Trains are one of the greatest ways to travel the world and meet people from all walks of life. They allow travellers to cross continents in a leisurely manner, taking in some of the most breath-taking natural landscapes the world has to offer.

One of the most iconic trips is the Trans Siberian from Moscow to Vladivostok via the wild lands of Siberia, a journey taking roughly a week. Another is the Trans Canada, an epic 11-day odyssey that whisks people though the coastal mountains of Whistler, the Canadian Rockies, and the vast Prairies. That’s not to forget, of course, the original Orient Express, which in its heyday carried passengers between Paris and Istanbul – a distance of 1,700 miles.

The trip was immortalised by Agatha Christie, the great British writer, in her book “Murder on the Orient Express”.

Today a new route has opened up that allows people to travel all the way from Lagos in Portugal to Singapore on a single ticket.

At roughly 14 days, this is considered to be the longest train trip in the world – albeit it is not one continuous train that plies the route.

Travellers will have to change about 20 times to compete the 11,654 mile long journey, that takes them across 13 countries and eight time zones.

The new route opened up in 2021, with the completion of the Laos-China Railway (LCR) in 2021.

Previously, it had required a difficult and arduous 15-hour car ride to travel from Laos’ capital Vientiane and Boten on the Chinese side of the border. The new high-speed train covers the 257-mile distance in just three-and-a-half hours.

However, so far no one has been able to complete the route, largely due to geopolitical considerations. The section from Paris to Moscow is unfortunately off limits due to Russia‘s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Sanctions have shut down all international train traffic between Russia (and Belarus) and the rest of Europe.

In an ideal world, travellers could still reach Moscow by rail, where they would need to hop on to the Trans Manchurian train to hitch a ride to Beijing.

From there it as another skip and a hop to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, on another high-speed train.

The now-completed LCR takes travellers from Kunming to Vientiane, a total distance of 643 miles.

From there a series of local trains take passengers to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and finally on to Singapore.