> If you're thinking of a European trip, do it right now - Deutsche Bahn are withdrawing many of the sleeper trains in December as they're unprofitable.
The same is true across Europe — HSR has helped kill sleepers in recent years.
>New sleeper train connections are cropping up across Europe. The Austrian operator ÖBB Nightjet has overnight services to cities like Rome, Milan, Brussels and Amsterdam, and recently initiated a Vienna-Paris overnight link.
If you're thinking of a European trip, do it right now - Deutsche Bahn are withdrawing many of the sleeper trains in December as they're unprofitable.
I went London-Tokyo by train and ferry. Chinese sleepers were probably the best - both luxurious and cheap, particularly in the northwest there is gorgeous desert and canyons out the window. But the train from Moscow to Uzbekistan was fascinating in its own way, red leather and steaming samovars, fresh-caught fish being sold on the platforms of these rural stations alongside enormous kebabs of mysterious meat. Carriage attendants knocking the snow off the steps with pokers at every stop. Looking out the window and seeing a solitary line of telegraph poles across the empty snowfield, the only human thing as far as the eye could see. A bunch of men lining up on one side of the corridor as we passed the steaming silos and metal towers at Baikonur, hoping to see a launch.
> Sleeper trains to Scandinavia were a thing not so long ago.
There's still a Stockholm-Malmö-Berlin sleeper, though only in the summer. There's also a year-round Stockholm-Malmö sleeper, and in Malmö you just take a 20-minute ride by Öresund train to hop over to Copenhagen.
In Europe sleeper trains have become somewhat extinct. High speed rail is just so fast and Ryanair so cheap, they became unprofitable.
However, there seems to be a revival going on. Especially the Australian railway operator (OBB) is investing a lot in their Nightjet trains. Some of the trains allow you to take your car with you.
I'm not sure if they are profitable, but they seem to be fully booked during the summer months (we had to book 2+ months in advance last year)
Making a major resurgence in the last few years though. We took a direct Amsterdam-to-Innsbruck sleeper train earlier this year and there are several companies operating sleeper trains to other parts as well. Somewhere next month the Brussels-Amsterdam-Prague line will start and several more are in planning.
The biggest downside of sleeper trains IMO is that they are only really suitable for certain distances. It's not very nice to arrive somewhere at 02:00, so you really need a destination that is at least 8-10 hours away from your origin.
The trouble lies in the old rolling stock. They bought all that from Deutsche Bahn who suddenly stopped all sleeper train services a few years ago.
Deutsche Bahn had neglected that segment for years and did not invest into more than the bare maintenance to keep the stock rolling.
Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB) took over all remaining sleepers run by Deutsche Bahn (DB) some years ago. One downside of this was the dropping of the Amsterdam–Munich sleeper — ÖBB's nexus lies in Vienna. The Netherlands currently has no sleeper trains, which is rather unfortunate, because the sleeper train appears to gaining in popularity after a period of decline.
Increasingly, people want to avoid flying if reasonably possible. A sleeper train is ideal, because you spend most of the trip asleep, and end up in Munich, Paris, Vienna, etc. early in the morning, in the middle of the city.
Sure, it's not as comfortable as a hotel, but it beats the torture of flying (I'm 200cm tall), and train stations are just a lot more pleasant to be in than airports.
Doubly painful, now that people are once again more open to the use of a sleeper train to avoid flying (for environmental reasons, or just not having to deal with airports).
ÖBB took over Deutsche Bahn's sleepers, which coincided with the retiring of the last sleeper train from/to the Netherlands (bugger me). But their service does seem to be working pretty well.
I missed an opportunity to travel from Milan to Paris by Thello's sleeper train due to the railway strikes in France this year, unfortunately.
I really wish the EU or collaborating national governments would invest more in sleeper train services by taxing flights. It's much more sustainable, and the real kicker is this: yes, a train takes longer, but in a sleeper train you just wake up with a complimentary breakfast early in the morning in the middle of a city hundreds of kilometres from where you started.
There are some sleeper trains still in Germany - although you need to pay a supplement on top of the annual train-ticket to use them. It would limit you quite heavily to certain transport coridors though.
Wonderful global Map of all sleeping train !
My god, I Wish I had this map last summer when using my interrail pass.
Why ? :
- All sleeper trains are scattered with so many booking Apps or internet service. A real pain.
Thanks for this wonderful MAP!
Ps: If traveling in Europe, I recommend booking really in advance as most sleeping wagons are usually all booked 2 months before departure.
( In one trains only 2 cars are sleepers).
Also do not even think of jumping into a night train with no reservation : you will be kicked out immediately. Security is king.
PPS : After 20 years of scaling back, sleeping trains are making a slow come-back. Hence, new trains lines should arrive during the next 3 years .
PPS: I work for SNCF ( french rail) so you can trust my words
This is a great idea. I really like the concept of sleeper trains but I don't think they make sense for when for most national destinations. A german sleeper train network only has a few routes that are long enough. But when viewed from a European perspective, there should be enough connections long enough for a real sleeper-train experience.
In Austria that's already a problem. Due to overcrowding, they're kicking people with valid tickets but no seat reservations off the trains telling them to get the next one.
Sleeper trains are making a come back. There are more initiatives being launched. European Sleeper is starting with Brussels/Rotterdam/Amsterdam – Berlin/Dresden/Prague soon:
> Not really doable for a lot of Austria and generally the Alpine regions.
On the other hand that distance is a lot smaller than Chicago-Seattle (4x) so the lack of high speed in the alpine region isn't as noticable for a night train because the distances are much shorter.
The thing about sleeper trains is that you need the distance to be 8-15 hours. If it's less than 8h you'd get uncomfortable departure or arrival times. 10h for Zurich-Vienna is perfect for a sleeper.
Some information to put into perspective the articles which are now regularly published about the revival of sleeper trains.
First, if you look at Europe as a whole, you will see that sleeper trains were never really dead. There are plenty of them in Germany and Eastern Europe. Often they go from large cities to holiday destinations and therefore are mainly used by people travelling for leisure.
The novelty of these new lines (be it this company or the transeuropean effort to connect european capitals with sleeper trains) is that they mostly travel business travellers, people who would usually have taken a place. As plane journeys are often the largest item in a company carbon account, they are betting that some will push their employees towards the train.
It might not be easy however. Track capacity at night is often severly limited by maintenance work in France for example and these trains will have to compete with rail freight transport at a time when Europe wants to massively develop rail freight.
For European HNers (or travelers) I plea for you to use the night trains, keep them alive.
One example: Between Amsterdam & Bern - Skybus flies for €86 (1.5 hours) and the CityNightLine train is €80 for a bed (11.5 hours). Other routes are comparable, you can pay a bit more for your own (non-shared) compartment.
Economically it seems crazy to take these night trains, and I never even bothered until a recent business trip from Amsterdam to Munich.
It was great for many of the reasons mentioned in the article and other comments here: leave and arrive in the city center, no security, no gate closing time, no baggage restrictions/pick-up/lost luggage, have a beer or dinner on board at a real bar or table, use your laptop/phone/ereader whenever you like, lie down, take a shower, whatever. Basically it's like flying the night before with a free (albeit basic) hotel stay thrown in.
I'm worried that too many people dismiss the night trains too easily (like I did), and that these will be relegated to the history books. In my opinion that would really be a tragedy.
Plane travel has turned into a elementary school bus trip. The train is still a grown-up alternative.
The same is true across Europe — HSR has helped kill sleepers in recent years.
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