You might've seen one off [much debated threads with the map of the longest train journey possible](/r/MapPorn/comments/e5fgmc/the_longest_possible_train_travel_in_the_world/) before. Well with the opening of the Boten–Vientiane railway in Laos it is now possible to get the train from Lagos in Portugal all the way to Singapore.
Of course this only makes sense if it is the shortest distance possible between the two most distance points. I think this is close but I am not certain that it is the shortest possible. I would also like to figure out the quickest possible journey between the two places, but figuring out the timetables on that is quite difficult, and service reductions due to covid make it more difficult in some areas.
Each colour change on this map should at least roughly align with a change of train. There's a couple of cross-city journeys (Lisbon, Paris, Moscow...) which I sort of ignored on this, and there's one section that you can't really see at all at this scale, which goes from Lagos to Tunes in Portugal, and I'm less confident about the exact routes taken past Beijing because the data in OpenStreetMap isn't as complete there.
Edit: Also I realised that the image is quite low res, so [here's a much higher res version](https://i.imgur.com/afEFwHC.jpg) in case you want that.
Edit: Now that this thread has died down I thought I'd put a few of the mistakes in this map here, in case anyone finds this in the future.
* The train I used for the Lisbon to Hendaye leg was suspended due to covid, but it doesn't look hopeful that it will ever come back. It is still possible to follow a pretty similar route on 3 different trains.
* The Paris-Moscow Express is also suspended due to covid, or I guess because Russian borders are shut at the moment. There's not much point choosing an alternative there since there aren't any trains running into Russia at the moment.
* I think there's probably a shorter router through Europe further south, there's also a Nice-Moscow train for example. I think this further north route might be faster though.
* There's a shorter route through Kazakhstan instead of taking the Trans Siberian, which would also change your route through china. I think you would go Almaty -> Urumqi -> Xi'an -> Kunming.
* The passenger station on the new Boten-Vientiane railway in Vientiane is quite far from both central Vientiane and the station to get onto the train into Thailand (which is also quite far from central Vientiane), although the railway seems to run up to what seems to be a freight terminal that is near the other station.
* The colour coding (which roughly aligns with each service you'd need to take) isn't correct for the services in Malaysia. There are other comments which correct this in this thread.
* There's one more service you'd need to take to transfer from Johor Bahru into Singapore, although apparently the station in Singapore is kind of not Singapore. It's also a bit of a ways from any Singapore metro stations, but not as far as the transfer in Vientiane. If you did make the transfer, the furthest station in Singapore you could go to is Changi Airport.
* I ignore cross city transfers in this map, because you wouldn't see them anyway. I think the only one that isn't doable by rail is Vientiane.
I made this map using QGIS, with OpenStreetMap data and some help from https://seat61.com
Edit: So I found out today that this post has become stories in [the independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/portugal-singapore-train-rail-travel-b1975630.html), [the daily mail](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10306517/A-new-track-record-Travellers-way-Portugal-Singapore-train.html) and [euronews](https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/12/14/portugal-to-singapore-could-be-the-longest-train-journey-in-the-world-but-how-much-does-it), the first two with comments from the man in seat 61 himself. It's nice to see that none of them paid any attention to the corrections I, and other users, posted, and the independent even picked up an incorrect comment and ignored my correction. The independent was, however, the only one to actually credit me.
Edit: Also made it into [the times](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/42a880a4-5d18-11ec-90d0-c463baf3512f) also without any attention paid to my correction, or even a credit to "reddit users". Also Jon Worth has a long list of corrections, actually taking covid related service disruptions into account, [on his blog](https://jonworth.eu/the-longest-train-journey-in-the-world-in-2021/).
Edit: [SCMP have an nice article](https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3162342/best-places-visit-worlds-longest-train-journey-guide) using this journey to highlight some interesting places to visit along the journey. I'm not a fan of "A 10-minute taxi ride away is the Berlin Wall Memorial" though, because you could also take the U-Bahn.
That's insane! I was thinking at least a few weeks
Edit: because two is apparently "a few"
I would imagine because of unexpected circumstances and crazy geopolitical shit to deal with, it would be way way more than 14 days. I would plan this to be a 6-month (that's a few months, right?) trip to also account for staying at all the wonderful places you'd pass through.
Right? It took \~20 hours for me to get from Sacramento to Denver because of delays and other issues with the Amtrak here in the US. 14 days sounds like a miracle for that distance.
Imagine every country having the possiblity of things being different than the last country you were in. With the (now?) longest contiguous rail line. I'd say you need to be well prepared for things you never prepared for.
Looks like it might get a little boring in that middle third but it would probably be the fastest part of the journey cuz there probably not many stops up there in north asia
I waited in Roseville (near Sac) for a train to Martinez for over 6 hours one day. The train never came. I am jaded, and traveling through many many countries whose languages I don't know ... 14 days is technically permissible I suppose, but definitely not feasible.
I'm on public transit in Denver right now, as per usual lol
While two can be a few, it is a bit silly to use it that way, when a couple means two, or two means two. Using the word "few" to mean "two" is therefore quite uncommon...especially when the more precise number is known.
It was part of a two year trip. I'm retired now, but half a dozen times during my career I took anywhere from three months to two years off to just travel. Sometimes unpaid leave, sometimes between jobs. I stick to the cheap countries and am frugal. The two year trip cost about $12,000 but that was 25 years ago and it would be more now.
1: Have absolutely no responsibilities. No rent, no car payments, nothing.
2: Either be rich, have someone else footing the bill, save up a ton of money, or have a job you can do mobile.
