoStu]

My two longest journeys ever are actually outside of Europe :

1. Hanoi to Nha Trang in Vietnam ... 30 hours on one train.
2. New Delhi to Varanasi in India ... 16 hours on one train

Inside Europe it would have to be Irun to Lisbon on the Sud Express ... can't remember how long that took, maybe 16 hours or so.

 

[trainosaurus]

I've travelled by train to holidays in both Poland (London - Warsaw via Brussels and Koln) and Slovenia (London to Ljubljana via Paris, Munich & Salzburg) and back. Not sure which was the longer of those two. I've also travelled Helsinki-St Petersburg-Moscow-Beijing although obviously most of that wasn't in Europe!

 

[reb0118]

............... I've also travelled Helsinki-St Petersburg-Moscow-Beijing although obviously most of that wasn't in Europe!

True, but Asia is really, geographically, just an eastern expansion of Europe!

 

[stut]

Back to the OP - I've done the journey from Zagreb down to Split on the Marjan sleeper service, which at the time was still old Yugoslav-era stock. I plumped for first class sleeper, as it was dirt cheap (this was not long after the war ended) and it was a wonderful, wood-panelled affair, all cubbyholes and compartments. Zagreb is an easy journey from Southern Germany.

The alternative is to take the slow, winding journey via Sarajevo and Mostar (both utterly fascinating cities) to Ploce. This is one that I did on the same trip - and it was before you could reach Sarajevo through the Republika Srpska by train. I was actually staying in a hostel in an old railway carriage in the sidings... The station was still basically bombed out, so you were kind of picking your way through half-open staircases to the sole functioning platform. The train was a single ex-Swedish first class carriage, again, all dark wood and green cloth. A man walked round with a vat of Bosnic (Turkish-style) coffee, which kept everyone happy (it left at silly o'clock in the morning).

I understand the railways have changed a little since then, but it's well worth exploring.

 

[181]

At least one Swedish first class carriage is still in use -- it formed the rear half of a morning Sarajevo-Zenica stopping train on which I travelled a few weeks ago. New Talgo trains were delivered some time ago but are still standing idle in the sidings at Sarajevo.

I think there is still a boat from Split to Dubrovnik in summer (although it doesn't call at Ploce), so it is possible get to Dubrovnik without any bus travel.