The Conversation (0)
Greg Evans
Dec 16, 2021
Travelling by land might be the slowest way to get from A to B but it is also the best way to see the world around us.
If you are a train lover you’ll be delighted to hear that rail enthusiasts believe they have now discovered what they think is the longest train journey in the world right now which goes all the way from Portugal to Singapore.
Blogger Mark Smith, who runs the website seat61.com, along with numerous Reddit users, have managed to calculate that the 11,654-mile journey from the Iberian nation to the small southeastern country would take 21 days by train, which doesn’t sound too bad, all things considering.
The epic journey, which has been mapped out on Reddit, would require you to travel through Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Belarus and most of Russia before snaking down eastern Asian countries like Mongolia, China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and then arriving in Singapore.
This would require two days of stopover in Moscow and Beijing, which would give you a chance to see the sights.
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Of course, this isn’t one continuous train journey. According to the Daily Mail, it would require 13 stops along the way to meet with connecting trains, starting in Lagos before moving onto Hendaye, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Kunming, Boten, Vientiane, Bangkok, Padang Besar and Penang, eventually arriving at your destination in Bangkok.
As Reddit user u/htGoSEVe pointed out in the comments of the above post, many sections of the rail journey had been paused due to the Covid pandemic.
The journey, which eclipses the previous record by around 1000 miles, has been made possible thanks to the recently opened connection between the Laotian cities of Vientiane and the capital Boten, near the Chinese border. Previously the journey would have ended in Vietnam.
Remarkably this epic cross-continental journey would, according to experts on Reddit, only cost £1000.
Smith, who is from Quainton, Buckinghamshire and former station manager at the Charing Cross and Cannon Street stations in London, told The Independent: “Until the pandemic disrupted this route, it was a remarkably easy and relatively affordable. I’ve used the Trans-Siberian myself to go London to Hong Kong (via the twice-weekly Moscow-Beijing express) and from London to Nagasaki (via ferry from Vladivostok). A lovely ride.”
He added: “Frankly, it would be better if people focused on starting from their local station here in the UK, than from at a random point in Portugal. What’s a could of hundred miles difference between friends, when you’ve a 11,000 mile journey to do?”