The popular Jewels of Persia route operated by the upmarket UK-based Golden Eagle Luxury Trains will resume its trips to Iran in 2016 following its temporary suspension.
The luxury trips, which began last year, were put on hold when Turkish Railways closed a section of track in August in the east of the country following a series of bombings in the region that targeted trains traveling to and from Iran.
To circumvent the problem, the company has come up with a new, albeit ambitious, alternative: The trains will now run from Moscow to Tehran, covering about 10,000 kilometers and traveling along the fabled Silk Road through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the Persian travel news website Donyaye Safar reported.
However, as Financial Times points out, the unique itinerary is complicated by the fact that, while Iran uses standard gauge railroads, in Russia and much of the former USSR, the tracks are wider apart.
The new trip is only possible because the company sourced a set of compatible bogies in Turkmenistan, on to which the carriages are transferred at the border town of Sarakhs.
According to the company website, the train journey takes travelers from Moscow to Baikonur, Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Ashgabat, Merv, Mashhad, Mahan, Kerman, Yazd, Isfahan and Shiraz before it makes its final stop in Tehran.
The trip costs from £13,595 ($20,820) per person, including 14 nights on board an en suite cabin, a night in a hotel in Moscow and two nights in Tehran.