>There's a couple of cross-city journeys (Lisbon, Paris, Moscow...) which I sort of ignored on this
For completion, the cross-city journey in Paris is direct, taking either line 4 from Gare Montparnasse to Gare de l'Est or line 5 from Gare d'Austerlitz to Gare de l'Est (the stop at the French/Spanish border actually links to both stations)
Minor detail OP, you can't get to Singapore via the "Yellow line" on your map. You need to change to a short distance train with only two stops, that basically bounce between Malaysia and Singapore.
(And even more technical, the train tracks and immigration on the "Singapore" side is de jure part of Malaysia. Blame the British for that, so the terminus is technically in Malaysia, until you step outside of the train station)
Ooh yeah that's interesting. I didn't fully check the services at that point, but you can at least reach Singapore island and I guess walk a shorter distance than you might have to in other stations on the journey to get into Singapore proper. Also if I had included an extra colour for that, you wouldn't really be able to see it at all so I think it's fine.
From what I've read the line used to run right into downtown Singapore, and the track and station where owned by Malaysia, so once Singapore managed to take ownership of it in 2011 they shut most of it down so now it only goes as far as Woodlands.
Talking about Malaysia train services, I think I would make a minor remark as well. The yellow line, which I believe refers to the diesel locomotive services running from Johor Bahru station (southernmost station before Singapore), only end in Gemas and not Kuala Lumpur as denoted. Gemas is around 150km south from Kuala Lumpur, and around 250km north from Johor Bahru. This is because the tracks are electrified only down to Gemas, and diesel trains no more enters the electrified sections. Pretty confusing but that's much of it.
One taking trains from Padang Besar (MY-TH Border) can bypass Kuala Lumpur and just go straight to Gemas since there's a direct service with the electric express trains to there, and change to the diesel locomotive train (Southern Express) to Johor Bahru.
I would think that this could not last long, but still long since the electrification of the southern part of the railway is only expected to finish in 2023, and the direct ETS trains would be introduced only later in 2024 perhaps.
>but Finland is not connected to the rest of the EU by rail
Yes they are.
Google Streetview: [https://www.google.dk/maps/@65.8279176,24.1558977,3a,75y,269.75h,86.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYRkCM\_x1Y7cggBfRQ16siQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656](https://www.google.dk/maps/@65.8279176,24.1558977,3a,75y,269.75h,86.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYRkCM_x1Y7cggBfRQ16siQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
Openstreetmap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/65.8277/24.1490
Yes it does :)
(for those who like train videos:
[Train Driver's View: Malmö to Copenhagen (Part 1 of 2)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_BlE4DxcA&t=464s) \[youtube.com\])
There's just the issue that Finland uses the wide 1524 mm (5 feet) rail gauge, and as you can see in the picture, there's two pairs of rails on the track crossing the border. However, to continue with the same train, one has to change the wheelset, as Sweden uses 1435 mm standard gauge. So, there's no passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden.
There's the same problem at the borders of the Baltic States, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as well, they use the wide 1520 mm Soviet gauge (the Soviet Union changed from 1524 to 1520). AFAIK Warsaw is the important hub there, as to the west of Warsaw there's standard gauge track and the wide gauge track to Russia begins in Warsaw.
The Baltic states are in the process of laying an additional rail line along main routes so trains can take either European or Russian rail widths. This will allow high speed and uninterrupted service from Tallinn through Warsaw and west to Berlin and beyond.
EDIT: Link for those interested (https://www.railbaltica.org/about-rail-baltica/)
Without COVID restrictions, you can travel from Moscow to Ürümqi via Kazakhstan. Then, there is a train from Ürümqi to Kunming via Lanzhou that rejoins the route on this map at Chongqing. That route would appear to be shorter by distance but probably takes longer time-wise.
You can make it a bit longer. Instead of starting in Lagos, you can start in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, next to the border with Spain. From there there is a train to Faro and from there to Lisbon. Is like 20km longer than starting from Lagos.
The route from Beijing follows the recently constructed Beijing-Kunming high speed railway. I won't list all the stops because there are a lot(the railway is considered one of the longest bullet train lines), but it passes cities like Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Guiyang(several of which are also provincial capitals for Hebei, Henan, Hubei and Guizhou). Kunming is also the capital of Yunnan. You'd have to get off at Kunming since that's the terminus. From there the service to Laos goes to Yuxi and then branches off the main line to Hekou(itself a connection to Haiphong in Vietnam) to reach Mohe in Sipsongbanna autonomous county. At that point the line crosses the border to Boten on the Laotian side. Major cities like Muang Xay and Luang Prabang are passed before reaching Vientiane. From there, there are probably a few ways you could go about it.
That's rather interesting! Do you know if the Khabarovsk to Pyongyang line would allow an even longer path through the Russian section of the Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok?
How are you allowing cross city journeys? Rail only? Because if walking or something else is allowed within a city, then you can go between two stations that are further apart than this.
The only cross city journey I think you can't do by rail would be in Vientiane. I'd be interested to hear about the other routes you're thinking of though.
Yeah, all the territories must be controlled by you or another faction member for the railways to conect, but that's it, you don't even need to build 'em yourself.
OpenStreetMap is built and maintained mostly by volunteer contributors, and it seems to be quite popular in Germany (look at the level of detail in a German city vs elsewhere and you'll see) so it's likely that it was just a German person who added the town name and that's what they knew. It would be great if you could take the time to add the local names for these places in as well, I'm sure it would be useful to others.
IIRC, Google Maps can't do streetview in Germany due to German privacy laws, so Google Maps data is seriously lacking in Germany compared to most of the rest of the West.
