Night trains of the world

Tayshet → Komsomolsk-on-Amur · 3,800 km · ≈ 4 days

RZD · RZD sleeper trains

Brezhnev’s ‘Project of the Century’, the Trans-Siberian’s wilder northern twin: 3,800 km of permafrost, seven ranges and towns that exist only for the line.

Baku → Tbilisi · 551 km · ≈ 9 h 30 min

ADY · Georgian Railway · Stadler sleeper

Back after six years in May 2026: factory-fresh Stadler sleepers with showers and a VIP lounge leave the Caspian at night and wake above the Kura in Tbilisi.

Bangkok → Vientiane · 647 km · 11 h 40 min

State Railway of Thailand · SRT through sleeper

Since July 2024 the sleeper rolls straight across the Mekong Friendship Bridge, asleep past Ayutthaya, awake in Laos: the first through train from Bangkok into central Vientiane.

Lobito → Luau · 1,344 km · ≈ 30 h

CFB · CFB air-con sleeper express

Atlantic surf to the Congolese border: the Chinese-rebuilt Benguela line’s weekly sleeper climbs 1,344 km through Huambo’s highlands to Luau.

Jakarta → Surabaya · 825 km · ≈ 12 h

Kereta Api Indonesia · Eksekutif night rake

Indonesia’s original air-conditioned night train (1967): the “Biru Malam” still slips out of Jakarta at dusk and glides past Yogyakarta before dawn.

Harbin → Manzhouli · 935 km · ≈ 11 h 50 min

China Railway · 25G sleeper stock (K7091/7092)

The Chinese Eastern Railway’s west arm, working since 1902: over the Greater Khingan to the Russian border at Manzhouli, where the Trans-Manchurian crosses to Zabaikalsk.

Istanbul → Sofia · 585 km · 12 h

TCDD · BDŽ · TCDD & BDŽ sleeping cars

The overnight heir to the Orient Express, crossing the Thracian plain from Istanbul over the Bulgarian border to Sofia as the berths are made up.

Sydney → Brisbane · 988 km · 14 h

NSW TrainLink · XPT (HST derivative)

The overnight run still books twin sleepers as it corkscrews through the Border Loop spiral, blasted through rainforest ranges in 1932.

London → Fort William · 911 km · 12 h 42 min

Caledonian Sleeper · Mk 5 sleeper

The “Deerstalker Express”: fall asleep at Euston, wake up crossing Rannoch Moor with red deer at the window.

New York → Chicago · 1,844 km · ≈ 28 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Amfleet & Viewliner

Amtrak’s slowest way to Chicago and its prettiest: tri-weekly through Virginia horse country and the whitewater canyons of the New River Gorge.

Bangkok → Chiang Mai · 751 km · ≈ 13 h

State Railway of Thailand · CNR sleeper

Thailand’s classic sleeper: dinner past Ayutthaya’s temples, dawn in the teak hills of Lanna.

Vienna → Warsaw · 690 km · ≈ 9 h 30 min

PKP Intercity · ÖBB · PKP sleeper · couchettes

The Chopin sleeper has linked Vienna and Warsaw since at least the 1980s, slipping through the Moravian Gate by night and finishing down Poland’s CMK fast line into the capital before six.

Chicago → New Orleans · 1,500 km · 19 h 30 min

Amtrak · Superliner

Immortalized in Steve Goodman’s 1971 song: overnight down the Mississippi Delta past Memphis, Yazoo City and the Louisiana bayous.

Dhaka → Cox’s Bazar · 551 km · 8 h 20 min

Bangladesh Railway · Hyundai Rotem coaches

Opened 2023 to the world’s longest natural beach: an overnight glide from Dhaka to a seashell-shaped terminus a rickshaw ride from the surf.

New York → New Orleans · 2,216 km · ≈ 30 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Viewliner II

Heir to the 1925 Crescent Limited. Manhattan to the French Quarter past Blue Ridge foothills, midnight Atlanta and a dawn crawl across Lake Pontchartrain.

