Rail cruise

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A rail cruise is a rail-bound exploration, pleasure or holiday trip. These often take place with a particularly comfortable train that travels along a route that is interesting for tourists and / or stops at various interesting tourist destinations. The term “rail cruise ” is derived from the cruise on the sea. Rail cruises are tourist rail journeys in trains with hotel-like facilities such as sleeping compartments, restaurants and lounges. They are also characterized by the fact that, in addition to the hotel-like facilities, they offer opportunities for land exploration. As with ship cruises, the means of transport is the main component of the trip and the basis for the tourist experience.

Historical development

As a result of the worldwide development of the railroad in the 19th century, journeys could be significantly shortened by higher speeds. 40 years after the inauguration of the first railway line in England, the first sleeper train in America was built in 1864 by the railroad company Pullman. Just three years later, Pullman developed the sleeper train as a hotel train by adding dining cars to the sleeping cars. The idea of ​​overcoming distances asleep came to Europe through the Belgian Georges Nagelmackers, who went to America for a year in 1867 and got to know the Pullman sleeping car on his journey through the country. In 1876 the “Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits” (CIWL) was founded. The history of the Orient Express of the CIWL began in 1883. Equipped with two sleeping cars and two baggage cars as well as a dining car, the first trip was from Paris to Constantinople.

Up until the First World War , the CIWL grew and in 1913 it was already operating 31 luxury trains . After the First World War, the journeys of the luxury trains were resumed. Initially as a replacement for the Orient Express , which had been discontinued at the beginning of the war and which was also reintroduced a few years later, the CIWL introduced the Simplon Orient Express in 1919 using the Simplon Tunnel . During the Second World War , the CIWL was partially placed under German administration. CIWL's luxury trains such as the Nord-Express or the Süd-Express were among the fastest trains in Europe before 1939.

Outside Europe, in the European colonies, luxury trains such as B. in India. The English colonial times in India helped this country to build railroad lines. The era of luxury trains began there at the end of the 1880s. They were built for the Maharajas, the Indian princes. This resulted in the Palace on Wheels train, a palace on wheels. The comfortable wagons could be attached to the regular trains with a special permit. The Indian maharajas lost their power after the English colonial period and Indian independence. In 1970 they had to give up their privileges under Indira Gandhi, which also affected their palaces and luxury trains. That is why the wagons were decommissioned and only reassembled into new trains in the 1980s. The new Palace on Wheels was created by replicating the original cars.

Since demand continued to decline after the Second World War, the trains were gradually discontinued. Only since the end of the 1970s / beginning of the 1980s have trains been rediscovered, renovated and reassembled around the world, this time not as a quick travel option, but primarily as a comfortable offer geared towards the travel experience. Most of these trains are still in service today.

deals

To distinguish the providers of rail cruises from other providers of tourist rail travel, the overall market of tourist rail travel providers can be divided into providers of rail travel without overnight stays, providers of rail travel with sleeping car or hotel accommodation and providers of cruises. These three categories can also be referred to as panoramic trains, adventure trains, and luxury trains. Rail cruises are now offered on all continents. Well-known trains are:

  • Russian railways offer an extra service for interested tourist groups.

target group

Those who buy rail cruises are demanding customers. You expect excellent service from staff and management. The average age of the target group is between 50 and 60 years. Depending on the destination, 45–60% of passengers come from Europe, especially from Great Britain and Germany, the remaining source market is mainly the USA. The new customer share is 80% annually. Ship cruise passengers are also showing increased interest in rail cruises.

Deployed trains

Special trains are often used. These are often historical, refurbished sets with sleeping cars , dining cars and saloon cars (for example in the historic Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express , the former government special train of the GDR or sets that were specially acquired by railway companies for rail cruises such as the Belarus courier of the Belarusian Railway company " Belaruskaja tschyhunka ") or the Pride of Africa once a year from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam and back. The trains are either rented by a tour operator for tour groups or can be booked as a package tour for individual travelers.

A Palace on Wheels wagon in Jaipur in the morning

Train equipment

The trains differ from each other in their length and equipment. They mostly consist of a sleeping car and a restaurant. In contrast to the cabins on cruise ships, trains only have compartments with windows. Inside cabins are not available due to the design of trains. The compartments are different in size in each train and have different equipment. The size ranges from 2.8 m² to 16 m². Most of the compartments are either suites or double compartments with two separate beds or one on top of the other. The larger a compartment, the better the equipment and the higher the price.

Services

Services can include transfers from the airport to the train station, excursions and meals on the train. The companies decide which services are offered as part of the entire product. As a rule, travel is not included as a service in the trip. Meals are mostly in the form of full board, with the luxury trains often paying attention to an elegant appearance in evening attire during meals. Most trains offer excursions such as city tours, cultural sights or safaris.

Passenger rights

On rail cruises, as with all rail journeys, passengers have certain passenger rights . If these are violated, there is a travel deficiency that entitles the passenger to claims for compensation.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Lambert Anthony: Growing niche market offers profitable opportunities ( Memento of October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), August 1, 2007, accessed February 5, 2009
  2. ^ Stephen Page: Transport and Tourism: Global Perspectives . Essex 2005, p. 22 f. ISBN 978-0-273-71970-0
  3. ↑ Jonathan Farren, Bernard Grilly, Jean-François Mallet: Legendary luxury trains . Munich 2006, p. 172. ISBN 978-3-89660-352-4
  4. ^ Constantin Parvulesco: Orient Express . Stuttgart, 2007, p. 37. ISBN 978-3-613-71305-5
  5. ^ Jürgen Franzke: Orient Express - King of Trains . Nuremberg 1998, p. 8. ISBN 978-3-89836-109-5
  6. ^ Albert Mühl, Jürgen Klein: Traveling in luxury trains . Freiburg 2006, p. 340. ISBN 978-3-88255-696-4
  7. ↑ Wilfried Biedenkopf: Across old Europe. The international train and through car runs as of the summer of 1939 . Publishing house and office for special traffic literature Röhr, Krefeld 1981, ISBN 3-88490-110-9 , p. 19
  8. ↑ Ronald Krug: From the train transport service: The fastest steam trains. International comparison of records, top speeds and travel speeds . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, ISBN 978-388255-770-1 , p. 58
  9. ↑ Patrick Poivre d'Arvor: Legendary Rail Travel . Munich 2007, p. 284. ISBN 978-3-89405-685-8
  10. ^ Walter Freyer: Tourism. Introduction to tourism economics . Munich 2006, p. 191 f. ISBN 978-3-486-57874-4
  11. ↑ Maike Grunwald: "Classic Courier": Rail cruise in a luxury train through Poland . In: THE WORLD . July 4, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed January 23, 2020]).
  12. ↑ SWR Eisenbahn-Romantik : Asleep to Lake Baikal , September 27, 2016, 3:15 p.m., 44 min., Accessed on December 4, 2016
  13. ^ A b I. Lanz: Luxury trains in southern Africa . In: fvw , No. 20, September 4, 1998, p. B14
  14. ↑ D. Berg: Nostalgia and luxury on the rails . In: Allgemeine Hotel- und Gaststätten-Zeitung No. 33 of August 19, 2006, p. 10
  15. ↑ Plane, train, bus and ship: Your right to travel. Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection , July 27, 2013, archived from the original on August 11, 2011 ; Retrieved August 26, 2013 .