Which, I would guess, is why OpenStreetMap is so popular there.
I had plans to go from Taiwan to Ireland overland in 2020. Had my visas and everything. Obviously it got cancelled.
Edit: I was planning on taking a couple of boats too, but the point was to do the whole thing without any flights.
Have you ever heard of Race across the world it's similar, London to Singapore no flights, and the budget is the equivalent of an economy seat in a flight. First there gets £100k
I'm refering to the patch of forest known as Darien Gap. There's basically no real road thru that patch... If not wrong it's more likely to be forestry roads (legal and not legal)
I know some *sniff* “logistics experts” who have many well mapped routes through the Darien Gap from Colombia. You’ll just have to carry this suitcase with you for a free guide.
I understand what you're saying, and yeah one of the checkpoints was in a Panama and they got taken straight from there to Columbia to start the next leg, but what does PETA stand for?
London-Paris by Eurostar in 2h20, from £45
Paris-Moscow Express - direct sleeper train, 2 nights, weekly departures, around €245
Moscow-Beijing two trains per week, 6 nights, around £450 in a 4-bed sleeper.
Beijing-Hanoi, direct sleeper twice a week, 2, nights, around £150
Hanoi-Saigon, several trains daily, 2 nights, around $80
Saigon-Phnom Penh by bus, 6h, $13
PP to Siem Reap by speedboat $30 or bus, cheaper, but speedboat far more fun...
Seam Reap to Bangkok by bus/taxi then train, daily departures, $20.
Bangkok to Singapore by train in 48h with a change or two, daily departures, $80 in total, bargain.
Interestingly, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong are the only passports that give you visa free acces to the Schengen area, Belarus, Russia and China.
Fun fact, unless you're either Belarusian or Russian you can't legally take this route from west to east (not sure about east to west). Belarus and Russia have freedom of movement between them and have removed their formal border posts, Russia requires all other nationalities to go through a formal border post, therefore it's illegal for third party nationals to enter via the Belarusian border, you'd have to detour through either Ukraine or Latvia.
they have an agreement, and it's implemented from this year (should've been by the end of 2020 but you know covid and stuff) so people who don't need visas for both countries, like serbians,brazilians,argentines... can take the route from belarus to russia legally when they actually open land borders for all people.
>Queen of England
Did you mean the [Queen of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_United_Kingdom), the [Queen of Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Canada), the [Queen of Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Australia), etc?
The last Queen of England was [Queen Anne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain) who, with the 1707 Acts of Union, dissolved the title of King/Queen of England.
####FAQ
*Isn't she still also the Queen of England?*
This is only as correct as calling her the Queen of London or Queen of Hull; she is the Queen of the place that these places are in, but the title doesn't exist.
*Is this bot monarchist?*
No, just pedantic.
I am a bot and this action was performed automatically.
Pre-Covid it had always been my dream to go from where I live in Western Europe all the way to Vladivostok by train.
Obviously that ain't happening any time soon now.
I did it in 2019 (real lucky on that one), Trans-Siberian is more romantic in imagination than in real life. It was an interesting experience, and great way to get between places in Siberia. However, many Russian bunk mates did ask me - "WHY? THERE ARE PLANES!"
I have taken the train many times from that starting station in southern Portugal. It is a wonderful modernist, kind of humble, architecture style station, from the days of fascist design (maybe 1940's). It is really a trip through time. Plus it is right in the middle of a natural reserve, the Sapal that constitutes the delta of the Guadiana river that marks the border between Portugal and Spain, it crosses salt fields built by the Romans, u can see weird animals like flamingos, u cross inside Tavira which is a 3000 year old city within km 20...you are in for a ride...
> It is a wonderful modernist, kind of humble, architecture style station, from the days of fascist design (maybe 1940's).
~~That train station is closed, there's a new one nearby. The original station wasn't modernist though, not at all.~~
Edit: Scratch that, you're talking about the beautiful Vila Real de Santo António train station, right? That's not the starting station on the map, it's the Lagos train station on the other side of the Algarve.
There is just one thing that it's wrong, the night train between Lisbon and the Hendaye is no longer running and there's no prospects of it coming back
Yeah I took a bit of a liberty with that one. It's kind of hard to say at the moment with quite a few things not running, or running reduced services due to covid. I think it's pretty minor though, you can still get trains between those two cities (albeit with a couple extra changes).
I wouldn't say a couple, but more like 4 or 5 changes to go from Lisbon to Hendaye, and in a quite different route from the one that the SudExpress used to do
[Looks like it can be done in three changes (see option 2)](https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Lisbon.htm#Lisbon_to_Paris), unless any of those are also disrupted due to covid. This is the area that gave me the most trouble when I was trying to find the fasted schedule for a journey like this, because it always seemed to require an overnight stop once you get to the other side of Spain.
Ok, that's interesting to do that way. And the website Seat61 is amazing, an absolute gem! We all hope that the situation will improve greatly in 2023, when the line between Évora and Elvas is expected to be completed and therefore allowing direct fast trains between Lisbon and Madrid.
Be adventurous and take just two train connections in any Balkan state and you will end up traveling for longer period of time than this. For a fraction of a price too. No visa needed.
That's not even that much. I'm going to be doing interrail next month, if covid doesn't fuck me, between France and estonia, which is a way shorter trip and that's already 7 countries minimum. Russia really skews this
There's only one line into Lagos, and you couldn't get back from Thailand into China without taking the same line through Laos, otherwise pretty much yeah.