Lanzhou → Dunhuang · 1,133 km · 12 h 48 min

China Railway · 25T sleeper stock

The branded “Dunhuang” sleeper leaves Lanzhou at 18:00 and follows the Hexi Corridor’s Great Wall forts overnight, arriving near the Mogao caves by dawn.

Mumbai → Kolkata (Howrah) · 1,968 km · 27 h 25 min

Indian Railways · LHB AC rake

An all-AC, near-non-stop “Duronto” linking India’s two biggest cities across the central heartland in about 27 hours.

Johor Bahru → Tumpat · 725 km · ≈ 17 h

KTM Berhad · KTM Class 26 sleeper

Malaysia’s last sleeper: the overnight “Jungle Railway” through rainforest, limestone gorges and sleepy kampungs from Johor Bahru to the Thai border.

Chicago → Seattle · 3,550 km · ≈ 46 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Superliner

Two nights tracing the Great Northern’s empire: skirting Glacier National Park along the Montana Rockies.

Chicago → Portland · 3,609 km · ≈ 46 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Superliner

The Empire Builder’s Portland half: it leaves the Seattle cars at Spokane in the night and follows the Columbia River from Pasco down its gorge to Portland, a section Amtrak brought back in 1981.

Budapest → Bucharest · 874 km · ≈ 16 h

MÁV · CFR · CFR sleepers · couchettes

Retraces the original 1883 Orient Express alignment through Transylvania’s castles and the Carpathian passes.

Prague → Warsaw · 747 km · ≈ 9 h 59 min

ČD · PKP Intercity · Sleeping and couchette cars

Overnight between two capitals: out of Prague past Pardubice and Olomouc, over the border to Katowice, then the fast Central Trunk line into Warsaw by breakfast.

Ulaanbaatar → Erdenet · 390 km · 11 h 25 min

Ulaanbaatar Railway · 2TE116 · sleeper

Overnight sleeper north from the capital to the Soviet-built copper city of Erdenet, branching off the Trans-Mongolian near Darkhan.

Stockholm → Hamburg · 1,150 km · ≈ 13 h

SJ · EuroNight sleeper

Scandinavia’s night-train revival: across the Öresund while you sleep, into Germany by breakfast.

Prague → Zurich · 1,050 km · ≈ 15 h

ČD · SBB · ČD sleeper · couchettes

The Czech–Swiss night link revived in 2023: the Elbe sandstone gorge at dusk, the Rhine plain at dawn, Zurich by breakfast.

Brussels → Prague · 1,200 km · 15 h 30 min

European Sleeper · Refurbished couchette & sleeper cars

Crowdfunded start-up that gave the Low Countries their night train back: via The Hague and Amsterdam to Berlin and the Elbe valley to Prague.

Paris → Berlin · 1,100 km · ≈ 13 h 30 min

European Sleeper · Sleeper · couchettes

The night train that replaced the lost Nightjet: Paris to Berlin via Brussels three times a week since March 2026, the open-access sleeper’s boldest route yet.

Oruro → Villazón · 590 km · ≈ 15 h 30 min

Empresa Ferroviaria Andina (FCA) · Salón & ejecutivo coaches

Tuesdays and Fridays out of Oruro: past Lake Poopó’s salt shores to Uyuni by night, then down the quebradas to the Argentine border at Villazón.

Chicago → Miami · 3,340 km · ≈ 47 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Superliner

Born of a 2024 tunnel-works merger of two classic trains: one seat from Lake Michigan over the Alleghenies to Tampa and Miami, nearly two days aboard.

Jakarta → Malang · 905 km · 12 h 13 min

Kereta Api Indonesia · KAI New Generation executive & luxury coaches

KAI’s flagship sleeper since 1999 leaves Jakarta after dark and skirts Java’s southern volcanoes to reach highland Malang in time for breakfast.

Golmud → Korla · 1,206 km · ~12 h

China Railway · 25G sleeper stock

Opened 2020 across the Altun Shan between Qinghai and Xinjiang: 1,206 km of salt flats, desert and near-total emptiness. One of the loneliest overnight rides on Earth.

Karachi → Islamabad · 1,515 km · ≈ 22 h

Pakistan Railways · AC sleeper rake

Pakistan’s premium flagship since 2015: 22 hours up the Indus valley from Karachi’s sea air to Islamabad’s Margalla foothills, meals and bedding included.

