RAIL enthusiasts with a sense of adventure and 23 days to spare will be able to travel by train from London to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, when a new link opens later this year.The 7,000-mile Trans-Asia railway will follow one of the old Silk Roads through Istanbul, Tehran, Lahore and Delhi.It is already being described by train buffs as "the world's greatest railway journey" and will be longer than the Trans-Siberian railway, which spans 5,772 miles.Under a United Nations-sponsored scheme, Pakistan and Iran will link up their lines in the coming months to join the sub-continent's track to that of Europe for the first time.The UN said the link would open up new trade routes within Asia and give the former Soviet republics of central Asia rail access to Iran's strategic sea port at Bandar Abbas on the Gulf.The route was extended when the Calcutta to Dhaka line reopened earlier this month, more than 40 years after it was blocked during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965.
RAIL enthusiasts with a sense of adventure and 23 days to spare will be able to travel by train from London to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, when a new link opens later this year.
The 7,000-mile Trans-Asia railway will follow one of the old Silk Roads through Istanbul, Tehran, Lahore and Delhi.
It is already being described by train buffs as "the world's greatest railway journey" and will be longer than the Trans-Siberian railway, which spans 5,772 miles.
Under a United Nations-sponsored scheme, Pakistan and Iran will link up their lines in the coming months to join the sub-continent's track to that of Europe for the first time.
The UN said the link would open up new trade routes within Asia and give the former Soviet republics of central Asia rail access to Iran's strategic sea port at Bandar Abbas on the Gulf.
The route was extended when the Calcutta to Dhaka line reopened earlier this month, more than 40 years after it was blocked during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965.
