No need for a plane anymore！Train routes between Iran and Austria to open

▲Iranian Railways (Photo／http://www.iranrail.net/)

By Rita

Traveling between Austria and Central Asia now has a new option besides flying！The Austrian and Iranian governments have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to soon launch train routes between Austria and Iran.

According to an Iranian website (http://realiran.org), Austrian President Heinz Fischer visited Iran on the 7th of this month with a delegation of 240 representatives to actively promote bilateral relations.

“Iran’s railway tourism currently offers eight sightseeing routes on four trains, and we hope to double that number. This mode of travel is very attractive to European tourists,” said Soltanifar, Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism.

This kind of train travel began in October 2014 with a train called “Jewels of Persia,” which carried 65 passengers and 35 crew members on a two-week journey starting from Budapest, Hungary, crossing Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, before finally arriving in Tehran.

The success of last year’s cross-border train journeys has prompted Iran’s tourism authorities to more actively explore other European routes.