Stunning designs have been unveiled for an Orient Express train being restored to its former glory.
The iconic train is synonymous with glamour and featured in Agatha Christie's timeless 1934 murder mystery novel. Now, the train which was formally used a long-distance passenger train service in 1883, is undergoing a sleek update including an ultra-luxurious new Presidential Suite.
French firm Accor is restoring 17 original Orient Express carriages – formerly known as ‘Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express’ - dating from the 1920s to 1930s with a new service due to launch in Paris in 2024. The restoration designs were unveiled at the Design Miami/2022 fair in Miami Beach, Florida.
The train’s stunning Presidential Suite occupies an entire train car of the former Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express and is described as a space of ‘unprecedented dimensions: 69ft (21m) long and 9ft (three metres) wide’. A highlight of the 55-sq-m (592 sq ft) suite is the ‘LX’ luxury Orient Express cabin dating from 1929.
Billed as a ‘unique collector’s item’, it holds two beds and is adorned with solid mahogany and fully-restored marquetry from the Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express. Inside the suite’s ‘spacious’ second bedroom, passengers will find that it’s furnished in embroidered velvet and features custom-made furniture and an elegant bathroom that pays tribute to the French furniture maker Albert-Armand Rateau.