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As a follow-up to this answer which states that the “Z” trains from Beijing to Hong Kong and which take 24 hours are actually non-stop services (permitting immigration formalities to take place in Beijing), I wonder if there are any longer non-stop train services?

“Non-stop” here means actually no stops where you can get on or off the train, not just “direct”. Trains may have additional stops before or after the longest non-stop part of the journey.

"Longest" here means by time.

They should be scheduled passenger services.

If there are no longer such services, what's the next longest after this one?

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    Perhaps you should clarify if you by 'longest' mean time or distance, but I am pretty confident that the Beijing to Hong Kong train wins in both categories. There is a list of the world's longest non-stop train services on Wikipedia, but it is likely outdated: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 13:09
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    Most places on earth, even Siberia, is so 'densely' populated that it rarely makes sense to drive a passenger train for 24 hours without stop. From the resources I find on the net, not even the Beijing to Hong Kong train is completely non-stop. From Beijing, the train consists of two sections, one going to Guangzhou, the other to Hong Kong. The train stops several times on the way, but only the Guangzhou section is open for (dis)embarkation. The other section is locked at the underway stops, as customs and immigration controls are only conducted in Beijing and Hong Kong.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 17:29
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    @jcaron Having travelled on a Moskva-train (train number 2) on the Transsib a couple of years ago: the do stop fairly regularly and there was typically at least one longer stop a day.
    – Jan
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 18:05
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    @JuanCa That is very unlikely. The Trans-Siberian railway is stopping relatively oft. The longest segment without a stop is appr. 5 hours between Mariinsk and Krasnoyarsk. Even in Western Europe, you can find trains with longer travel time between stops.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 18:29
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    The train mentioned in the question DOES stop en-route. It makes at least 4 stops (including one where additional carriages are added), however passengers that boarded in Beijing are NOT allowed to disembark as they have already cleared immigration in Beijing.
    – Doc
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 21:44

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Given the vast distances and sparse population, you'd expect Australia to have some solid contenders, but somewhat surprisingly I can't find any legs over 24h -- partly because the trains cater to tourists and make stops at metropolises like Cook, WA (population 4) to break up the monotony a bit. Without this, Kalgoorlie to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific would clock in at 27.5 hours (dep 01:20 Mon, arr 07:20 Tue, -2.5 hrs time difference going from WA to SA).

But assuming we do count all stops, the longest distance between stops in Australia appears to be on the same line in the other direction: the weekly train departing Adelaide, SA on Thursdays at 21:40 arrives in Rawlinna, WA at 18:55 Fridays, for a non-stop travel time of 22 hrs 45 mins (including 2.5 hr time difference, now in the other direction). Schedules here: https://www.seat61.com/Australia.htm

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+500

I do not recall the exact travel time but it was something like the Beijing/Hong Kong route so I'm throwing this out in the hopes others have more information.

The route was Harare, Zimbabwe to Johannesburg, South Africa. International route, formalities were taken care of at the start and end so there were no stops on the way. This doesn't seem that long a route but at the time (1982) the only working rails were via Botswana.

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    A Google Books snippet of a 1993 Lonely Planet says: "The southbound train leaves Harare at 7 am and arrives in Johannesburg at 7.45 am", implying a scheduled travel time of 23:15. books.google.com.sg/…
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Sep 13, 2021 at 4:54
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    @lambshaanxy Wow, they still hadn't fixed the rails after another 11 years?! I do feel like it was early in the day but I have no memory of the schedule, just a feeling that it was about a day long. At least now they are both GMT +2 so that should be 24:45, not 23:15.
    – Loren Pechtel
    Commented Sep 14, 2021 at 2:40
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Any contenders for the title in Europe? I was surprised to discover one of Snälltåget's trains here in Sweden has an 8:30 segment between Östersund (dep 18:35) and Norrköping (dep 3:05) on a night train from the Åre ski resort down to Malmö.

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