Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains • Hacker News Board

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#21

Post by Benjammer » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:18 PM UTC

nicolaslem wrote: post #11

I was disappointed when I checked if it was possible to do Paris-Warsaw by night train. I imagined entering the train at 5pm, eating something, watching a movie and waking up in Paris in the morning. It sounded much better to me than spending an actual day commuting to/from far away airports and waiting in queues. Unfortunately such train does not exist, but neither does the platform that would allow searching and bo…

I did exactly what you describe, about ~12 years ago, traveling Paris --> Florence, and Florence --> Amsterdam. We took a day train back to Paris from Amsterdam.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#22

Post by robin_reala » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:18 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #18

In my limited experience trains are both ridiculously expensive and impossible to find in Europe. Let’s say I want to travel from Stockholm to Hamburg. It will cost an arm and a leg. And it will require a ridiculous amount of layovers (5 IIRC, with bus travel between some trains) if you can a website to actually plan such a route properly. It gets even more ridiculous the farther you travel.

Uh, no? Stockholm to Copenhagen on the X2000 then an overnight train to Hamburg. Not the cheapest, but it’s totally feasible.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#23

Post by danielfoster » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:18 PM UTC

It would be great to see more night trains but having taken several before, I've never really been able to fall asleep. I would love to see technical improvements to reduce rumbling and promote sleep.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#24

Post by Tharkun » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:18 PM UTC

I'll believe it when I see it. Sleeper trains have been on the out for a while now, because they're much cheaper and often much more convenient than high speed rail. Don't want cheap and good to compete with overpriced and profitable, do we now?

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#25

Post by calyth2018 » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:19 PM UTC

z2 wrote: post #2

Overnight trains are wonderful for traveling and saving a night's hotel. I used to take sleeper cars in China for distances that made sense (e.g. board at 9pm, arrive 7am). Some with shorter distances even optimized on sleep so that the train would stop for an hour outside the final station and arrive at a reasonable time in the morning. Unfortunately and similar with Europe, high speed rail has ended many of these s…

That's what I did when I went around northern Europe. Took the Stockholm to Malmo, and then switch to Copenhagen. Unfortunately, I don't think there was sleeper cars.

That train departed late evening, got us there in the daytime. I figured if I'm paying to sleep, I might as well be moving. I only wish that there was bunks on that train.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#26

Post by robin_reala » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:19 PM UTC

danielfoster wrote: post #17

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The 6-person sleeper car is extremely cramped (2 triple bunks) You get what you pay for. There was probably an option of a 4-person compartment (2 double bunks), or perhaps even a first-class option with a two-person compartment. FWIW, I personally have never had a problem sleeping even in the 6-person cars; people are generally respectful of each other. > with the passport checks at border crossings, it's difficul…

There are still occasionally passport checks at EU borders.

Also unfortunately in between Copenhagen and Malmö, although a European ID card is fine as well.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#27

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:19 PM UTC

danielfoster wrote: post #17

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The 6-person sleeper car is extremely cramped (2 triple bunks) You get what you pay for. There was probably an option of a 4-person compartment (2 double bunks), or perhaps even a first-class option with a two-person compartment. FWIW, I personally have never had a problem sleeping even in the 6-person cars; people are generally respectful of each other. > with the passport checks at border crossings, it's difficul…

There are still occasionally passport checks at EU borders.

With the migration crisis, spot checks have been introduced at a few select crossings, but that still leaves plenty of possible train routes within Schengen where the authorities are not concerned about checking for migrants.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#28

Post by keeganjw » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:19 PM UTC

With the addition of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel potentially coming in 2028, it would be much more attractive for people in all the Nordic countries to take an overnight train into central Europe and vice versa. It looks like construction will begin this fall in Denmark.

http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/green-light-74b...

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#29

Post by alehul » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:20 PM UTC

blunte wrote: post #6

kliao wrote: post #4

Good in theory, but implementation was poor the one time I tried it. The 6-person sleeper car is extremely cramped (2 triple bunks), and with the passport checks at border crossings, it's difficult to get a good night's sleep. Personal safety and luggage theft was a concern as well. I canceled my return trip and booked a low cost flight instead. Maybe the extra funding will improve train conditions and process.

If you choose a 6 person sleeper car, you can't really expect much. It's a bit like a hostel - you choose it because it's cheap, not because you expect to get proper rest. To me, the 140EUR would be very much worth a private room, bathroom, and shower. It's travel + hotel, or some decent approximation. If you booked other forms of travel and an overnight hotel, you'd surely spend as much money and more time.

> a private room, bathroom, and shower

What trains have you found that offer this? As an American unaccustomed to such trains, I'd be super interested to try them.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#30

Post by robin_reala » Tue, Apr 02, 2019, 8:21 PM UTC

avolcano wrote: post #12

Excited about this idea. I wanted to do an overnight train in a Europe trip I did last year, but the timing and quality never quite worked out. A lot of the time, trains between cities in western Europe are annoyingly long for a day trip, but slightly _too short_ for overnight trips - almost like an NYC->London red-eye, where you arrive just after you fall asleep. The couple of overnight trains I saw that seemed like…

There’s a coach from Oslo to Malmö. Not sure if it goes on to Copenhagen, but it’s easy enough to walk to the train platform and be at Copenhagen in 40mins.