Trains are known to be the friendliest, comfortable and relaxing of any form of long-distance travel.

Sputnik, a Russian news agency, news website platform and radio broadcast service, has just named Thong Nhat Railway (The Reunification Express) from Hanoi to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam the number one railway among the best astonishing train routes in the world. 

Sputnik advises travelers that the Reunification Express includes modern air-conditioned sleeping cars that take passengers on a two-day journey from Hanoi to Saigon, Vietnam.

On the list, the Reunification Express is followed by the California Zephyr Superliner, the Baikal–Amur Mainline, a train run by Perurail travels across the high altitude Altiplano, the train between Dorud and Andimeshk in Iran, the Qinghai-Tibet high-speed train, etc.

“The majority of potential travelers today see traveling by train not as a means to an end, but rather as an unusual journey with unconventional tourist attraction,” Sputnik wrote.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc granted approval for the adjustment of the Vietnam railway development strategy until 2020 with vision to 2050 to meet the increasing demand for transportation and enhance connection of big cities across the nation.

From now to 2020, the Ministry of Transport will research the construction of a new high-speed rail route with double-track rail line using standard gauge of 1,435 mm.

Vietnam welcomed some 11.616 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of 2018, a 22.9% increase from the same period last year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) has said in a monthly report.

Of the total, over 9 million came from Asia. Chinese tourists topped the list with 3.8 million, followed by 2.5 million from South Korea, 623,700 from Japan, 527,700 from Taiwan (China), 381,800 from Malaysia, 236,600 from Thailand and 202,800 from Singapore.

Hanoitimes