I’ve sat on many a long train journey in the UK, not necessarily due to the distance travelled, more so the speed of travel.
For a long time traversing Russia on the trans-Siberian railway has been on my bucket list. I assumed this to be the longest train journey in the world.
However, recently I read a post titled “The Longest Train Ride in the World“, documenting the longest possible trip when taking connections at stations.
It mentioned:
“The longest single uninterrupted train journey, including transfers, does indeed stretch beyond London and Beijing.”
Living in London I’d never heard of this trip, so I decided to do some digging.
Methodology
In this post I’ve only considered trips where you do not have to connect to other services.
It turns out that the London to Beijing passenger route is a mix of different routes; starting off with the Eurostar, then a train to Russia, and finally for the longest part of the journey, the trans-Siberian route. Thus, it is disqualified from this analysis.
That said, there is a direct freight route from London to Yiwu, China. More on that in next months post.
Analysis
Longest Routes by distance
| Rank (length km) | Origin – Destination | No. of Stops | Distance (km) | Ave Distance between stops (km) | Scheduled running time (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moscow (Russia)-Pyongyang (North Korea) | 157 | 10267 | 65.39 | 206 |
| 2 | Moscow (Russia)-Vladivostok (Russia) | 73 | 9259 | 126.84 | 167 |
| 3 | Moscow (Russia)-Beijing (China) | 33 | 8984 | 272.24 | 145 |
| 4 | Moscow (Russia)-Beijing (China) | 33 | 7826 | 237.15 | 127 |
| 5 | Kislovodsk (Russia)-Tynda (Russia) | 107 | 7734 | 72.28 | 143 |
| 5 | Moscow (Russia)-Neryungri (Russia) | 91 | 6950 | 76.37 | 140 |
| 7 | Guangzhou (China)-Lhasa (China) | 12 | 4980 | 415.00 | 52.1 |
| 10 | Shanghai (China)-Yining (China) | 25 | 4742 | 189.68 | 49.2 |
| 11 | Shenzhen (China)-Urumqi (China) | 21 | 4666 | 222.19 | 49 |
| 12 | Guangzhou (China)-Urumqi (China) | 28 | 4663 | 166.54 | 48 |
| 13 | Changchun (China)-Sanya (China) | 23 | 4647 | 202.04 | 53.3 |
| 14 | Nanning (China)-Urumqi (China) | 31 | 4617 | 148.94 | 59.6 |
| 15 | Harbin (China)-Kunming (China) | 49 | 4574 | 93.35 | 63.3 |
| 16 | Changchun (China)-Urumqi (China) | 33 | 4507 | 136.58 | 56.8 |
| 17 | Toronto (Canada)-Vancouver (Canada) | 66 | 4466 | 67.67 | 92 |
| 18 | Chicago (United States)-Los Angeles (United States) | 40 | 4390 | 109.75 | 65.3 |
| 19 | Shanghai (China)-Lhasa (China) | 12 | 4373 | 364.42 | 46.3 |
| 20 | Urumqi (China)-Fuzhou (China) | 23 | 4334 | 188.43 | 50.2 |
Moscow to Pyongyang, traversing Siberia (and the trans-Siberian railway) is the longest journey at 10,367km and taking 206 hours, or 8.5 days (206/24).
The 6 longest journeys by distance all start or finish in Russia.
Longest Routes by speed
| Origin – Destination | Ave. speed (km/h) |
|---|---|
| Moscow (Russia)-Pyongyang (North Korea) | 49.84 |
| Moscow (Russia)-Vladivostok (Russia) | 55.44 |
| Moscow (Russia)-Beijing (China) | 61.96 |
| Moscow (Russia)-Beijing (China) | 61.62 |
| Kislovodsk (Russia)-Tynda (Russia) | 54.08 |
| Moscow (Russia)-Neryungri (Russia) | 49.64 |
| Guangzhou (China)-Lhasa (China) | 95.59 |
| Shanghai (China)-Yining (China) | 96.38 |
| Shenzhen (China)-Urumqi (China) | 95.22 |
| Guangzhou (China)-Urumqi (China) | 97.15 |
| Changchun (China)-Sanya (China) | 87.19 |
| Nanning (China)-Urumqi (China) | 77.47 |
| Harbin (China)-Kunming (China) | 72.26 |
| Changchun (China)-Urumqi (China) | 79.35 |
| Toronto (Canada)-Vancouver (Canada) | 48.54 |
| Chicago (United States)-Los Angeles (United States) | 67.23 |
| Shanghai (China)-Lhasa (China) | 94.45 |
| Urumqi (China)-Fuzhou (China) | 86.33 |
China holds 12 of top 20 longest routes, though it’s clear China’s railways are leading the way in terms of speed of travel.
The fastest of these is Guangzhou (China)-Urumqi (China) where the average speed is 97.15km/h! If it were not for Chicago (United States)-Los Angeles (United States) (11th fastest at ave speed 67.23 km/h), China would hold the top 12 positions in terms of speed.
If the longest passenger route, Moscow (Russia)-Pyongyang (North Korea) which currently takes 8.5 days at 49.84 km/h, travelled at a similar speed, it could do the journey in a little over 4 days.
Longest Routes by cost
For this, I used the earliest possible date of departure in March 2022 (search performed in December 2021) for each route. Note, the figures you see below are the ones I could obtain. Many ticket fares proved difficult to determine due to translation issues.
Each service offered 3 classes, the average of which you see below. However it is important to note, third class in Russia might not be the same as third class in China, and so on.
| Rank (length km) | Distance (km) | Origin – Destination | Ave cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 9259 | Moscow (Russia)-Vladivostok (Russia) | 998.44 |
| 7 | 4980 | Guangzhou (China)-Lhasa (China) | 145.77 |
| 17 | 4466 | Toronto (Canada)-Vancouver (Canada) | 1,784.00 |
| 18 | 4390 | Chicago (United States)-Los Angeles (United States) | 395.33 |
The prices are quite telling of the journeys. Moscow (Russia)-Vladivostok (Russia) and Toronto (Canada)-Vancouver (Canada) are touted to tourists, perhaps an explanation of the higher prices.
Though the Moscow (Russia)-Vladivostok (Russia) mean average is somewhat skewed — a cheap 3rd class fair can be bought for $387.45 (vs. $1,602.40 for 1st class).
Improvements
Ticket prices are surprisingly hard to come by on many of these routes (a large part down to my lack of Chinese and Russian language skills). Personally, I’d really like to do a more accurate analysis of train ticket prices around the world.
tl;dr
The longest passenger train journeys in the world all start/finish in Russia, the longest of which being Moscow (Russia)-Pyongyang (North Korea) at 10,267 km (or 8.5 days).