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Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

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Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#31

Post by Xylakant »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #20
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 second the recommendation of Bahn.de. For like two decades now it has provided a way to search train schedules across Europe when the national rail companies didn’t bother to provide their own accessible interface.

While you can generally search trips, last time I checked you couldn’t book anything that doesn’t either start or end in Germany.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#32

Post by reaperducer »

blunte wrote: post #10
reaperducer wrote: post #5

I'm not sure about "revive," since sleeper trains have been coming back in Europe for years. There was a Wall Street Journal article about it recently. Sorry the link is Apple News, but that's where I bookmarked it from: https://apple.news/AdFPGWf-GTmOabJK30Za0ZQ

Too bad I can't read WSJ, so I can't verify what they're saying. However, I haven't had much luck finding overnight trains here. It used to be that many existed and were popular, but they started disappearing and now few routes still have overnight options.

If this helps...

"In Europe alone, several new affordable options have materialized too, running more utilitarian services (no guided excursions, just overnight schedules). In 2017, the United Kingdom’s Great Western Railway (GWR) relaunched the Night Riviera, traveling between London and Cornwall, one of England’s sunniest corners. Also in 2017, Italy’s Trenitalia-owned Thello debuted new sleeper cars with en suite showers on their Paris to Venice route. And in June 2019, Scotland’s Caledonian Sleeper will debut highly anticipated new cars with routes from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh and Highlander routes to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William with en suite showers, double beds and plenty of whiskeys in the bar car."

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#33

Post by detaro »

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.

I just plugged those two cities into the Deutsche Bahn website, and can now buy a ticket for a train leaving Stockholm in 8 hours (6:25 local time).

2 transfers (although routes exist with only one), 11:37 travel time. Saver fare still available: 99,90 € (regular would be 225 €). And it's not the only connection tomorrow.

That said, your point somewhat stands: it really depends on the route if good options are available, I've also looked at trips that seemed possible but I couldn't make work at all. Biggest problem is often the lack of overnight connections/night trains, which mean you're limited to what you can do during the day unless there's one of the exceptions on your route. Not fun if the only overnight "connection" means spending 2:30am to 4:45am on some train station.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#34

Post by malpighien »

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.

Not sure if it exists still but in 2012 I took a round trip Berlin Paris in a 4 bunk bed room around xmas. It was about 200 euros per person. About 13 hours in train, not the best sleep in such room.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#35

Post by Xylakant »

blunte wrote: post #10
reaperducer wrote: post #5

I'm not sure about "revive," since sleeper trains have been coming back in Europe for years. There was a Wall Street Journal article about it recently. Sorry the link is Apple News, but that's where I bookmarked it from: https://apple.news/AdFPGWf-GTmOabJK30Za0ZQ

Too bad I can't read WSJ, so I can't verify what they're saying. However, I haven't had much luck finding overnight trains here. It used to be that many existed and were popular, but they started disappearing and now few routes still have overnight options.

The German railway has shed practically all of its sleeper trains, but the Austrian Railway has picked up some routes and has been expanding.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#36

Post by Symbiote »

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…

Paris-Warsaw (and then to Moscow) exists, and runs once a week.

There's no official (government/public run) website, so Seat 61 is probably the best resource.

https://www.seat61.com/paris-moscow-express.htm

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#37

Post by Vekz »

danielfoster wrote: post #23

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.

Agree with you. I took a night train from Venice Italy to Paris. The next day in Paris I had essentially prolonged motion sickness where I felt as if I was still on the train rocking with the rhytmn of the tracks about to fall out of the top bunk I had tried to sleep in.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#38

Post by Scoundreller »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #20
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 second the recommendation of Bahn.de. For like two decades now it has provided a way to search train schedules across Europe when the national rail companies didn’t bother to provide their own accessible interface.

I was thoroughly confused trying to book a French train yesterday when I realized that the regular SNCF website only lets you browse train schedules.

You had to lookup the schedule on another website (oui.sncf) to do the booking.

Then Iberia airlines kept showing a different date at the top menubar, which was a day before what I was actually booking. Thankfully the date in the body was correct.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#39

Post by jasonkester »

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…

That Venice train is great. Living near Paris, we can do a weekend in Venice with two full days on the ground but only one night in a hotel (which is handy since rooms start at around $400/night there.)

It’s a shame that they killed off the dozen other night train destinations from here over the years. If Sweden and Norway open up as possibilities, I’ll be dragging the family up there the first sunny weekend.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#40

Post by Scoundreller »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #8
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.

> 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…

Croatia to Germany is only a little less annoying with Slovenia’s ascent into Schengen.

But before that, it was stop for Croatian exit controls, deal with Slovenian EU immigration, then Slovenian/EU customs, then Schengen once entering Austria.

A lot of interruption for an overnight train when travelling solo.

Then the equipment problems where I had to board a coach train and transfer to a bus before getting on the sleeper some hours later.

Ugh.

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