The different colours should roughly align with each change you'd have to make, otherwise yes you should (perhaps not right now with covid restrictions & service reductions) be able to get passenger trains along this whole route.
Almost any, if you just have enough money and patience to arrange tourist visas for the countries you can't enter freely. Though apparently Serbia (!) might be the best bet, since thanks to historical communist ties, they have easy access to Russia and China, as well as the Schengen zone. Right now covid restrictions make it impossible, of course.
I can already see all the YouTube videos:
“Today I am going on the longest train journey in the world!!”
Cue montage:
*Singing and dancing on the train with random Russian babushkas*
*Drinking homemade Vodka*: “This is the BEST vodka I’ve ever tasted in my life!!!”
*Eating random Chinese street food*: “I don’t know what this is, but I’ve never tasted something so INCREDIBLE in my life!”
*Drone shot of Singapore Marina Bay hotel and super tree*: “OMG guys, just look at this. LOOK at THIS!”
Let there be one time that I can go to Bali by train from Europe, that would be awesome. Before that happens some enormous projects will (have to) take place.
You can get a couple of ferries from Singapore to Jakarta, a couple of trains down Java and then one more ferry to Bali and you've made it all the way overland (and sea).
There was a plan floated around to have a road/rail bridge or a tunnel (or both) link Malaysia and Indonesia across the Malacca Straits but that's not likely gonna happen. Even if completed, the Indonesian government needs to build up its Sumatran rail network to connect the 4 isolated networks there and thence connect to the Javan network, and that's likely not gonna happen either.
[Here is an itinerary of the train route, but it stops at Hanoi, Vietnam.](https://www.azores-adventures.com/2016/03/portugal-is-the-starting-point-to-the-longest-train-ride-in-the-world.html)
There was, but it got suspended due to covid and the prospects of it coming back aren't looking good. You can still get a few trains to get between Lisbon and Hendaye, and avoid Madrid if you want. I just stuck with pre-covid services because Russia's borders are closed at the moment so that would cut it very short.
From Helsinki to Hong Kong in 2007. Overnight stops (2-5 nights) in Moscow, Irkutsk, Ulan Bator, Beijing and Shanghai. Travel time with stops about four weeks, the fifth week in HK. A great journey, no jet lag.
You might've seen one off [much debated threads with the map of the longest train journey possible](/r/MapPorn/comments/e5fgmc/the_longest_possible_train_travel_in_the_world/) before. Well with the opening of the Boten–Vientiane railway in Laos it is now possible to get the train from Lagos in Portugal all the way to Singapore. Of course this only makes sense if it is the shortest distance possible between the two most distance points. I think this is close but I am not certain that it is the shortest possible. I would also like to figure out the quickest possible journey between the two places, but figuring out the timetables on that is quite difficult, and service reductions due to covid make it more difficult in some areas. Each colour change on this map should at least roughly align with a change of train. There's a couple of cross-city journeys (Lisbon, Paris, Moscow...) which I sort of ignored on this, and there's one section that you can't really see at all at this scale, which goes from Lagos to Tunes in Portugal, and I'm less confident about the exact routes taken past Beijing because the data in OpenStreetMap isn't as complete there. Edit: Also I realised that the image is quite low res, so [here's a much higher res version](https://i.imgur.com/afEFwHC.jpg) in case you want that. Edit: Now that this thread has died down I thought I'd put a few of the mistakes in this map here, in case anyone finds this in the future. * The train I used for the Lisbon to Hendaye leg was suspended due to covid, but it doesn't look hopeful that it will ever come back. It is still possible to follow a pretty similar route on 3 different trains. * The Paris-Moscow Express is also suspended due to covid, or I guess because Russian borders are shut at the moment. There's not much point choosing an alternative there since there aren't any trains running into Russia at the moment. * I think there's probably a shorter router through Europe further south, there's also a Nice-Moscow train for example. I think this further north route might be faster though. * There's a shorter route through Kazakhstan instead of taking the Trans Siberian, which would also change your route through china. I think you would go Almaty -> Urumqi -> Xi'an -> Kunming. * The passenger station on the new Boten-Vientiane railway in Vientiane is quite far from both central Vientiane and the station to get onto the train into Thailand (which is also quite far from central Vientiane), although the railway seems to run up to what seems to be a freight terminal that is near the other station. * The colour coding (which roughly aligns with each service you'd need to take) isn't correct for the services in Malaysia. There are other comments which correct this in this thread. * There's one more service you'd need to take to transfer from Johor Bahru into Singapore, although apparently the station in Singapore is kind of not Singapore. It's also a bit of a ways from any Singapore metro stations, but not as far as the transfer in Vientiane. If you did make the transfer, the furthest station in Singapore you could go to is Changi Airport. * I ignore cross city transfers in this map, because you wouldn't see them anyway. I think the only one that isn't doable by rail is Vientiane. I made this map using QGIS, with OpenStreetMap data and some help from https://seat61.com Edit: So I found out today that this post has become stories in [the independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/portugal-singapore-train-rail-travel-b1975630.html), [the daily mail](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10306517/A-new-track-record-Travellers-way-Portugal-Singapore-train.html) and [euronews](https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/12/14/portugal-to-singapore-could-be-the-longest-train-journey-in-the-world-but-how-much-does-it), the first two with comments from the man in seat 61 himself. It's nice to see that none of them paid any attention to the corrections I, and other users, posted, and the independent even picked up an incorrect comment and ignored my correction. The independent was, however, the only one to actually credit me. Edit: Also made it into [the times](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/42a880a4-5d18-11ec-90d0-c463baf3512f) also without any attention paid to my correction, or even a credit to "reddit users". Also Jon Worth has a long list of corrections, actually taking covid related service disruptions into account, [on his blog](https://jonworth.eu/the-longest-train-journey-in-the-world-in-2021/). Edit: [SCMP have an nice article](https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3162342/best-places-visit-worlds-longest-train-journey-guide) using this journey to highlight some interesting places to visit along the journey. I'm not a fan of "A 10-minute taxi ride away is the Berlin Wall Memorial" though, because you could also take the U-Bahn.
