There is something uniquely profound about traveling long distances via rail. Unlike the compressed speed of air travel, trains offer a front-row seat to geography unfolding in real time: landscapes transforming with every passing hour, cultures shifting across borders, and languages changing by the station.
The world’s longest passenger train routes are not just feats of engineering and endurance—they are storytelling corridors, stretching long spans across mountains, deserts, cities, and coastlines. We’ve assembled a list of the 15 longest train journeys on the planet, ranked by distance traveled. Each journey is undertaken entirely by rail (train changes allowed, but no other transport modes), and many are epic multi-day odysseys.
Whether you're a railway enthusiast, an adventurer-at-heart, or a curious traveler mapping out your dream itinerary, these routes might just be included in your bucket list. Click through this gallery to read on.