The fabled Orient Express has some new hands on the throttle, as SNCF, the French rail operator, has sold a 50% share of the company to Accor Hotels.
Plans for the joint venture, building on the 134-year-old franchise, include a chain of Orient Express luxury hotels, operating seven vintage cars for private journeys and events, and just possibly making good on SNCF’s promise in 2014 to relaunch the Orient Express on a Paris-to-Istanbul route, matching the old days.
SNCF has owned the brand since 1977, but has not run trains since 2009, when it shut down a shortened Strasbourg-to-Vienna version. A major exhibition at the Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris in 2014 spurred wide interest and led to the pledge.
There’s also a train, mainly an excursion, operated by Belmond as the Venice-Simplon-Orient Express, from London to Venice, operating under license from SNCF.