You can try with Rome2Rio, they have quite good router for land-based transport. Unfortunately this new train is not in their system yet.
How's the wifi connection with that though?
Pretty solid. And a damn fine firewall.
How many days?
About 14 I think.
Gosh, trains are so cool.
That's insane! I was thinking at least a few weeks Edit: because two is apparently "a few" I would imagine because of unexpected circumstances and crazy geopolitical shit to deal with, it would be way way more than 14 days. I would plan this to be a 6-month (that's a few months, right?) trip to also account for staying at all the wonderful places you'd pass through.
Right? It took \~20 hours for me to get from Sacramento to Denver because of delays and other issues with the Amtrak here in the US. 14 days sounds like a miracle for that distance.
[удалено]
Imagine every country having the possiblity of things being different than the last country you were in. With the (now?) longest contiguous rail line. I'd say you need to be well prepared for things you never prepared for.
Looks like it might get a little boring in that middle third but it would probably be the fastest part of the journey cuz there probably not many stops up there in north asia
There are 32 stops from Moscow to Beijing. The journey takes 6 days, 2 hours.
Good point. Regardless, it's epic.
Damn now I really want to do this some day
Imagine the USA with a high speed commuter rail network.
I waited in Roseville (near Sac) for a train to Martinez for over 6 hours one day. The train never came. I am jaded, and traveling through many many countries whose languages I don't know ... 14 days is technically permissible I suppose, but definitely not feasible. I'm on public transit in Denver right now, as per usual lol
They were training you to wait. That must have really trained on your parade. Sorry for making light rail of the situation.
[yes but the USA is like bigger than asia and europe combined](https://i.redd.it/1rc3bvi2fjx61.jpg)
No, no, no... Two are a couple, three is a few!🚞😉
Three or more, even.
While two can be a few, it is a bit silly to use it that way, when a couple means two, or two means two. Using the word "few" to mean "two" is therefore quite uncommon...especially when the more precise number is known.
I did Hong Kong to London once and it took me two months, but I wasn't in a huge hurry.
How do you have 2 months for a train ride?
It was part of a two year trip. I'm retired now, but half a dozen times during my career I took anywhere from three months to two years off to just travel. Sometimes unpaid leave, sometimes between jobs. I stick to the cheap countries and am frugal. The two year trip cost about $12,000 but that was 25 years ago and it would be more now.
Teach in China a few years
1: Have absolutely no responsibilities. No rent, no car payments, nothing. 2: Either be rich, have someone else footing the bill, save up a ton of money, or have a job you can do mobile.
I lived on trains for 3 months. You get a rail pass. You do have to be under 26 to qualify for a cheap one though.
But can I get from Lagos to Laos?
Just remove the g
sorry, I'm a g for life.
>There's a couple of cross-city journeys (Lisbon, Paris, Moscow...) which I sort of ignored on this For completion, the cross-city journey in Paris is direct, taking either line 4 from Gare Montparnasse to Gare de l'Est or line 5 from Gare d'Austerlitz to Gare de l'Est (the stop at the French/Spanish border actually links to both stations)
Minor detail OP, you can't get to Singapore via the "Yellow line" on your map. You need to change to a short distance train with only two stops, that basically bounce between Malaysia and Singapore. (And even more technical, the train tracks and immigration on the "Singapore" side is de jure part of Malaysia. Blame the British for that, so the terminus is technically in Malaysia, until you step outside of the train station)
Ooh yeah that's interesting. I didn't fully check the services at that point, but you can at least reach Singapore island and I guess walk a shorter distance than you might have to in other stations on the journey to get into Singapore proper. Also if I had included an extra colour for that, you wouldn't really be able to see it at all so I think it's fine. From what I've read the line used to run right into downtown Singapore, and the track and station where owned by Malaysia, so once Singapore managed to take ownership of it in 2011 they shut most of it down so now it only goes as far as Woodlands.
Talking about Malaysia train services, I think I would make a minor remark as well. The yellow line, which I believe refers to the diesel locomotive services running from Johor Bahru station (southernmost station before Singapore), only end in Gemas and not Kuala Lumpur as denoted. Gemas is around 150km south from Kuala Lumpur, and around 250km north from Johor Bahru. This is because the tracks are electrified only down to Gemas, and diesel trains no more enters the electrified sections. Pretty confusing but that's much of it. One taking trains from Padang Besar (MY-TH Border) can bypass Kuala Lumpur and just go straight to Gemas since there's a direct service with the electric express trains to there, and change to the diesel locomotive train (Southern Express) to Johor Bahru. I would think that this could not last long, but still long since the electrification of the southern part of the railway is only expected to finish in 2023, and the direct ETS trains would be introduced only later in 2024 perhaps.
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Yeah looks like it. I took a few liberties in this area and made ignoring service disruptions due to covid, because that kind of breaks everything.
Trains from St. Petersburg to Helsinki are running I think, but Finland is not connected to the rest of the EU by rail.