Ankara → Kurtalan · 1,265 km · ≈ 25 h

TCDD Taşımacılık · TCDD sleeper

The third of Turkey’s great eastern sleepers: off the Anatolian plateau to Diyarbakır’s black basalt walls and the Tigris, ending at railhead Kurtalan.

Harbin → Mohe · 1,194 km · 16 h 59 min

China Railway · 25G sleeper stock (K7039/7040)

The “Snow Country Train” heads 17 hours north to China’s northernmost station at Mohe, where −40 °C winters, frost forests and the odd aurora reward the ride.

Bangkok → Hat Yai · 945 km · ≈ 16 h

State Railway of Thailand · CNR sleeper

Thailand’s southern flagship: 945 km down the Kra Isthmus past Hua Hin’s royal station and Surat Thani’s ferry piers, the sleeper gateway to Malaysia.

Hong Kong → Beijing · 2,439 km · 10 h 28 min

China Railway Guangzhou · MTR · Fuxing high-speed sleeper

Fuxing sleeper EMUs leave Kowloon’s skyline at dusk and cross five provinces overnight, rolling into Beijing West before seven in the morning.

New Delhi → Kolkata · 1,447 km · ≈ 17 h

Indian Railways · LHB Rajdhani rake

India’s first Rajdhani (1969): the all-air-conditioned overnight flagship racing the Grand Chord from the capital to Kolkata, dinner and bedrolls at your berth.

Kyiv → Rakhiv · 845 km · ~12 h

Ukrzaliznytsia · Flagship sleeper № 95/96

Ukraine’s flagship sleeper into Hutsul country: dusk in Kyiv, dawn above the Prut gorge at Yaremche, then Vorokhta’s stone viaduct and the Yablunytsia pass down to Rakhiv.

Paris → Lourdes · 830 km · ≈ 10 h 30 min

SNCF Voyageurs · ICN couchettes

The Pyrenean pilgrim night train: out of Austerlitz every evening on the classic line through Poitiers and Dax, waking beneath the mountains at Lourdes.

Paris → Cerbère · 1,000 km · ~12 h 15 min

SNCF Voyageurs · ICN couchettes

Asleep out of Austerlitz, awake on the Côte Vermeille: the sleeper threads Collioure, Port-Vendres and Banyuls to the last stop before Spain.

Paris → Rodez · 640 km · ~10 h 30 min

SNCF Voyageurs · ICN couchettes

The Aveyron sleeper: off the Limoges main line at Brive, then Rocamadour, the Lot valley and Rodez by breakfast, with Albi through-cars on weekends.

Paris → Briançon · 860 km · ≈ 11 h 30 min

SNCF Voyageurs · Corail couchette cars

France’s southern-Alps sleeper: lights out at Austerlitz, blinds up in the Durance valley, arrival under the Vauban walls of France’s highest city.

Paris → Nice · 1,088 km · 12 h 20 min

SNCF Voyageurs · Corail couchette cars

Relaunched in 2021 as heir to the fabled Train Bleu: board at Austerlitz, wake to the red Estérel cliffs and the sea glittering at Saint-Raphaël.

Rome → Palermo · 920 km · 12 h 30 min

Trenitalia · Intercity Notte sleeper

Europe’s last train on a ship: the sleeper is split at Villa San Giovanni and floated across the Strait of Messina before breakfast.

Bucharest → Satu Mare · 684 km · ≈ 14 h

CFR Călători · CFR sleeper

Romania’s classic night loop: asleep through Székely Land and the Maramureș foothills, waking at the far northwestern corner of the country.

Bangkok → Ubon Ratchathani · 575 km · 9 h 35 min

State Railway of Thailand · CNR-built air-con sleeper rake

Thailand’s smartest sleeper: Chinese-built berths glide out of Bangkok at dusk and wake along the Mun River in Ubon Ratchathani, deep in southern Isan.

Bengaluru → Kanniyakumari · 929 km · 18 h 40 min

Indian Railways · WAP-7 express rake

Kerala’s workhorse since 1940: overnight from Bengaluru’s plateau down the palm-and-backwater coast to the subcontinent’s southernmost station at Kanniyakumari.

