Named Routes and Services

The incense trade route linked Mediterranean ports with southern Arabia and India by land and sea, carrying frankincense, myrrh and spices; the land trade from South Arabia to the Mediterranean flourished between roughly the third century BC and the second century AD.

Trans-Saharan trade connected North Africa with sub-Saharan West Africa across roughly 2400 kilometers of desert, peaking from the eighth century until the early seventeenth century before the routes were severed by new national boundaries after the 1960s wave of independence.

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, started in 1982, revives the historic Orient Express name using restored vintage carriages between London and Venice, run as a five star leisure event rather than an ordinary scheduled rail service.

Introduced in 1969, the Rajdhani Express connects New Delhi with the capitals or largest cities of Indian states; its name means capital in Sanskrit, and its trains are regularly given higher priority than ordinary Indian Railways services.

The Blue Train traces its origins to the Union Express of 1923 and now runs about 1600 kilometers between Pretoria and Cape Town, offering butler service and en-suite compartments as one of the most luxurious train journeys in the world.

Shanghai Metro Line 1, the first line of the Shanghai Metro, opened its southern section in 1993 and now runs from Fujin Road to Xinzhuang, carrying more than one million riders a day through the city center.

The Delhi Metro Yellow Line, the system's second line, opened in 2004 as its first underground line and now runs 37 stations across 49 kilometers from Samaypur Badli in Delhi to Millennium City Centre Gurugram in Haryana.

The Great Ocean Road, built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated to those killed in the First World War, runs 240 kilometers along the Victorian coast past the Twelve Apostles as the world's largest war memorial.

California State Route 1, established in 1939 and known in parts as the Pacific Coast Highway, runs 656 miles along the California coast from Orange County to Mendocino County, the longest state route in California and the second longest in the United States.