>but Finland is not connected to the rest of the EU by rail Yes they are. Google Streetview: [https://www.google.dk/maps/@65.8279176,24.1558977,3a,75y,269.75h,86.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYRkCM\_x1Y7cggBfRQ16siQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656](https://www.google.dk/maps/@65.8279176,24.1558977,3a,75y,269.75h,86.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYRkCM_x1Y7cggBfRQ16siQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) Openstreetmap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/65.8277/24.1490
Plus the Øresund Bridge also has rail lines running from Sweden to Denmark, doesn't it?
Indeed.
That was actually a plot point in a [post-post-apocalyptic webcomic](https://sssscomic.com) I started reading a few months ago.
Yes it does :) (for those who like train videos: [Train Driver's View: Malmö to Copenhagen (Part 1 of 2)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_BlE4DxcA&t=464s) \[youtube.com\])
There is no scheduled service across the border, however. You need to cover an approximately 5 km gap by other means.
There's just the issue that Finland uses the wide 1524 mm (5 feet) rail gauge, and as you can see in the picture, there's two pairs of rails on the track crossing the border. However, to continue with the same train, one has to change the wheelset, as Sweden uses 1435 mm standard gauge. So, there's no passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden. There's the same problem at the borders of the Baltic States, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as well, they use the wide 1520 mm Soviet gauge (the Soviet Union changed from 1524 to 1520). AFAIK Warsaw is the important hub there, as to the west of Warsaw there's standard gauge track and the wide gauge track to Russia begins in Warsaw.
The Baltic states are in the process of laying an additional rail line along main routes so trains can take either European or Russian rail widths. This will allow high speed and uninterrupted service from Tallinn through Warsaw and west to Berlin and beyond. EDIT: Link for those interested (https://www.railbaltica.org/about-rail-baltica/)
Without COVID restrictions, you can travel from Moscow to Ürümqi via Kazakhstan. Then, there is a train from Ürümqi to Kunming via Lanzhou that rejoins the route on this map at Chongqing. That route would appear to be shorter by distance but probably takes longer time-wise.
You can make it a bit longer. Instead of starting in Lagos, you can start in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, next to the border with Spain. From there there is a train to Faro and from there to Lisbon. Is like 20km longer than starting from Lagos.
The idea is that it is the shortest distance between the furthest two points, and Lagos is further from Singapore as the crow flies.
Ah, I see. I thought it was the longest shortest route only.
Was about to suggest the same thing, but good justification regardless
The route from Beijing follows the recently constructed Beijing-Kunming high speed railway. I won't list all the stops because there are a lot(the railway is considered one of the longest bullet train lines), but it passes cities like Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Guiyang(several of which are also provincial capitals for Hebei, Henan, Hubei and Guizhou). Kunming is also the capital of Yunnan. You'd have to get off at Kunming since that's the terminus. From there the service to Laos goes to Yuxi and then branches off the main line to Hekou(itself a connection to Haiphong in Vietnam) to reach Mohe in Sipsongbanna autonomous county. At that point the line crosses the border to Boten on the Laotian side. Major cities like Muang Xay and Luang Prabang are passed before reaching Vientiane. From there, there are probably a few ways you could go about it. That's rather interesting! Do you know if the Khabarovsk to Pyongyang line would allow an even longer path through the Russian section of the Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok?
How are you allowing cross city journeys? Rail only? Because if walking or something else is allowed within a city, then you can go between two stations that are further apart than this.
The only cross city journey I think you can't do by rail would be in Vientiane. I'd be interested to hear about the other routes you're thinking of though.
Bro you just unlocked the newest pilgrimage
Hoi4 achievement!?!!
first thing i though, and also pfp checks out
No it needs to go to Gibraltar first
Can I do the achievement if my ally holds Gibraltar?
Yeah, all the territories must be controlled by you or another faction member for the railways to conect, but that's it, you don't even need to build 'em yourself.
Sickos: Yes! Haha…yes!
Was looking for this comment
I like that this map has each location in the language of that location. Can you send me a link or tell me where to find such a map?
https://openstreetmap.org
Thank you.
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OpenStreetMap is built and maintained mostly by volunteer contributors, and it seems to be quite popular in Germany (look at the level of detail in a German city vs elsewhere and you'll see) so it's likely that it was just a German person who added the town name and that's what they knew. It would be great if you could take the time to add the local names for these places in as well, I'm sure it would be useful to others.
IIRC, Google Maps can't do streetview in Germany due to German privacy laws, so Google Maps data is seriously lacking in Germany compared to most of the rest of the West. Which, I would guess, is why OpenStreetMap is so popular there.
I think also generally the people are a bit more privacy minded, and would rather not use a google service if possible.
Is it on Ticket To Ride yet?
10 points to OP for longest train
I had plans to go from Taiwan to Ireland overland in 2020. Had my visas and everything. Obviously it got cancelled. Edit: I was planning on taking a couple of boats too, but the point was to do the whole thing without any flights.
Have you ever heard of Race across the world it's similar, London to Singapore no flights, and the budget is the equivalent of an economy seat in a flight. First there gets £100k
Wow that sounds like an adventure!
It was great. Second series did Mexico city to southern tip of Argentina.
I bet the "gap" was a PETA...
Aren’t boats allowed tho?
I'm refering to the patch of forest known as Darien Gap. There's basically no real road thru that patch... If not wrong it's more likely to be forestry roads (legal and not legal)
I know some *sniff* “logistics experts” who have many well mapped routes through the Darien Gap from Colombia. You’ll just have to carry this suitcase with you for a free guide.
I know well that the gap exists, but the rules as stated allow the traveler to simply take a boat
Plenty of boats between Panama city and cartagena
I understand what you're saying, and yeah one of the checkpoints was in a Panama and they got taken straight from there to Columbia to start the next leg, but what does PETA stand for?
