The world-famous Orient Express train service will no longer travel through Kent, with bosses citing border delays as a major factor.

Starting in London, the traditional route would bring a British Pullman service to Folkestone before passengers disembarked to cross the Channel via ferry.

Now those seeking to sample the grandeur of the historic journey will have to make their way to Paris to join the train.

Belmond, the company that operates the modern-day Orient Express, has blamed having to “adjust operations” next year on the extra border checks set to be introduced following Brexit.

A Belmond spokesman said: “We’re adjusting operations in 2024 ahead of enhanced passport and border controls. We want to avoid any risk of travel disruption for our guests – delays and missing train connections – and provide the highest level of service, as seamless and relaxed as possible.”

Over Easter, delays led to travellers, including coaches full of schoolchildren, waiting up to 19 hours in Dover.

Belmond says this represents an unacceptable risk to the prompt delivery of their service.

In addition the luxury travel firm, which operates seven tourist trains, fears that the new biometric passport checks being agreed by the UK and EU will make the situation worse.

The measure, which is intended to speed up the process, has been met with scepticism in the tourism industry amid concerns introducing technology may cause further delays in practice.

First running through Kent from 1930, the Orient Express has made the London-Folkestone leg of its journey for more than a third of its history.

The journey, which inspired the Agatha Christie novel Murder on the Orient Express, was revived in 1982 as the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express after James Sherwood bought some 1929 sleeping cars at auction and began running the service from London.

Another popular railway route set to be lost from the county, following the ongoing closure of Eurostar journeys from Ashford International, is Eurostar’s service from St Pancras to Disneyland Paris which will come to an end this summer.

Tom Jenkins, chief executive of the European tourism association, said: “People are starting to drop the UK as a gateway to a European tour.

“It’s not the only factor, but previously we had been the principal arrival point for people coming to Europe from America, from Japan, and anywhere else.

“It was made perfectly clear in 2018 that a hard Brexit would mean UK citizens would have to have their passports checked. This is really Brexit biting everyone on the backside.”