Ankara → Izmir · 883 km · 13 h

TCDD Taşımacılık · E68000 loco · sleeper & Pullman cars

One of Turkey’s last classic ’Blue Train’ sleepers: 883 km overnight across western Anatolia via Eskişehir while the parallel high-speed line stays years off.

Karachi → Peshawar · 1,732 km · ≈ 32 h

Pakistan Railways · Mail sleeper rake

Rolling since 1920 and named for the pass beyond Peshawar. Pakistan’s grand old mail train, two nights along the Indus, a lounge diner added in 2024.

Kyiv → Warsaw · 780 km · 14 h

Ukrzaliznytsia · UZ sleeping cars

Wartime lifeline to the EU: at the Bug border every carriage is jacked up and its bogies swapped from 1,520 to 1,435 mm gauge while passengers doze.

Saint Petersburg → Labytnangi · 2,482 km · ≈ 52 h

RZD · Skory № 117/118

Fifty-two hours north to the last station on the Gulag-built Dead Road: the Chum–Labytnangi branch opened in 1948 and stops on the Ob, across the water from Salekhard.

New York → Chicago · 1,543 km · ≈ 19 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Viewliner II

Heir to the New York Central’s 1897 Water Level Route: up the Hudson at dusk, along Lake Erie by night, into Chicago with morning coffee.

Boston → Chicago · 1,634 km · ≈ 22 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Viewliner II

The Lake Shore Limited’s Boston cars, split from the New York train at Albany–Rensselaer, cross the Berkshires by Pittsfield and Springfield on the old Boston and Albany; first run in 1975.

Hanoi → Lao Cai · 296 km · 8 h

Vietnam Railways · SP1/SP3 sleeper

Overnight metre-gauge sleeper up the Red River valley to Lào Cai, the mountain gateway to the terraced rice slopes of Sapa.

Sydney → Melbourne · 960 km · ≈ 11 h

NSW TrainLink · XPT (HST derivative)

Australia’s InterCity 125 cousin runs the overnight between its two biggest rivals, cricket ashes optional.

Moscow → Kazan · 793 km · ≈ 11 h 30 min

RZD · Double-deck sleeper № 23/24

Two storeys of berths slip out of Kazansky station at 23:08 and pull in below the Tatar kremlin by breakfast. Russia’s double-deck night-train boom, eastbound.

New Delhi → Mumbai · 1,384 km · ≈ 16 h

Indian Railways · Tejas Rajdhani rake

India’s first Rajdhani: the overnight flagship linking the capital with the financial capital, now in bright Tejas livery.

Kyiv → Mykolaiv · 525 km · 9 h 10 min

Ukrainian Railways · UZ locomotive-hauled coaches

The named train to the Black Sea shipyards, out of Kyiv in the evening and into a station the Russian Empire opened in 1908 at six in the morning. It has run daily right through the war.

Nanning → Hanoi · 396 km · 12 h 25 min

China Railway Nanning · Vietnam Railways · China Railway 25G sleeping cars (T8701/MR2)

Out of Nanning by night through Chongzuo and Pingxiang, over the border at Đồng Đăng, down to Gia Lâm in Hanoi: through since 1955, stopped in 2020, running again from 25 May 2025.

Kyiv → Uzhhorod · 853 km · ~11 h 30 min

Ukrzaliznytsia · UZ sleeper № 29/30

Ukraine’s overnight hop across the Carpathians: asleep through Lviv, awake for the climb past Skole into the 2018 twin-bore Beskyd tunnel, then down the valley to Uzhhorod.

London → Penzance · 491 km · 8 h

Great Western Railway · Class 57 with Mk3 sleepers

Sleeping cars have run west from Paddington since 1877; today’s train hugs Brunel’s storm-lashed Dawlish sea wall to the far tip of Cornwall.

Vienna → Zurich · 780 km · ≈ 9 h

ÖBB · Nightjet sleeper

The founding route of the Nightjet brand: over the Arlberg while you sleep, Alps at both ends.

