Glory of Express recalled

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 7

Glory of Express recalled

NZPA London A French President fell off it - in his pyjamas, the arms magnate Sir Basil Zaharoff rescued a teenage Spanish duchess from her mad bridegroom on it and later married her, Dame Nellie Melba and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor travelled on it, the King, of Bulgaria insisted on driving it, and the sexy spy Mata Hari went to Bucharest on it. Agatha Christie wrote a bestseller about it — and Alfred Hitchcock filmed it. It was the Orient Express. The legendary train first ran from Paris to Constantinpole in 1883. It survived wars and revolutions but came to a tatty end when the remaining waggons were auctioned off at Monte Carlo in 1977. In May next year-a new train will start a regular service from Victoria Station in London to Venice with promises of all the former glory of the old luxury train. Jim Sherwood, president of the Sea Containers - Seaco Group, which is running the new express, said yesterday: “We want to make it as unforgettable as the Orient Express was in its heyday.” He was speaking when

some of the restored vintage Pullman cars, which will form the London - Folkestone section of the new Orient Express, were put on show at Victoria Station. Mr Sherwood, an American, whose company has a 25 per cent shareholding in NewZealand’s Owens Transport group, bought two of the old Orient Express sleeping cars at the 1977 Monte Carlo sale. Bidding against him was the King of Morocco, who bought the first two carriages. Since then Mr Sherwood and his group, which has moyed into the tour business and owns a luxury' London restaurant and a Florence hotel, have been buying up old restaurant cars, Pullmans, and sleepers which have been restored at workshops in England, Belgium, and Germany. Some of the carriages were acquired from museums, private collectors, and catering companies which had been using them as stationary restaurants. The new Venice-Simplon Orient Express, (Simplon is the 19km tunnel linking Switzerland and Italy) will leave platform 8 at London’s Victoria just before noon on

Fridays and Sundays. Passengers will pay SNZ264 from London to Paris and SNZSSO from London to Venice. They will have a reserved saloon on the ferry over the Channel and will be served fine food along the way. The old Orient Express had a reputation for the liaisons—discreet and less discreet —pursued behind the drawn blinds of the comfortable compartments by the courtesans, spies, diplomats, and duchesses who travelled regularly between the European capitals. The new owners say that passengers on their own will be assured of a compartment to themselves, even though each compartment has two berths. That is . why, although there will be seats for 194 passengers, no more than about 175 are expected on the train. The journey will take about 24 hours. “We are not in a hurry,” Mr Sherwood said. "We don’t want to go too fast at night and disturb the passengers’ sleep.” The Sea Containers group has invested about . 3NZ24 million in the new express

and Mr Sherwood expects to get it back in fbur years if the train is 70 per cent full. Staff uniforms, chinaware, linen, cutlery, glassware, and table lamps have been recreated in the style of the 19205, and antimacassars cover the tops of the individual winged chairs in the Pullman cars. Mosaic floors in the lavatories have been repaired and the carriages have been decorated in the colours of the Compagnie International des Wagon-lits and the Pullman Car Company of the 19205. “We want to bring back the style, elegance, history and nostalgia of the old Orient Express,” Mr Sherwood says. The president who fell out of the Orient Express was Paul Deschanel of France who opened the wrong door of his sleeping car near Lyons in 1920 while the train was moving. The 64-year-old President in his pyjamas and one slipper, made his way along the track to a signal box. “I am the President of France,” he said. “And I'm Napoleon,” the signalman replied.