On September 27, exactly 200 years will have passed since George Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1, the world's first public passenger steam railway, completed its inaugural journey between Shildon, Darlington, and Stockton, northeastern England, marking the beginning of the Golden Age of train travel — a modern invention that continues to revolutionize how we live even today.
From the unveiling of Italy's debut luxury train, La Dolce Vita Orient Express, whose dazzling interiors ooze with 1960s glamour, and that of Belmond's Britannic Explorer, a sumptuous overnight sleeper stopping off at multiple locations across the UK, to a handful of affordable railway services making the connection between central Italy and the French Riviera as easy and scenic as it's ever been, and further international solutions rumored to commence operation in the coming years, it's official: a new era of train travel is here.