Hamburg → Vienna · 1,100 km · 13 h

ÖBB · Nightjet new generation

First route to get ÖBB’s new-generation Nightjets in 2023. Mini Cabin pods for solo travellers and 230 km/h sleeper stock.

Munich → Rome · 1,100 km · 13 h 58 min

ÖBB · New-generation Nightjet

Board after dinner in Bavaria, wake to Tuscan hills: mini-cabins and wireless charging on ÖBB’s newest sleepers, crossing the Tauern by night. From Villach south it runs coupled with the Vienna portion as one train into Rome.

Vienna → Rome · 1,180 km · 14 h

ÖBB · ÖBB Nightjet sleepers & couchettes

Board in Vienna after dinner, cross the Carinthian Alps and the Venetian plain by night, and wake rolling into Rome, a sleeper between two imperial capitals. From Villach south it runs coupled with the Munich portion as one train.

Zurich → Amsterdam · 840 km · 11 h 15 min

ÖBB · NS · Nightjet sleeper

Asleep along the Rhine, awake on the IJ: the 2021 revival that re-linked the Alps to the canals, sliding past Cologne’s floodlit cathedral at midnight.

Cairo → Aswan · 879 km · ≈ 13 h

ENR · Watania · Watania sleeping cars

Overnight up the Nile past Luxor’s temples: wake to feluccas and the First Cataract at Aswan.

Montréal → Halifax · 1,346 km · 24 h

VIA Rail · Renaissance

North America’s oldest continuously named train, since 1904: overnight past the Matapédia salmon rivers and Chaleur Bay to the Atlantic.

Oran → Béchar · 675 km · ~8 h 30 min

SNTF · SNTF couchette coaches

Algeria’s Sahara sleeper, revived in December 2024: couchettes leave Oran at nightfall and reach Béchar at the Saoura’s edge by sunrise.

Moscow → Adler · 1,761 km · ~23 h

RZD · Premium № 101/102 (ex-Sochi)

The southern flagship since 1964 (first Ritsa, then Sochi, Premium since 2009): 1,761 km from Kazansky station to the subtropical Black Sea platforms of Adler in 23 hours.

Chișinău → Bucharest · 592 km · 13 h

CFM · CFR Călători · CFM/CFR sleeper coaches

Overnight Friendship sleeper whose coaches are jacked up for a bogie swap at Ungheni. Soviet 1,520 mm broad gauge to European standard.

Tehran → Bandar Abbas · 1,286 km · 20 h

Raja · Iranian Railways (RAI) · Raja long-distance sleeper

One of Iran’s longest single-train rides: ~1,290 km across the central desert past Yazd to the Strait of Hormuz, completed when the Bafq link opened in 1995.

Tehran → Tabriz · 736 km · 12 h

Raja · Iranian Railways (RAI) · Raja sleeper coaches

Iranian leg of the Tehran–Istanbul Trans-Asia Express, whose onward run once floated the whole train across Turkey’s Lake Van on a rail ferry.

Moscow → Saint Petersburg · 650 km · ≈ 8 h

RZD · Krasnaya Strela № 1/2

Departing at 23:55 nightly since 1931 to the strains of ‘Hymn to the Great City’: the crimson Soviet flagship that outlived the state that built it.

Prague → Košice · 700 km · 10 h

RegioJet · RegioJet couchette & sleeper cars

Open-access yellow night train since 2015: cheap couchettes out of Prague, over the Jablunkov Pass and under the dark High Tatras to Košice.

Hanoi → Ho Chi Minh City · 1,726 km · ≈ 33 h

Vietnam Railways · SE sleeper

Two nights along the South China Sea: the Hải Vân Pass clings to cliffs the road never dared.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk → Nogliki · 613 km · ~12 h 50 min

PK Sakhalin (RZD) · TG16M diesel sleeper

Russia’s island sleeper: 613 km up Sakhalin’s east coast to oil-town Nogliki, on a railway begun under Japanese rule that kept its narrow gauge until regauging in 2019.

Helsinki → Rovaniemi · 900 km · ≈ 12 h

VR · Double-deck sleeper

Rolls out of Helsinki by night and crosses into Lapland by morning: sleepers and car carriers bound for the Arctic Circle.

