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

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21–30 of 135 posts

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

#21

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?

Looks like they are using nextcloud and just uploaded the file there instead of providing a direct download link. Probably just out of convenience.

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

#22

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?

Expensive is very relative. I'm taking the ÖBB NightJet in April from Utrecht Centraal to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof, taking a private cabin with two beds (my partner and me). It costs almost €400 for the two of us, one-way, but a sleeper train does a number of things that significantly benefit your journey:

* You arrive early in the morning, (somewhat) well-rested, and have the whole day ahead of you for further travel or activities — essentially this means you save on accommodation (hotels in Austria and Italy cost upward of €80 a night per room, €120 and up if you want something actually nice).

* Breakfast included (nothing fancy, but hey).

* Travel in a sleeper train doesn't fatigue you like the equivalent day time trip of almost 9 hours would.

* Day time travel by train costs at least €140, per person, in any case. The extra €50 or so is more than worth it.

* Flying is not only environmentally burdensome, it is also (for this trip) a lot more expensive, and airports in Europe suffered from a lot of problems last year with missing luggage and queues in excess of 4 hours — want to bet that this year these issues will all be solved?

And of course: cheaper is possible, even in the same train. Still young and on a budget? Grab a bunk bed in shared cabin or a sleeper chair. The latter is a non-starter for me with my 200cm, but then again I am gainfully employed and can afford to book a private cabin.

One additional benefit for couples in private sleeper cabins:

* Sex on a train. Can recommend.

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

#23
post #5

Are these all proper sleeper trains? I took the one that goes from Gdańsk to Kołobrzeg in Poland many years ago (with a bunch of friends) going to a "copy party"(yes before the Internet we had parties for copying software in person, eventually they turned into demoscene events). We spent the entire night drinking beer and smoking weed, but this was in a normal 8 seat compartment. I don't remember if there were sleepe…

I don’t think there’s a sleeper train between Gdańsk and Kołobrzeg. It’s too short a journey, and it’s not on the way to anything. AFAIK, the sleeper trains start from Gdańsk (or actually, Gdynia Główna, which is not far away), and then head south to Warzawa, Kraków, Wrocław, etc.

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

#25
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ukrzaliznytsia (https://www.uz.gov.ua/en/) are heroes. There is a nice piece on the NYT about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/world/europe/ukraine-war-...

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

#26
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 trains are still working fabulously, and are putting most of the rest of Europe to shame.

They’re cheap, reliable, and comfortable. Even in a war.

The only frustrating thing is they don’t seem to be doing first class cabins going across the border into Poland anymore (because of the war), and taking a first class cabin across Ukraine to Lviv and then another connection across the border is not particularly convenient.

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

#27

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?

What route did you planned to book ? During my studies I used night trains in France every month or so to visit my family to save time and because it was not much more expensive than daily train.

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

#28
post #20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 wi…

It's not lost time either. The whole point of a sleeper train is that you get in, sleep a decent night's sleep, wake up, and move on. Ideally you board around 21:00 and get off around 7:30. The extra space in the train's timetable is also helpful in keeping the train on-time if delays occur en-route.

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

#29
post #5

Are these all proper sleeper trains? I took the one that goes from Gdańsk to Kołobrzeg in Poland many years ago (with a bunch of friends) going to a "copy party"(yes before the Internet we had parties for copying software in person, eventually they turned into demoscene events). We spent the entire night drinking beer and smoking weed, but this was in a normal 8 seat compartment. I don't remember if there were sleepe…

Not really. While it looks good on paper, booking some of these is quite a pain. I loved travelling by train as a kid, and would love to do it now, but when you compare the offers, it's quite bad. A flight is 1:15 between 2 places of interest for me. The train routes on this map exist (used it twice), but part of it is at night but only has normal compartments. Whole train journey is 15:34 (compared to 1:15 flight), with a sleeper cart only on the last 6 hours (and that is actually at 10 am in the morning, the first part, from midnight until 10am is the normal train). Not only that, but you can't buy only one ticket, you need a ticket for the first train from one operator and another ticket from the second operator.

Once we get a more unified european system that properly covers also medium size cities and not just connections between major hubs and capitals, I think more people would switch to trains.

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

#30
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…

One cause is that France is rather obstinate when it comes to sleeper trains passing through, but not stopping in, France. A direct line from the Netherlands and Belgium to Spain (e.g., Barcelona) would be viable and possible on standard gauge, but it wouldn't make sense to stop in Paris at 2:00 in the night or so. SNCF and the relevant French agencies insist on trains serving France as well.

Maybe some company will manage with a perfunctory stop in Perpignan?

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