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Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

back-on-track.eu

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Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#11

Post by oakesm9 »

sinistersnare wrote: post #4

This seems to be a great resource! However, when I looked at prices, seats are quite expensive. Does anyone have any advice for finding cheaper train tickets?

If you're not from any country that the train travels through and you're taking a few trains, then maybe getting an Interrail pass[1] would be an option. You need to pay a bit extra for seat reservations and sleeper trains, but it could work out better in some cases[2].

[1]https://www.interrail.eu/en [2]https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#over...

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#12

Post by lqet »

ggambetta wrote: post #3

I would love to do this more! Trying to replace short flights with trains. I'm taking the Zürich - Venice one in a couple of weeks. But I'm looking for example at Zürich - Amsterdam. 12 hours - 10pm to 10am, perfect. But it has a 2:45am - 3:15am change at Frankfurt, so it's actually a ~5h train followed by a ~7h train at a very inconvenient time. Sure, I'd be in Amsterdam by 10am, but after the equivalent of a terrib…

I am not sure which connection you found - the 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58). NJ 402 has some additional cars attached which run as an InterCity, so it might be possible that no bed is available until Frankfurt, and you have to sit in an IC car until Frankfurt and change into the sleeper there, or vice versa.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#13

Post by martopix »

rob74 wrote: post #7
braymundo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are (the Ukrainian trains). :) I took one recently from Przemysl to Kyiv and back. On time, comfortable, highly recommend.

I guess they are also needed, as flying is not possible (or highly hazardous) at the moment: https://safeairspace.net/ukraine/

Yes, even heads of state who visit Kiev are currently mostly travelling by train afaik

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#14

Post by excieve »

sofixa wrote: post #2

Extremely cool and useful map! Night trains fill an important travel niche in terms of distance/comfort/time/eco-friendliness and can be super practical. Recently I took a night train for the first time since I was a teen instead of a 40 minute flight for the comfort levels and the emissions, and it was surprisingly comfortable. Not a perfect night's sleep (I'm a light sleeper), but perfectly enjoyable. PS: Sadly I d…

Ukrainian Railways are operating even close to the front lines (where physically possible due to destruction). Outside of those the service is pretty much as usual — both sleepers and daytime intercity. Sometimes there are delays if the electric grid gets hit by the missiles, but then they just attach a diesel locomotive to pull the train instead.

International connections work too. My mother recently came to visit it us here. She took an intercity from Przemyśl, Poland on the way here and then a sleeper to Wien, Austria on the way back. Both arrived more or less on time.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#15

Post by kergonath »

martopix wrote: post #9

There is a clear lack of connection toward France and Spain. EDIT: Paris is of course well connected, but southern France and Spain are not. I live in Zurich and it's quite easy to go north, south, and east by train, but going south-west towards Marseille, Toulouse, Barcelona is really inconvenient. And it's not just about Zurich, because doing so from Milan or Frankfurt, I would guess, is the same. However I heard o…

True. One of the issue is the different gauges. This used to be avoided by variable-gauge Talgo cars, and now by high-speed trains (TGV) on standard gauge on the Spanish side. But AFAIK there are no sleeper high-speed trains, and I am not even sure those Talgo are still running (and they also were not sleepers when they did run). So even in the best cases there could be connections but no direct services. Also, there will be only 2 possible routes because of these pesky mountains.

There are several ways to work around that though, and I think this will happen in the reasonably near future.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#16

Post by kmlx »

lqet wrote: post #12
ggambetta wrote: post #3

I would love to do this more! Trying to replace short flights with trains. I'm taking the Zürich - Venice one in a couple of weeks. But I'm looking for example at Zürich - Amsterdam. 12 hours - 10pm to 10am, perfect. But it has a 2:45am - 3:15am change at Frankfurt, so it's actually a ~5h train followed by a ~7h train at a very inconvenient time. Sure, I'd be in Amsterdam by 10am, but after the equivalent of a terrib…

I am not sure which connection you found - the 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58). NJ 402 has some additional cars attached which run as an InterCity, so it might be possible that no bed is available until Frankfurt, and you have to sit in an IC car until Frankfurt and change into the sleeper there, or vice versa.

> 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58)

something seems off.

it takes 12 hours by train from zurich to amsterdam?

it looks like just 8 hours by car.

and the same distance ~800 something kms took me 3h50m Tokyo to Hiroshima with the Hakata shinkansen.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#17

Post by whalesalad »

arethuza wrote: post #8

What is probably my favourite hotel/restaurant which is 15km up a single track road from the nearest village on the edge of the Moor of Rannoch is right next to where the wonderfully named Deerstalker train has a stop - so even though there are like 3 buildings in the middle of nowhere they have a direct train service from London: https://www.seat61.com/deerstalker.htm https://www.moorofrannoch.co.uk/

Very cool, didn't even realize the UK had such large mountains/ranges.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#18

Post by philposting »

I clicked to look at the highres version... and I really don't understand why websites feel the need to put PDFs behind an interface. Every common browser has a perfectly good PDF viewer built-in, in fact it's normally better than anything website-provided.

Am I missing something?

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#19

Post by arethuza »

whalesalad wrote: post #17
arethuza wrote: post #8

What is probably my favourite hotel/restaurant which is 15km up a single track road from the nearest village on the edge of the Moor of Rannoch is right next to where the wonderfully named Deerstalker train has a stop - so even though there are like 3 buildings in the middle of nowhere they have a direct train service from London: https://www.seat61.com/deerstalker.htm https://www.moorofrannoch.co.uk/

Very cool, didn't even realize the UK had such large mountains/ranges.

Well, the mountains aren't very high but they can be quite challenging and rather pretty:

e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAWJnD0Jro

Also for more details:

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/

Also, for the mountain bikers out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#20

Post by lqet »

kmlx wrote: post #16
lqet wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure which connection you found - the 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58). NJ 402 has some additional cars attached which run as an InterCity, so it might be possible that no bed is available until Frankfurt, and you have to sit in an IC car until Frankfurt and change into the sleeper there, or vice versa.

> 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58) something seems off. it takes 12 hours by train from zurich to amsterdam? it looks like just 8 hours by car. and the same distance ~800 something kms took me 3h50m Tokyo to Hiroshima with the Hakata shinkansen.

Night trains typically use slower routes and are parked somewhere during the night to ensure that you have enough time to eat something in the evening, get dressed for bed, sleep 8 hours, get up, get dressed again, and eat breakfast.

8 hours is definitely not enough time for a comfortable night train ride, especially if you travel with children. We took an 11-hour night train from Vienna to Zurich a few months ago with a 3 year old, and we would've been grateful for an additional hour in the morning.

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