Night trains are already competitively priced in parts of Europe if you factor in the hotel night you save. Take Amsterdam to Innsbruck:
Travel 1000 km by car, and you arrive late at night, exhausted, go to sleep at your accommodation, and get up in the morning for the start of your itinerary. Don't forget to factor in the costs of wear-and-tear on your car for those 1000 km.
Take a night train, and you get to leave much later in the day, but end up at the same point as the car example above, but the cost of the night's accommodation (the train) was already part of your ticket.
Same for the return journey.
The current market situation is not perfect — this only works for places within reach of the night train network by a few hours of additional transit at most — but night trains are gradually becoming an attractive option for more and more people in Europe. ÖBB took a gamble a decade or so ago by taking over the DB night train lines, and they are now the market leader with a fairly good track record.
Night trains form the backbone of my holidays further a field in Europe. It's only getting better.
Travel 1000 km by car, and you arrive late at night, exhausted, go to sleep at your accommodation, and get up in the morning for the start of your itinerary. Don't forget to factor in the costs of wear-and-tear on your car for those 1000 km.
Take a night train, and you get to leave much later in the day, but end up at the same point as the car example above, but the cost of the night's accommodation (the train) was already part of your ticket.
Same for the return journey.
The current market situation is not perfect — this only works for places within reach of the night train network by a few hours of additional transit at most — but night trains are gradually becoming an attractive option for more and more people in Europe. ÖBB took a gamble a decade or so ago by taking over the DB night train lines, and they are now the market leader with a fairly good track record.
Night trains form the backbone of my holidays further a field in Europe. It's only getting better.
Your shift-key is broken by the way.
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