| From 1883, the Orient Express operated between Paris and Istanbul in three nights and three times per week in each direction. The Orient Express deployed the first sleeping and dining cars for long-distance train travel in Europe. Prior to World War I, CIWL held a monopoly being in Europe the only group catering to the needs of the international railroad traveller. The company introduced famous services, such as the Orient-Express, the Nord Express, and the Sud Express and expanded to markets outside Europe with involvement in the Transsibérien across Russia. After WWII CIWL started to focus more on the travel agency and management business. Accordingly it was renamed Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et du Tourisme (CIWLT) in 1967, and later just called Wagons-Lits. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot had a mystery to solve on the Orient Express in Murder on the Orient Express. |