Chennai → Rameswaram · 603 km · 9 h 40 min

Indian Railways (Southern Railway) · ICF sleeper rake behind WAP-4 electric

Heir to the 1914 Boat Mail that fed the Ceylon ferry, it now reaches Rameswaram island over India’s first vertical-lift sea bridge, opened 2025.

Johannesburg → East London · 1,000 km · 20 h

PRASA · PRASA sleeper & sitter coaches

The last affordable long-distance sleeper in South Africa: an overnight economy train across the Free State Highveld and Stormberg to the Indian Ocean at East London.

Johannesburg → Komatipoort · 539 km · 12 h 28 min

Shosholoza Meyl (PRASA) · PRASA sleeper & sitter coaches

The old Delagoa Bay line to the Mozambique border, out through Pretoria and Witbank and down the escarpment past Nelspruit to the lowveld, overnight in a little over twelve hours.

Johannesburg → Musina · 632 km · 10 h

Shosholoza Meyl (PRASA) · PRASA sleeper & sitter coaches

North to the Limpopo overnight, up through Polokwane and the bushveld to Musina, on a line that reached the copper town in 1914 and the river crossing to Zimbabwe in 1927.

Johannesburg → Durban · 724 km · 10 h 30 min

Shosholoza Meyl (PRASA) · PRASA sleeper & sitter coaches

Down the Natal main line overnight: out of Johannesburg at half past eight, over the Drakensberg escarpment in the dark, into Durban and the Indian Ocean at seven.

New York → Miami · 2,235 km · ≈ 28 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Viewliner II

The Seaboard streamliner that opened Florida’s diesel age in 1939: 28 hours from Penn Station to palm-lined Miami, still running nightly.

Stockholm → Åre · 630 km · 9 h

SJ · WL sleeping cars

SJ’s sleeper rolls out of Stockholm at night and wakes among the snow-clad fells of Jämtland at the Åre ski resort.

Stockholm → Berlin · 1,290 km · 16 h 30 min

Snälltåget · Refurbished couchette & sleeping cars

A private summer sleeper down through Sweden, over the Öresund bridge past Copenhagen and across Denmark to Berlin, outlasting the state night trains.

Urumqi → Kashgar · 1,475 km · ≈ 15 h

China Railway Urumqi Group · K/T-series sleepers

All-night sleepers skirt the Tian Shan and the Taklamakan’s rim to Kashgar, the last great Silk Road bazaar before the Pamirs.

Brisbane → Longreach · 1,325 km · ≈ 25 h

Queensland Rail · Loco-hauled sleeper, Tuckerbox diner

Up the coast to Rockhampton, then dead west into Matilda country: sleepers and the Tuckerbox diner, 1,325 km to the stockman’s capital.

Tokyo → Izumo · 953 km · 12 h 8 min

JR West · JR East · 285 series

Japan’s last regular sleeper; the Izumo half splits at Okayama and takes the Hakubi Line gorges to the sacred San’in coast by breakfast.

Kyiv → Kovel · 525 km · 10 h

Ukrainian Railways · UZ sleeping cars

The overnight named train to Volhynia, out of Kyiv at 22:50 and into Kovel at first light, over a junction the Russian Empire built in 1873 and the gateway to the Shatskyi lakes it is named after.

Tashkent → Khiva · 1,120 km · ≈ 14 h

Uzbekistan Railways · UTY night sleeper

Khiva had no railway until 2018: now a sleeper crosses the Kyzylkum desert overnight and draws up beside the mud-walled Itchan Kala at breakfast.

Tehran → Mashhad · 926 km · ≈ 11 h

Islamic Republic of Iran Railways · Fadak five-star sleeper

Iran’s busiest corridor: five-star Fadak sleepers glide 926 km east past desert caravanserai country to Imam Reza’s shrine city of Mashhad.

Tehran → Shiraz · 935 km · 14 h 40 min

Raja Rail Transportation · Raja four-berth sleepers

Completed only in 2009, the overnight run leaves Tehran at dusk and descends at dawn past Marvdasht, the plain of Persepolis, into Shiraz.

