Luxury route
Desert Express
Windhoek → Swakopmund · Namibia
A slow luxury run from the highland capital down the escarpment to the Atlantic, with dune walks as the Namib shifts from gold to coastal fog.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 2119375 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 28 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 7 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: TransNamib — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Desert Express?
The Desert Express runs 356 km from Windhoek to Swakopmund.
How long does the Desert Express take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 19 h for the 356 km. That is an average of 19 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 90 km/h.
Who runs the Desert Express?
TransNamib.
How old is the Desert Express?
The line has been in service since 1998. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
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