The longer travel by train in the world affects about 18,755 kilometerscrosses two continents (Europe and Asia), 13 different countries And an undescribable variety of environments, landscapes, cultures and stories! Let’s talk about the Lagos-Singapore section … it could almost seem the title of a novel with the famous Belgian investigator Hercule Poirot as the protagonist, and instead it is a real journey that we can make in about 21 days, at least in theory, all about real tracks. Among the most iconic stops of this itinerary of about 21 days we find Madrid, Barcelona, Moscow, Beijing and Bangkok; a fascinating journey but not without obstacles and critical issues concerning the coincidencesi tourist views and the quality trains and infrastructures.
The Lagos-Singapore section and the worship of the longest train journey in the world
When we talk about the longer travel by train in the world We do not clearly refer to a single railway section, as could be the much more known Transferianbut we mean more than anything else a set of distinct sectionswhich would allow you to start from the small Portuguese town of Lagos and get to the island city of Singapore Using “only” the train.
The long journey was identified for the first time in 2021 by a Reddit user immediately after the inauguration of a new railway section in Laos who, presumably, would have integrated the latest segment of the set of sections, making this transcontinental journey on rails possible.
There is therefore no “Express” train that can allow us to live this adventure through the boundless territory of the Eurasian continent in comfort, but, wanting to travel the entire journey, It will be necessary to break the way in numerous stagesin which we should take a time from time to time train different. It should also be considered that most of the stations are not connected directly to each other, but it will be necessary to move between one and the other with other means (buses, shuttles, subway …).
To travel the entire itinerary of 18,750 kilometers About it may be necessary 21 days of travel (net obviously of any prolonged stays in one of the many locations crossed) and more than 25 changes through 13 different states independent on the two continents, Europe And Asia.
The stages can roughly travel the following director:
- DEPARTURE – Lagos (Portugal);
- Lisbon (Portugal);
- Madrid (Spain);
- Barcelona (Spain);
- Paris (France);
- Berlin (Germany);
- Warsaw (Poland);
- Vilnius (Lithuania);
- Tallinn (Estonia);
- Minsk (Russia);
- Fly (Russia);
- Nižnij Novgorod (Russia);
- Ekaterinburg (Russia);
- WHOSK (Russia);
- Novosibirsk (Russia);
- Krasnoyarsk (Russia);
- Irkutsk (Russia);
- Ča (Russia);
- Ussurijsk (Russia);
- Ulan Bator (Mongolia);
- Beijing (China);
- Wuhan (China);
- Kunming (China);
- Vientian (Laos);
- Bangkok (Thailand);
- Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia);
- I ARRIVE – Singapore (Singapore).
Obstacles and critical issues
As already anticipated, making this railway itinerary is actually far from a walk. To begin with, There are no pre -packaged tickets or “packages” Buyable directly to enjoy the complete experience without having to think about anything, but we should rather study and carefully evaluate any transport, starting from timetables, coincidences, means of supplementary transport, updates along the routes …
Another question that could complicate a lot of an experience of this kind is given by vastness of the territories crossed And from the fact that we should enter and get out of more than a dozen different countries, with cultures, visa systems and internal policies extremely different from each other.
This means, that outside the EU boundaries, in which we could no longer move with the relative serenity of the space Schengenwe should deal with the complicated, slow and always different bureaucracies to get visas tourist, permits electronic etc. Without considering that we could cross areas or countries involved in tension situationsif not even of war (as in the case of Russia) for which, in addition to the obvious considerations on the risks, we should predict different methods of issuing visas.
In the end, The quality of trains and infrastructure varies enormously from one country to another (but also within the same), moving from modern and comfortable high -speed trains to disconnected and not very practiced sections, in which delays, suspensions, or disservices can be frequent and undermine our journey.