Chicago → San Antonio · 2,102 km · ≈ 32 h

Amtrak · Amtrak Superliner

A Missouri Pacific name kept alive from the Loop to the Alamo: with through sleepers to Los Angeles, one of the longest runs on the Amtrak map.

Toronto → Vancouver · 4,466 km · ≈ 4 days

VIA Rail · Budd stainless dome cars

Four nights in 1955 stainless-steel dome cars. Ontario lakeland, prairie infinity, then the Rockies at dawn.

Townsville → Mount Isa · 977 km · ≈ 21 h

Queensland Rail · Loco-hauled outback train

Queensland’s grand old night train since 1953. Coral Sea to Cloncurry’s red plains and the smokestacks of Mount Isa, 977 unhurried kilometres.

Brisbane → Charleville · 777 km · ≈ 17 h

Queensland Rail · Loco-hauled night train

Over the Toowoomba range by night and out across the Darling Downs: twice a week until the wheat gives way to mulga at Charleville.

Ulaanbaatar → Beijing · 1,553 km · ≈ 31 h

UBTZ · CR · K23/K24 international sleeper

The Trans-Mongolian’s Gobi crossing: gers, camels, and a bogie change at the Chinese border, where every coach is jacked up for the narrower gauge.

Moscow → Vladivostok · 9,289 km · ≈ 7 days

RZD · Rossiya № 1/2

The longest railway on Earth: 9,289 km, eight time zones and seven nights between Moscow and the Pacific.

Yaoundé → Ngaoundéré · 622 km · 12 h 10 min

Camrail · Train 191/192 couchette

Cameroon’s nightly lifeline: couchettes climb from Yaoundé’s hills to the Adamawa Plateau, railhead for the country’s wild north.

Viedma → Bariloche · 826 km · ≈ 19 h

Tren Patagónico S.A. · Sleepers, pullman & cinema car

Friday nights out of Viedma: sleeper berths, a dining car and an onboard cinema crawl across the Río Negro steppe to the lakes of Bariloche.

Almaty → Astana · 1,300 km · 16 h 19 min

Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) · Tulpar-Talgo

Kazakh-assembled Talgo sets glide low over the steppe, tracking Lake Balkhash’s western shore all night between the old and new capitals.

Ankara → Tatvan · 1,267 km · 25 h 50 min

TCDD Taşımacılık · TVS2000 sleeper & pullman cars

Ends 1,267 km from Ankara at a ferry slip on Lake Van, where wagons bound for Iran are floated across Turkey’s largest lake.

Bulawayo → Victoria Falls · 472 km · ≈ 13 h

National Railways of Zimbabwe · NRZ loco-hauled coaches

Revived in October 2025: the 1904 line to the Falls leaves Bulawayo at dusk, skirts Hwange’s elephant country and arrives with the spray in sight.

Moscow → Vorkuta · 2,278 km · ~41 h

RZD · Firmenny № 41/42

Two nights up the Stalin-era Pechora mainline to Vorkuta, a coal city beyond the Arctic Circle that no all-year road reaches; train № 41 is its lifeline to Moscow.

Helsinki → Kolari · 989 km · 14 h 30 min

VR · double-deck sleeper

Finland’s northernmost railhead: an overnight car-carrier sleeper above the Arctic Circle to the fells of Ylläs and Levi.

Moscow → Kaliningrad · 1,285 km · ~20 h

RZD · Firmenny № 29/30

Running since 1964, the Yantar threads Moscow to Russia’s Baltic exclave via Minsk and Vilnius, the last corridor where Russian passenger trains still cross the EU.

Yerevan → Tbilisi · 370 km · ≈ 10 h 30 min

South Caucasus Railway · Sleeper № 371/372

An every-other-night time capsule down the Debed gorge past Alaverdi’s copper smelters: extended each summer through to the beaches of Batumi.

Ulaanbaatar → Zamyn-Üüd · 709 km · 14 h

Ulaanbaatar Railway · 2M62 · sleeper

The domestic overnight across the Gobi Desert from Ulaanbaatar to the Chinese-border town of Zamyn-Üüd, halting at Choir and Sainshand.