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.
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!