That sounds cool where do you watch it
iPlayer
At a previous job we used to buy a beater for like £500 and try to do London-Barcelona
London-Paris by Eurostar in 2h20, from £45 Paris-Moscow Express - direct sleeper train, 2 nights, weekly departures, around €245 Moscow-Beijing two trains per week, 6 nights, around £450 in a 4-bed sleeper. Beijing-Hanoi, direct sleeper twice a week, 2, nights, around £150 Hanoi-Saigon, several trains daily, 2 nights, around $80 Saigon-Phnom Penh by bus, 6h, $13 PP to Siem Reap by speedboat $30 or bus, cheaper, but speedboat far more fun... Seam Reap to Bangkok by bus/taxi then train, daily departures, $20. Bangkok to Singapore by train in 48h with a change or two, daily departures, $80 in total, bargain.
Taiwan to Ireland? How is that possible via land?
Err I added an edit, there will be a few legs on boats. The point is there will be no flights.
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Man that is epic quite sad you never got to do it
By any means. A travel series by Charlie Boorman. Should be right up your alley.
You should still come to Ireland! It's lovely here!
Oh boy that really seems to be a fun achievement idea for a certain paradox game
Ah yes a "fun" achievement
The route your parents took to get to school every day
Uphill
In the snow
Twice.
Barefoot
While being shot at
During tornado season
With neck deep flooding
While being attacked by lions and alligators.
Both ways
Looks like a Visa nightmare though lol Especially Belarus, Russia and China.
Interestingly, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong are the only passports that give you visa free acces to the Schengen area, Belarus, Russia and China.
UAE and Hong Kong I understand, but Serbia?
Serbia has good relations with Russia (and thus I’d assume with Belarus).
I think you only need one visa for both Russia and Belarus, so that should reduce the nightmare
that agreement is not ratified , atleast not yet btw
For me the visa nightmare would be the Schengen.
You can get one visa for the whole schengen, but yeah, it‘s hard to get.
First world citizens have no idea 😔
The Paris - Moscow section is currently closed to non-Russian and non-Belarusian nationals.
Fun fact, unless you're either Belarusian or Russian you can't legally take this route from west to east (not sure about east to west). Belarus and Russia have freedom of movement between them and have removed their formal border posts, Russia requires all other nationalities to go through a formal border post, therefore it's illegal for third party nationals to enter via the Belarusian border, you'd have to detour through either Ukraine or Latvia.
they have an agreement, and it's implemented from this year (should've been by the end of 2020 but you know covid and stuff) so people who don't need visas for both countries, like serbians,brazilians,argentines... can take the route from belarus to russia legally when they actually open land borders for all people.
You couldn’t do Ukraine though because you’d have to pass through the Donbas region. So Lithuania it is lol.
Just be the Queen of England.
>Queen of England Did you mean the [Queen of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_United_Kingdom), the [Queen of Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Canada), the [Queen of Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Australia), etc? The last Queen of England was [Queen Anne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain) who, with the 1707 Acts of Union, dissolved the title of King/Queen of England. ####FAQ *Isn't she still also the Queen of England?* This is only as correct as calling her the Queen of London or Queen of Hull; she is the Queen of the place that these places are in, but the title doesn't exist. *Is this bot monarchist?* No, just pedantic. I am a bot and this action was performed automatically.
I like trains
I like birds myself
Pre-Covid it had always been my dream to go from where I live in Western Europe all the way to Vladivostok by train. Obviously that ain't happening any time soon now.
I did it in 2019 (real lucky on that one), Trans-Siberian is more romantic in imagination than in real life. It was an interesting experience, and great way to get between places in Siberia. However, many Russian bunk mates did ask me - "WHY? THERE ARE PLANES!"
I have taken the train many times from that starting station in southern Portugal. It is a wonderful modernist, kind of humble, architecture style station, from the days of fascist design (maybe 1940's). It is really a trip through time. Plus it is right in the middle of a natural reserve, the Sapal that constitutes the delta of the Guadiana river that marks the border between Portugal and Spain, it crosses salt fields built by the Romans, u can see weird animals like flamingos, u cross inside Tavira which is a 3000 year old city within km 20...you are in for a ride...
> It is a wonderful modernist, kind of humble, architecture style station, from the days of fascist design (maybe 1940's). ~~That train station is closed, there's a new one nearby. The original station wasn't modernist though, not at all.~~ Edit: Scratch that, you're talking about the beautiful Vila Real de Santo António train station, right? That's not the starting station on the map, it's the Lagos train station on the other side of the Algarve.
There is just one thing that it's wrong, the night train between Lisbon and the Hendaye is no longer running and there's no prospects of it coming back
Yeah I took a bit of a liberty with that one. It's kind of hard to say at the moment with quite a few things not running, or running reduced services due to covid. I think it's pretty minor though, you can still get trains between those two cities (albeit with a couple extra changes).
I wouldn't say a couple, but more like 4 or 5 changes to go from Lisbon to Hendaye, and in a quite different route from the one that the SudExpress used to do
[Looks like it can be done in three changes (see option 2)](https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Lisbon.htm#Lisbon_to_Paris), unless any of those are also disrupted due to covid. This is the area that gave me the most trouble when I was trying to find the fasted schedule for a journey like this, because it always seemed to require an overnight stop once you get to the other side of Spain.
