ORIENT EXPRESS:
HISTORY AND MYTH COMBINED
Invent / Reinvent
The history of the Orient-Express is a technical, industrial and artistic saga. Building on this history and its emotional legacy, the company has always sought to find new ways to travel.
1867

1876

1883

1894

1919

1926 – 1929

1934

1977

2016

2020

The Endowment Fund
Remember / Dream
Orient Express has a particularly rich heritage. In addition to the historic cars operated by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) until 1977, it also has many archival documents at its disposal. This remarkable heritage also evokes an intangible dimension made up of landscapes, sounds and scents, literary and film works. Orient Express is therefore not just a train, but a set of representations, images and fantasies that have shaped its history and broadened its heritage.
Preserve / Promote
In 2017, SNCF and Accor created the Orient Express Heritage Endowment Fund. This represents a commitment to preserving, enhancing and sharing this unique heritage, ensuring the promotion of a cultural institution that has become universally known. The general-interest organisation aims to maintain constant dialogue between past and present, particularly by supporting artistic and documentary creations through collaborations and commissions involving photographers in particular.