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As a follow-up to this answer which states that the “Z” trains from Beijing to Hong Kong and which take 24 hours are actually non-stop services (permitting immigration formalities to take place in Beijing), I wonder if there are any longer non-stop train services?

“Non-stop” here means actually no stops where you can get on or off the train, not just “direct”. Trains may have additional stops before or after the longest non-stop part of the journey.

"Longest" here means by time.

They should be scheduled passenger services.

If there are no longer such services, what's the next longest after this one?

jcaron
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3 Answers3

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Given the vast distances and sparse population, you'd expect Australia to have some solid contenders, but somewhat surprisingly I can't find any legs over 24h -- partly because the trains cater to tourists and make stops at metropolises like Cook, SA (population 4) to break up the monotony a bit. Without this, Kalgoorlie to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific would clock in at 27.5 hours (dep 01:20 Mon, arr 07:20 Tue, -2.5 hrs time difference going from WA to SA).

But assuming we do count all stops, the longest distance between stops in Australia appears to be on the same line in the other direction: the weekly train departing Adelaide, SA on Thursdays at 21:40 arrives in Rawlinna, WA at 18:55 Fridays, for a non-stop travel time of 22 hrs 45 mins (including 2.5 hr time difference, now in the other direction). Schedules here: https://www.seat61.com/Australia.htm

lambshaanxy
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I do not recall the exact travel time but it was something like the Beijing/Hong Kong route so I'm throwing this out in the hopes others have more information.

The route was Harare, Zimbabwe to Johannesburg, South Africa. International route, formalities were taken care of at the start and end so there were no stops on the way. This doesn't seem that long a route but at the time (1982) the only working rails were via Botswana.

Loren Pechtel
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Any contenders for the title in Europe? I was surprised to discover one of Snälltåget's trains here in Sweden has an 8:30 segment between Östersund (dep 18:35) and Norrköping (dep 3:05) on a night train from the Åre ski resort down to Malmö.

Colin 't Hart
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