Design
large extent, these difficulties can be resolved by planning: D’Angeac talks of drawing intricate plans of each suite, as well as intensive discussions with builders and craftsmen. For his part, Billgren emphasises the importance of designing efficiently. “The original design and planning of the carriage interior was meticulously thought out with the reality of a moving train in mind,” he says, as The Vietage whisks past the jungles and rice paddies of central Vietnam. That’s true, he continues, in terms of where food and drink are prepared, how passengers access seating areas, even where the on-board spa is located.
On a journey
The restored Orient Express bar carriage honours and captures the elegance of the 1930s original.
The percentage of travellers that say they’ll consider rail travel for their next trip.
81%
The percentage of travellers that say they’ll take the train instead of fl ying. 2022 Travel Trend Report
32% 50
D’Angeac and perhaps a better adjective would be ‘exhausting’. For as the designer explains, reviving these once-lost carriages, rediscovered by chance at a Polish railyard, took “hours and hours” of work. Understand D’Angeac’s design process and this makes sense. Deeply reliant on 19th-century catalogues, encompassing everything from lampshades to bed frames, his team made a monumental effort to craft every specific piece with history at its heart. “My fantasy was to rethink, redraw and reconceive,” D’Angeac explains. “We were really attached to the history – to the memory – of the Orient Express.” The Accor project isn’t alone here.
Over at Belmond, for example, Franklin notes that the landscapes the Venice-Simplon Orient Express wends through inform how interiors are designed. Inspired by the snowy peaks of the Alps, white is one recurring colour in some guest cabins. Forest green and lake blue make appearances too.
There are obviously challenges here. Unlike physical hotels – which if they can’t spread outwards can normally at least go up – their rolling cousins are constrained by the bijou scale of railway carriages. To a
Understandably for a mode of transport predicated on green credentials, luxury train designers are also deeply conscious of the sustainability aspect of their jobs. For D’Angeac, that’s true even of the simple things. Though he concedes that beef is still clearly going to be eaten in the elegant dining car of the new Orient Express, he equally notes that 80% of the leather was removed from the upholstery. D’Angeac stresses this spirit of compromise elsewhere too. Though Orient Express cabins will certainly be equipped with showers, he says that a lack of on-board water means that guests shouldn’t expect to indulge for as long as they would in a brick-and-mortar hotel room. Franklin makes similar concessions. Across the range of Belmond trains – including the Venice- Simplon Orient Express, but also luxury voyages in places as far afield as Peru and Scotland – chefs are careful to cook with sustainable, locally sourced ingredients, and be mindful of supplies. With attention to detail like that, it’s no wonder that insiders expect luxury train travel to go from strength to strength. “We can see in the news that more and more luxury train travel options are happening throughout the world, and the demand for this more experiential style of travel is growing exponentially,” is how Billgren puts it.
“I think we will continue to see this trend in the industry for many years to come.” Franklin concurs. “I think that there will be growth of rail travel across the whole globe,” he says. Certainly, Belmond’s long experience of dovetailing travel and hospitality makes the company well-placed to take advantage. It’s surely no accident, indeed, that the Eastern and Oriental Express, a Belmond sleeper running from Bangkok to Singapore, will restart next year after a Covid-imposed hiatus. Nor are railways necessarily the only mode of travelling hotel enjoying a boost. D’Angeac, for his part, is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Orient Express Silenseas, a luxury sailing ship launching in 2026. All the while, he tinkers away at those ancient carriages, readying them for the second leg of their century-long voyage. ●
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
Orient Express
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
