End of the line for luxe Orient-Express name, or is it?
Orient-Express, the name long associated with the ultimate train excursion, is about to expire. Starting March 10, the rail empire that has grown to include hotels, beach resorts, restaurants and river cruises will go by the name Belmond.
Say what? The Orient-Express website still says: “There’s often more to a name than meets the eye. We’re fortunate that ours has symbolised the world’s most romantic railway journey for over a century.”
But apparently that century-old cachet has ended. The company in its statement Monday says scrapping the train-centric name may provide a financial boost:
“Extending our global brand presence by having a name that will be associated as much with our hotels and river cruises as with our celebrated train experiences is a key step in our focus of generating enhanced revenue,” said John M. Scott, president and chief executive.
The only Orient-Express property in the West is El Encanto in Santa Barbara, which opened last year after a refurbishment. It owns just three other U.S. sites: the 21 club in New York City, the Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels, Md., and Charleston Place Hotel in South Carolina.
The service that began in 1883 quickly came to symbolize the most amazing and posh rail journey in history. Travelers real and fictional boarded it from Paris to Istanbul, most famously the characters in Agatha Christie’s 1934 mystery novel “Murder on the Orient Express.” The original service ended in 1977, returned briefly but again ended in 2009.
The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, operated by Orient-Express/Belmond, still runs luxury rail cars on limited routes in Europe. However, London’s Daily Mail reported last month that another Orient Express is about to hit the tracks in April, one operated by France’s SNCF trains, and it will be accompanied by its own brand of luggage too.
So maybe the name will live on -- for a while.
Mary.Forgione@latimes.com
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