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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

#51

Post by leroy_masochist »

Symbiote wrote: post #36
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

Seconded, it's a very well curated and updated site.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#52

Post by guaka »

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…

bahn.de used to be my go-to place (even for trains inside Italy) but these days https://www.thetrainline.com/ is the best for finding good train connections across Europe.

https://www.rome2rio.com/ can come in handy as well.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#53

Post by random878 »

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…

Warsaw on a warm summer evening. The sun is setting and there is a beautiful sky above the equally beautiful city. You relax into you sleeper cabin, and gaze out of the window waiting for the train to depart. 'Such a friendly city. Beautiful country.' you think to yourself. The train pulls out of the station. You watch the countryside pass as the night turns dark. You go to sleep.

-

You wake up at Gare du Nord. At least you think it's Gare du Nord. This can't be Paris, surely?! You think to yourself. You quickly leave the train to try and find out what horrendous 3rd world shithole your wrong train has taken you to... You immediately step in dog shit. You try to hop on one foot and clean it off. An tour group barge past you and knocks you over. A commuter flicks his cigarette toward the floor, hitting you in the face. He doesn't see you. Or maybe he just doesn't care. You can't tell. 'I need to get back to civilisation' you think to yourself as you get up and dust yourself off. You go to grab you suitcase. It's not there. It's in the hand of a Romanian running off down the platform. Welcome to Paris.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#54

Post by ljf »

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…

The Serbia to Croatia overnight train was fun, clean, vintage and reasonably priced. One to try?

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#55

Post by telesilla »

I took a first-class sleeper train from Budapest to Amsterdam 20 years ago and loved every second of it. It's saddened me that it's become too expensive: something I afforded as a recent graduate at short notice now requires you to either to shell out a lot of cash or book far ahead, like a tourist? At least, Austria still offers affordable sleepers. The sound of the train lulling you to sleep is a wonderful thing.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#56

Post by woodson »

Scoundreller wrote: post #40
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…

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 s…

That must have been some time ago, since Slovenia joined the Schengen area in 2003 (implemented 2007).

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#58

Post by tellak »

alehul wrote: post #29
blunte wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You do realize that Amtrak long distance routes offer such accommodations?

I mean yeah, the trains themselves are slow as shit and might not go where you want, but superliners and viewliners have some interesting accommodations.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#59

Post by badpun »

Symbiote wrote: post #36
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

The Warsaw to Paris trip on this train takes almost 21 hours... It's just a regular train, not particularly high-speed. There are a faster options available (down to 16 hours), but they require multiple layovers so I wouldn't say they're viable in practice. Overall, Europe is mostly dominated by cheap airlines, esp. in the Eastern part.

Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains

#60

Post by DoubleCribble »

As of 25 years ago this was THE way for a backpacker with a Eurail pass to see the continent during the summer. The cheap cars (ie 6 beds/room) were basically a youth hostel on rails. It was a fantastic way to meet other travelers and explore new cities together.
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