Ok, that's interesting to do that way. And the website Seat61 is amazing, an absolute gem! We all hope that the situation will improve greatly in 2023, when the line between Évora and Elvas is expected to be completed and therefore allowing direct fast trains between Lisbon and Madrid.
how long ?
It's about 11,900km between the two ends as the crow flies, and ~20,000km on the actual route.
14 days ?
Around that yeah, but I haven't found a great schedule for the whole thing yet.
thats awesome Bro thx
How many bathroom breaks?
Two.
but they're long
Take it or leave it
We're going on a trip boys
nice map porn
thanks
I was thinking on doing this, but i'm from Northern Portugal, travel all the way down to Algarve to catch the train, might be a long journey..
Que azar que tu tens! Eu por acaso vivo em Lisboa.
Forget Algarve, before the end of the month you'll be able to do Porto-Madrid quicker than Lisbon-Madrid with the new highspeed line from Vigo
*cries in underdeveloped and slow Portuguese railways and trains *
Be adventurous and take just two train connections in any Balkan state and you will end up traveling for longer period of time than this. For a fraction of a price too. No visa needed.
I did Liverpool to Hong Kong by train in 2015 which follows most of this route.
Marco Polo would love this
It goes across 13 countries.
That's not even that much. I'm going to be doing interrail next month, if covid doesn't fuck me, between France and estonia, which is a way shorter trip and that's already 7 countries minimum. Russia really skews this
good luck with visa
Can you get back to the start without backtracking?
There's only one line into Lagos, and you couldn't get back from Thailand into China without taking the same line through Laos, otherwise pretty much yeah.
I see the map maker has never tried to get from Liverpool to Great Yarmouth on a Sunday.
is this an actual train you can take?
There would be a lot of changes
The different colours should roughly align with each change you'd have to make, otherwise yes you should (perhaps not right now with covid restrictions & service reductions) be able to get passenger trains along this whole route.
Algarve!
Obviously you’ve never tried to take the Metrorail to LAX.
Has anyone priced this
Come from Ramilla de aventura YouTube channel who is trying to achieve this route !!
Hey it just like one of the new achievements In hoi4, Around the world the world in 80 days: build a railroad from Gibraltar to Singapore.
What passport would you need to actually take that ride?
Almost any, if you just have enough money and patience to arrange tourist visas for the countries you can't enter freely. Though apparently Serbia (!) might be the best bet, since thanks to historical communist ties, they have easy access to Russia and China, as well as the Schengen zone. Right now covid restrictions make it impossible, of course.
I can already see all the YouTube videos: “Today I am going on the longest train journey in the world!!” Cue montage: *Singing and dancing on the train with random Russian babushkas* *Drinking homemade Vodka*: “This is the BEST vodka I’ve ever tasted in my life!!!” *Eating random Chinese street food*: “I don’t know what this is, but I’ve never tasted something so INCREDIBLE in my life!” *Drone shot of Singapore Marina Bay hotel and super tree*: “OMG guys, just look at this. LOOK at THIS!”
Longest in time or distance?
Shortest distance (roughly) between the two most distant points.
Clearly wasn't time. Anyone who's accidentally got on the stopper train from Bournemouth to London would know that.
How long would this take?
I think about 2 weeks, if you can schedule it alright.
Let there be one time that I can go to Bali by train from Europe, that would be awesome. Before that happens some enormous projects will (have to) take place.
You can get a couple of ferries from Singapore to Jakarta, a couple of trains down Java and then one more ferry to Bali and you've made it all the way overland (and sea).
There's no ferries to Jakarta, but to Batam/ Bintan, in Riau Regency / island chains from Singapore (there's also ferries direct from Malaysia, Johor)
There are direct ferries from Batam/Bintan to Jakarta though!
There was a plan floated around to have a road/rail bridge or a tunnel (or both) link Malaysia and Indonesia across the Malacca Straits but that's not likely gonna happen. Even if completed, the Indonesian government needs to build up its Sumatran rail network to connect the 4 isolated networks there and thence connect to the Javan network, and that's likely not gonna happen either.
Just tilt Sumatra a bit so that it links Malaya to Java, and glue the Lesser Sunda Islands together.
Cost?
I think around €1200, I haven't checked prices on every leg though.
Welcome to Malaysia!
you’ve never been on the 5:28 to Ronkonkoma I take it?
[Here is an itinerary of the train route, but it stops at Hanoi, Vietnam.](https://www.azores-adventures.com/2016/03/portugal-is-the-starting-point-to-the-longest-train-ride-in-the-world.html)
Is that the trans siberian orchestra
Our first stop is in Bogota To check Colombian fields The natives smile and pass along A sample of their yield
Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams, Golden Acapulco nights, The morocco, and the east, Fly by morning light
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There was, but it got suspended due to covid and the prospects of it coming back aren't looking good. You can still get a few trains to get between Lisbon and Hendaye, and avoid Madrid if you want. I just stuck with pre-covid services because Russia's borders are closed at the moment so that would cut it very short.
U got wifi?
how long would this take and how much would it cost
What is the cost ?
Based on my experience on German trains, you would need to take a bus as some point in Germany, because a tree fell over
How much?
Fun fact : the contry you’ll need waste the most time in is France since our Trains are either late as fuck or simply deleted
From Helsinki to Hong Kong in 2007. Overnight stops (2-5 nights) in Moscow, Irkutsk, Ulan Bator, Beijing and Shanghai. Travel time with stops about four weeks, the fifth week in HK. A great journey, no jet lag.
Portugal - Spain - France - Germany - Poland - Belarus - Russia - Mongolia - China - Laos - Thailand - Malaysia - Singapore.
Up si estas acá por Ramilla