From the Coral Sea coast to the Andes… with Belmond luxury coaches

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PERU RAIL, owned by British luxury tour operator Belmond, will introduce a new service on the standard-gauge Cusco to Puno route, with trains also operating between Puno and Arequipa.

Peru Rail Canadian-built MLW DL560 loco 653, with the daytime Cusco to Puno train, is seen at La Raya (the highest point on the line at 4,319 metres above sea level) on October 26, 2016. The service will end operation on April 27. D.LANGHAM

For this service Belmond has bought sleeping coaches formerly used in Queensland, Australia and moved them to Peru.

The coaches were built by Queensland Railways (QR) in the late-1990s for use operating the Great South Pacific Express (GSPE) luxury train between Cairns and Sydney in
co-operation with British operator VSOE (now Belmond).

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The service started in 1999, but ended in 2003 as it didn’t make money. Since then the coaches have been stored in Australia, but were moved to Peru from February 2016 onwards.

The previous daytime Cusco to Puno ‘Andean Explorer’ train will cease operation in late April when the new luxury service, also called ‘Andean Explorer’, starts in May 2017.

Read more World News in February’s issue of The RM – out now!

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