22nd Tourist Train to Enter Iran in Oct.

Over the past three years, 21 tourist trains have brought foreigners to the country and a 22nd one will enter the country in October.

“These tourist trains transfer an average 80 passengers daily from different locations across the world, especially Europe, to Iran,” Ali Kazemi-Manesh, director for planning and monitoring rail services, said.

Given the popularity of tourist trains across the world, Iran’s national railroads company is endeavoring to catch up with other countries. Recently, the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways embarked on several new projects to expand tourist trains across Iran in cooperation with a private tourist company, IRNA reported.

In September, a train named “1001 Nights” started operations and carried travelers from Algeria, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Australia, Britain, India, France, Belgium, Austria and Russia through Yazd, Isfahan, Fars and Tehran over a week.

Kazemi-Manesh added that since the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2017), all these trains entered Iran through Sarakhs border city in North Khorasan Province.

A tourist train is not intended as a practical means of transportation, but as a museum-style attraction to see, as an activity to do, or a means of employing historical dining or sleeper train cars to eat or sleep for novelty or entertainment purposes.