The Simplon Orient Express takes the southern route
A reconstituted service runs for the first time from Paris across Switzerland through the Simplon Tunnel to Milan, and from there to Venice, Trieste and Belgrade; through running to Istanbul follows in 1920. The alignment changed for political reasons, not engineering ones — the post-war settlement made the old Munich–Vienna corridor unavailable — and the tunnel that had been bored for Swiss-Italian traffic became the spine of the most famous train in Europe.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Orient Express · route · Western Europe to the Bosphorus · not located
- Simplon Tunnel · infrastructure · Switzerland
- Paris · city · France
- The Balkans · region · Southeastern Europe · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
A history of the Orient Express — the truth behind the legend
Supports the 19 May 1977 last Paris–Istanbul departure from Gare de Lyon at 23:56, the 11 April 1919 first Simplon Orient Express, and the final Strasbourg–Vienna EuroNight of 12 December 2009 with the name leaving the timetable on 13 December. V55 verification basis: a specialist rather than institutional source; its substance was carried in attributed search results and the site itself is refused by this environment's egress proxy.
seat61.com (Mark Smith) · Partly verified
https://www.seat61.com/history-of-the-orient-express.htm
Recorded on Orient Express
- The Ottoman Porte grants Hirsch the Constantinople–Vienna railway concession
- The first Express d'Orient leaves the Gare de l'Est
- First through Paris–Constantinople run entirely by rail
- The Simplon Orient Express takes the southern route
- The last Direct Orient Express leaves Paris for Istanbul
- The name Orient Express leaves the European timetable
- Relaunch of an Orient Express train using rediscovered 1920s carriages
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Relaunch of an Orient Express train using rediscovered 1920s carriages · 2027 (target)
- The name Orient Express leaves the European timetable · 2009-12-12
- The last Direct Orient Express leaves Paris for Istanbul · 1977-05-19
- First through Paris–Constantinople run entirely by rail · 1889-06-01
- The first Express d'Orient leaves the Gare de l'Est · 1883-10-04
- The Ottoman Porte grants Hirsch the Constantinople–Vienna railway concession · 1869-04-17