The Blue Train

Nobody at the railway chose the name. In the 1920s South African Railways ran two expresses on the main line north from Cape Town, the Union Limited and the Union Express, carrying passengers from the mail ships in Cape Town harbour to the diamond mines of Kimberley and the goldfields of the Witwatersrand. In 1937 they were given steel carriages painted blue, and travellers started calling them the blue train. When the service came back after the Second World War, in 1946, the railway took their word for it: the nickname became the name.

The name has outlasted two new trains, the sets of 1972 and the train relaunched in 1997, and the train has stayed with the state railway. The Blue Train is run by Transnet Freight Rail, the state-owned freight railway, over about 1,600 kilometres of its main line between Pretoria and Cape Town.

The journey takes two nights, across the Highveld, the Great Karoo and the Hex River mountains, with a stop, when the schedule allows, for a tour at Kimberley or Matjiesfontein. Every suite has its own bathroom, and the fare covers the meals, the drinks and a butler for each coach.

The train leaves the Pretoria end at 13:00, after check-in from 10:00 in the departure lounge, and runs south-west across the Highveld towards Kimberley, where the railway from Cape Town arrived in 1885 to serve the diamond fields. On some trips guests leave the train here for the diamond museum and the Big Hole, the mine dug by hand from 1871.

The Karoo

The second day belongs to the Great Karoo: a semi-desert plateau of scrub and distant hills, crossed on the line the Cape Government Railways drove north from 1872. At Matjiesfontein, a railway halt since 1878, James Logan ran the refreshment rooms from 1884, in the years before trains carried dining cars, and built a Victorian village round them. When the schedule and weather allow, the train stops for a tour of the village on a red London double-decker bus and a drink at the Lord Milner.

Down to the Cape

From Touws River the line leaves the Karoo through the Hex River tunnels, four bores and 16.8 kilometres of underground track, the longest tunnel 13.5 km. They opened in 1989 and closed the old rail pass, whose 1 in 40 grades had held the main line back for more than a century. Below lie the vineyards of the Hex River valley, then Worcester and Cape Town, where the train arrives at about 18:00 on the third day. In the other direction the timings are the same.

The train

The coaches carry suites in two sizes, De Luxe and Luxury, each with its own bathroom and a bed that folds out of the daytime seat panel. A butler looks after each coach, round the clock. The dining car seats 42; there is a lounge car, an observation car with panoramic windows, and a wood-panelled Club Car behind the locomotives, the one place on the train where smoking is allowed. Wi-Fi runs off the mobile network and drops out in the remote stretches.

Since 2015 the train's own locomotives have been two electrics painted in its blue, 20-031 and 20-032, from the Class 20E of 95 engines that CSR Zhuzhou began delivering to Transnet in 2013, most of them assembled at Koedoespoort in Pretoria.

The Blue Train runs on set dates, usually three or four a month in each direction: from Pretoria on Mondays and from Cape Town on Thursdays. Both leave at 13:00 and arrive at about 18:00 two days later, after two nights on board. Check-in opens at 10:00. There is no walk-up travel: every seat is a suite booked in advance.

Booking agents give the departure points as Irene station in Centurion, south of Pretoria, and Cape Town station; the operator confirms them with each booking.

Departures, October to December 2026

Booking agents show the departures of 9 and 16 November from Pretoria and 12 and 19 November from Cape Town as cancelled; check those dates before planning around them.

2027

The operator's own 2027 schedule is not yet on its website. Booking agents list departures from 11 January (Pretoria) and 14 January (Cape Town), again on Mondays and Thursdays, with none in June. In 2026 the separate Pretoria–Kruger trip ran once, on 25–27 June.

As of 19 October 2026, from the operator's 2026 schedule and its pre-departure page. Request dates on The Blue Train's booking page (opens in a new tab).

The fare is per person sharing a suite, one way, and covers the suite, every meal, the drinks, the butler and the off-train excursion; only caviar, French Champagne and outside phone calls are extra. There are two suite types, and two seasons: 1 September to 15 November is high season. A single traveller pays 50% more.

Children up to 5 sharing their parents' suite travel free; ages 6 to 11 take their own suite at half the adult fare. Book through the operator's request form, which a reservations agent answers. The operator's 2026 rates, in South African rand, as of October 2026.

No rail pass covers this train. It is a luxury service with its own all-inclusive fares, so every guest books a suite with the operator.

The train's own stop is short, so the places worth a day of their own are at either end and along the Karoo between them.

Two nights are spent on board. To see the Karoo at ground level before or after the trip, Matjiesfontein's Victorian hotel is on the line itself, a stop for the train and a three-hour drive from Cape Town.

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