Belmond's Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Grand Suites could be the most luxurious train suites on Earth

For decades the name Venice Simplon-Orient-Express has been the very epitome of all that is luxurious and sophisticated and glamorous in the world of luxury train travel. And yet there has always been one little niggle – the absence of en-suite facilities.

Not for much longer.

Belmond, the company that operates the train, today announced the introduction, from March 2018, of three super spacious Grand Suites, which will include private bathrooms with showers, as well as double beds and a sizeable living area.

The new suites – named Paris, Venice and Istanbul, after the three cities most associated with the train – will be in keeping with the general Art Deco motif of the original Orient Express and will include flourishes such as hand-carved timer, embossed leather, embroided pillows, Venetian-style glass lamps, and chic furnishings redolent of the grand architecture of the French capital.

They will afford passengers more room in which to relax; more choices about where and when to dine; free-flowing champagne at all times and – oh joy of joys – the option to freshen up properly in a bathroom of your own.

"Finally!" said Simon Pielow of the Luxury Train Club, which offers top-end train journeys all over the world. "This is a very welcome development."

The introduction of suites with bathrooms and living rooms will place the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express on a par with most of the trains at the very top of the market worldwise, such as the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian service, the newly-launched Train Suite Shiki-Shima in Japan, and the Al Andalus in Spain.