The Orient Express is the name of a long-distance passenger train service operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most prominently associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Istanbul, the endpoints of the timetabled service.
After World War Two service was resumed as early as 1949, as a way of generating revenue for both a cash-strapped France as well as Yugoslavia. By 1963 however the last pre-war Steam train was taken out of service, and normal high-speed rail was put into use instead. Things continued as such up until the mid 1980s, when the Company, now a named subsidiary of the SNCF, announced that, 'in light of continued high demand and the historical significance of the route' the slower luxury train service would resume as a way of enhancing the travel experience, and as a form of holiday experience all it's own, with two trains a week.
Even the political collapse of Yugoslavia did not deter the Orient Express as even before the deployment of the LoN peacekeeping contingent the separatist governments depended on the revenue generated by the train, even if it only ran through their countries with only the most minimal of stops.
By 1997, the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, in co-operation with British Rail and the Agatha Christie Estate, re-introduced a monthly steam-powered Orient Express running on 'the relevant parts of the route', i.e. between Sofia and Venice.