Orient Express to stop flights to UK due to Brexit
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The operator of the Orient Express railway route, Belmond, has decided to stop flights to the UK from 2024, which have been made for 41 years. The reason is that after the UK has left the European Union, crossing the British border involves passing through border control, which leads to unpredictable flight delays. Belmond has stated that this represents an unacceptable risk for them, informs The Guardian.
The railway route between Venice and London was launched in 1982 by the American entrepreneur James Sherwood. The route is not the historical “Orient Express”, which was created in Belgium in 1883 and which then appeared in the work of Agatha Christie.
However, James Sherwood bought two carriages from the historic Orient Express from the Belgian Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, and then bought more than three dozen vintage luxury carriages and launched the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (VSOE) service. Passengers on this line traveled from Victoria station in London to the port of Folkestone, where they changed to other cars in which they crossed the English Channel, and on the mainland – to train cars from Calais to Venice. Luxury service and a trip in such cars cost from £3.5 thousand to £10.1 thousand.
Meanwhile, with the advent of the border between the UK and the EU, the waiting time on it for checking passengers’ documents has significantly increased. For example, during the recent Easter holidays, delays reached 14 hours. Belmond notes that the situation could worsen as the UK and the EU prepare to introduce a new system for checking biometric passports, which comes with additional bureaucratic costs. “We want to avoid any possibility of travel disruption for our guests — delays or missing train transfers — and we want to provide the highest level of service, as comfortable as possible,” Belmond said.
The Orient Express, VSOE, is not the only rail service that has been affected by the UK’s exit from the EU. Other casualties include the Eurostar service, which will bring passengers from London to Disneyland Paris, to close in the coming months.
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