A closer look
While normal people were discovering the joy of affordable commercial flights in the 1950s, European railways were desperately trying to keep their aristocratic facade alive. The 1957 modernization of the Simplon-Orient-Express was pitched as a nostalgic return to luxury, but the truth was far more cynical. The passenger manifest was mostly just a grim collection of Cold War spies, paranoid diplomats, and smugglers shuffling between the Iron Curtain. The romanticized luxury corridor was practically bankrolled by international espionage.
