These VSOE services are not to be confused with a regularly scheduled train called the Orient Express, which ran nightly between Paris and Bucharest – in the last years of operation cut back to between Strasbourg and Vienna – until 11 December 2009.

This latter was a normal EuroNight sleeper train and was the lineal descendant of the original Orient Express daily departure from Paris to Vienna and the Balkans.

The classical London – Paris – Milan – Venice (and return) route via the Simplon Tunnel was altered in 1984 to serve Zürich, Innsbruck, and Verona through the Brenner Pass.

Some seasons have also included unique destinations in Switzerland (Lucerne), Germany (Cologne, Berlin, Dresden), Slovakia (Banská Bystrica and the High Tatras), Poland (Warsaw, Malbork, Kraków) and even Scandinavia (Copenhagen, Stockholm).

In June 2023 the Suite class was introduced featuring a similar layout, however with convertible beds (double and twin either) due to the lack of the drawing saloon.

The interior design was done by French artist JR.[8] The carriage was exhibited in April 2024 at the Venice Biennale to provide first impressions[9] and inaugurated in October 2024, however the first public rides with passengers are scheduled only for 2025.

The renovation was made with some technical modifications, to match today's safety and comfort requests, for example the dining cars were fitted with modern kitchens.

On 9 October 2007, the Westfield Group rented the whole train to open its new shopping centre in Derby, departing from the former LNER London King's Cross station.

The film Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One features the VSOE, running to Innsbruck, as the location of the final fight scene.

This overnight luxury train provides journeys through Scotland northbound from Edinburgh and Glasgow with its refitted East Coast Main Line Mark 1 Pullman carriages.

Those cars remained in storage in Australia after the service ceased, and transferred in 2016 to Peru for the Belmond Andean Explorer overnight train from Cusco to the Lake Titicaca and Arequipa.

It has Pullman dining carriages and a bar car with observatory platform, like the Hiram Bingham train, which serves the narrow-gauge line towards Machu Picchu.