These days, it’s not just reality-TV contestants who go on a long personal journey.

Increasingly, travellers are being seduced by the slow, civilised and environ-mentally friendly appeal of train travel, and choosing holidays where getting there is seen not as a necessary evil, but as an enjoyable part of the experience.

It’s being heralded as a new golden age of rail – and, as a result, a slew of new carriages is appearing across the globe, of which the most eagerly anticipated has been the Danube Express.

Touted by its owners as the luxury train of the 21st century, it wends a route through 19 cities, from bureaucratic Brussels to bustling Istanbul, with branch lines into Poland, Bulgaria and beyond.

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It’s the first five-star hotel on wheels to be launched in central Europe for almost 30 years, and interest has been ignited because it is brazenly claiming to outswank one of the most iconic names in travel – the Orient Express. I joined the inaugural two-day trip from Berlin to Budapest to see how this modern electric locomotive shapes up compared to the originalgrande dame.

On paper, it looked promising. The Danube Express has 15 brand-new, hand-built deluxe bedrooms, which cost £115,000 each, so this should add up to some serious wow factor. My first impression on entering my wood-panelled deluxe, however, was that I had walked into a home-furnishings catalogue. It was lamely retro and worryingly brown, all a bit deliberately middle-of-the-road.

When a night costs upwards of £1,500, you’d expect more bang for your buck: ideally, a fairy-dusting of the delicate marquetry and loving detail that typifies its rival, or at least some wall-mounted Hungarian porcelain to provide a sense of place, and perhaps a scatter cushion or two to soften the austerity and help to justify the claim that the train offers “the finest European rail accommodation available”.

Instead, the Danube’s top cabins are reliant on three important, if rather prosaic, factors: they are about 2½ times bigger than the average European sleeper, they have air conditioning and they all contain ensuite showers. Given that the target market is the over-60s, modern amenities are certainly a consideration, and in this regard the Danube leaves the competition lagging.

Many passengers on the Orient Express get a rude awakening when they realise that they must share a lavatory at a stumble’s distance down the corridor, and that there are no showers at all. In other words, no chance for decent ablutions before changing into black ties and ball gowns. Such indignities are compounded by cramped quarters – some guests stand in the corridor so their companion can change without impaling themselves on the reading light – but in return you are assured the sense of occasion provided by the sumptuous surroundings.

Fortunately, some carriages on the Danube Express offer a taste of rail’s romantic past – and they’re much cheaper. MAV Nosztalgia, a subsidiary of Hungarian National Railways, has provided some of its 1950s carriages for the new train. They were commissioned for the country’s former Communist president Janos Kadar, who was frightened of flying, and when not in service, they chug back to Budapest’s Railway Heritage Park to form a popular exhibit.

These classic cars are cramped, and have no ensuites – many don’t even have air con – but their vintage ruby-red decor is gorgeous and they’ve got bags of character, with the evocative scent of coal infusing the corridors (this section is heated the old-fashioned way). I preferred them, especially the president’s suite, with its corn-coloured velvets and bashed copper fixtures, as well as the train’s only double bed. A word of warning, though: while the new cabins are double-glazed, the Communist classics offer a raucous, percussive night’s “sleep”. The same can be said about the noise on the Orient Express.

The billets may not prove too much of a consideration, however, as most passengers will spend their days on sightseeing excursions (we walked around baroque Dresden and Slovakia’s quirky second city, Kosice) or in the bar car, where Apollo, a Father Ted lookalike with Sid James tendencies, expertly tickles the ivories, while the melancholy, moustachioed Attila (it’s a popular name in Hungary) serves the drinks. This is a convivial place and, although it and the dining car were built in the 1980s, there’s an inviting, nostalgic glow to the interiors.

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