The new Orient Express La Dolce Vita launched in April 2025, marking the return of a legend. Starting from Rome, the route will reconnect European capitals, evoking a time when rail travel was both elegant and international.
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometres away, engineers in Turkey, Syria and Jordan are working to restore the Hejaz Railway, first opened in 1908 under the Ottoman Empire.
Once linking Damascus to Medina, the Hejaz line was destroyed during the First World War and left in fragments for decades. An agreement signed in September 2025 between the three governments commits them to reviving sections of this historic route.
These two projects, unfolding in different regions yet sharing the same symbolism, show how railways are being reimagined as instruments of cultural and economic renewal.
Heritage on the Move
The new Orient Express project, supported by Accor and Arsenale, aims to merge design heritage with modern sustainability standards.
It’s carriages revive the craftsmanship of mid-century Italian interiors, while new technology reduces energy use and emissions. Guests experience restored 1960s glamour alongside Michelin-level dining.
In the Middle East, the Hejaz revival is more than historical restoration. It is part of a regional vision connecting the Arabian Peninsula’s transport networks from the Red Sea eastward. Jordan’s authorities have already opened short heritage routes for tourists, while Turkey pledges to complete 30 kilometres of missing Syrian track infrastructure.
What unites both efforts is the idea that infrastructure itself can tell a story. Rebuilding old tracks means recovering a sense of direction, both literally and culturally.
Between Luxury and Legacy
Europe’s rail renaissance is tied to sustainability, but it also carries an unmistakable aura of privilege.
The Orient Express’s suites, crystal glassware, and elaborate dining are far removed from daily commuters’ realities. Yet the symbolic power remains. Railways represent continuity: progress that remembers where it came from.
In the Middle East, the contrast is different but no less striking. The Hejaz line once embodied imperial reach; today it signals cooperation and heritage preservation. As high-speed rail projects expand across the Gulf, the revival of this older, slower route suggests that memory, too, can have economic value.
The restoration agreement involves technical cooperation: Turkey drafting plans and helping rebuild Syrian sections, Jordan researching locomotive maintenance.
Studies will also explore improving Turkey’s access to the Red Sea through Jordan’s Port of Aqaba. The project connects not just cities but also agricultural markets, with Jordan expecting its vegetable exports to surpass $700 million annually once land routes reopen.
Reconnecting Regions
The revival of these lines also restores something less tangible: exchange.
Both Europe and the Middle East are rediscovering rail as a diplomatic and cultural bridge. The Orient Express brings visitors eastward along routes that once linked capitals through commerce and curiosity. The Hejaz line, meanwhile, may one day connect pilgrims, scholars, and travellers retracing historic paths across the desert.
Railways were once the engines of empire; now they could become tools of understanding. In that sense, both projects move in the same direction: towards a more connected Mediterranean world.
Looking Ahead
As air travel faces growing environmental criticism, rail offers a quieter kind of modernity. It asks for patience and rewards observation. Both the Orient Express and the Hejaz line remind us that not all progress is about speed; sometimes, it’s about staying on track with history.
Their restoration shows that heritage need not be confined to monuments. It can live in motion, in steel and rhythm, carrying yesterday into tomorrow. If trains once divided continents through conquest, perhaps now they can unite them through continuity.
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