For the last 40 years, Belmond’s iconic Venice-Simplon Orient Express has pulled out of London Victoria en route to Venice. The gleaming British Pullman train has long been a sight familiar to envious Home Counties
commuters trying to get to work on grubby suburban trains.
But, sadly, no more. Belmond has quietly ditched the UK leg of the fabled train journey now that services have re-started post-pandemic. Instead of beginning their journey at Victoria, Belmond’s passengers have to take the
Eurostar to dreary, industrial Lille, where they board the glittering navy
Wagons-Lits carriages of the Orient Express that convey them to Venice.
It would hardly make for much of a whodunnit to establish who murdered the UK leg. Officials found the additional red tape involved in getting hundreds of passengers over the UK border to France post-Brexit meant it simply wasn’t worth the trouble.
