You can now travel from Portugal to Singapore — by train

Reddit user u/htGosSEVe studied train routes to create what they called "the new longest possible train journey in the world." Photo / Reddit

Love a good long train ride? Well, you're in luck because one new journey has become the longest on the planet and will take you from Portugal to Singapore.

Covering more than 18750 kilometres, the 21-day journey involves a number of service changes as it travels from Lagos in Portugal all the way to Singapore.

Just like a student on their Europe gap year, you'll hop on and off trains in cities like Paris, Moscow, Bejing and Bangkok as part of the world's longest train ride.

The title of the longest train ride was only recently earned by the trip after a new 418-kilometre railway line was created between Laos and China, Now, travellers can ride from Mohan station in Yunnan, China to Singapore.

The route was calculated by online rail blogger Mark Smith from seat61.com along with train fans on Reddit.

Costs for various train tickets were estimated to be around $2007.

Before now, a continuous train journey on this route would have ended in Vietnam and only gone on for around 16,898km.

According to Smith, the journey that previously held the title travelled from London to Singapore via Russia's Trans-Siberian Express.

This new journey beats that trip by at least 2000 kilometres. However, one online train aficionado believed it could be made even longer.

Reddit user Shevek99 commented on a thread, writing:"You can make it a bit longer. Instead of starting in Lagos, you can start in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, next to the border with Spain. From there, there is a train to Faro and from there to Lisbon. Is like 20km longer than starting from Lagos".

The impressive length prompted one user on Twitter to draw an amusing parallel between these continent's impressive railway systems compared to the pack of public transport to Wellington airport.

And yet Wellington can’t sort a bus to the airport https://t.co/cK1RDKgryB

— Rachel Thomas (@rachjthomas) December 13, 2021

Currently, some stations in the Portugal-Singapore itinerary are not operating due to Covid-19. Whether they will resume next year remains to be seen.

Curious to dip your toes into the world of train travel? We've rounded up 11 once-in-a-lifetime train journeys for 2022.

Closer to home, we discuss what could be one of New Zealand's most beautiful inner-city train journey and take a ride on the country's gorgeous Coastal Pacific train.