4 ms·

They were once popular but have all but disappeared since the advent of cheap flights. Same story for Japan, just 1-2 remaining.

thematrixturtle 4y ago
Sleeper trains in Europe are having a renaissance at the moment, many services that were killed off are coming back https://www.cntraveler.com/story/europe-is-undergoing-a-sleeper-train-renaissance https://www.cntraveler.com/story/europe-is-undergoing-a-slee... Japan's night trains are, sadly, almost gone, but that's because the bullet train network now covers all the major islands. There are quite a few luxury tourist sleepers though if you're willing to fork out $1000/night or so.
- johnwalkr 4y ago
  I didn’t know that, great news!
WJW 4y ago
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.
- lucb1e 4y ago
  I had newly found and was exploring this concept of European night trains only last week so don't have concrete experience with planning this yet, but I did see notes in some places that you can disembark until 7am even if the train arrived at 5:something am already. If it drives only from 23:00--02:00 then I'd imagine you're out of luck indeed, but they do accommodate this problem in some cases.
GordonS 4y ago
I guess they'd be fairly popular if they made a comeback, but I assume costs nowadays would mean it couldn't be financially viable.
lispm 4y ago
The article talks also about a new night train connection between Paris and Berlin.

thematrixturtle 4y ago

Sleeper trains in Europe are having a renaissance at the moment, many services that were killed off are coming back https://www.cntraveler.com/story/europe-is-undergoing-a-sleeper-train-renaissance https://www.cntraveler.com/story/europe-is-undergoing-a-slee... Japan's night trains are, sadly, almost gone, but that's because the bullet train network now covers all the major islands. There are quite a few luxury tourist sleepers though if you're willing to fork out $1000/night or so.

johnwalkr 4y ago
I didn’t know that, great news!

WJW 4y ago

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.

lucb1e 4y ago
I had newly found and was exploring this concept of European night trains only last week so don't have concrete experience with planning this yet, but I did see notes in some places that you can disembark until 7am even if the train arrived at 5:something am already. If it drives only from 23:00--02:00 then I'd imagine you're out of luck indeed, but they do accommodate this problem in some cases.

GordonS 4y ago

I guess they'd be fairly popular if they made a comeback, but I assume costs nowadays would mean it couldn't be financially viable.

lispm 4y ago

The article talks also about a new night train connection between Paris and Berlin.