9 ms·

Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

206 points by robin_reala 4y ago

sofixa 4y ago
Extremely cool and useful map! Night trains fill an important travel niche in terms of distance/comfort/time/eco-friendliness and can be super practical. Recently I took a night train for the first time since I was a teen instead of a 40 minute flight for the comfort levels and the emissions, and it was surprisingly comfortable. Not a perfect night's sleep (I'm a light sleeper), but perfectly enjoyable. PS: Sadly I doubt the Ukrainian night trains are all running at the moment..
- braymundo 4y ago
  They are (the Ukrainian trains). :) I took one recently from Przemysl to Kyiv and back. On time, comfortable, highly recommend.
  - rob74 4y ago
    I guess they are also needed, as flying is not possible (or highly hazardous) at the moment: https://safeairspace.net/ukraine/ https://safeairspace.net/ukraine/
    - martopix 4y ago
      Yes, even heads of state who visit Kiev are currently mostly travelling by train afaik
      - braymundo 4y ago
        Ukrzaliznytsia (https://www.uz.gov.ua/en/ https://www.uz.gov.ua/en/) are heroes. There is a nice piece on the NYT about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/world/europe/ukraine-war-trains.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/world/europe/ukraine-war-...
- excieve 4y ago
  Ukrainian Railways are operating even close to the front lines (where physically possible due to destruction). Outside of those the service is pretty much as usual — both sleepers and daytime intercity. Sometimes there are delays if the electric grid gets hit by the missiles, but then they just attach a diesel locomotive to pull the train instead. International connections work too. My mother recently came to visit it us here. She took an intercity from Przemyśl, Poland on the way here and then a sleeper to Wien, Austria on the way back. Both arrived more or less on time.
- yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
  Ukrainian trains are still working fabulously, and are putting most of the rest of Europe to shame. They’re cheap, reliable, and comfortable. Even in a war. The only frustrating thing is they don’t seem to be doing first class cabins going across the border into Poland anymore (because of the war), and taking a first class cabin across Ukraine to Lviv and then another connection across the border is not particularly convenient.
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    I think expecting first class rail travel during a major war is probably the most entitled attitude I've ever seen on HN.
    - yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
      Have you visited Ukraine? Have you travelled by train in Ukraine? The first class carriages are still in use between Odessa and Kyiv or Odessa and Lviv, just not on the train between Odessa and Przemysl. I can't work out why.
      - Symbiote 4y ago
        I couldn't care less about first class train service in Ukraine. Anyone who does care has the wrong priories. (I've been, but it was a brief visit a long time ago.)
        yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
        I live in Ukraine and I’ve had to shelter from the missiles. I’ve seen and heard them. And the attack drones. The sirens. The explosions. Who the hell are you to tell me where my priorities should lie?
ggambetta 4y ago
I would love to do this more! Trying to replace short flights with trains. I'm taking the Zürich - Venice one in a couple of weeks. But I'm looking for example at Zürich - Amsterdam. 12 hours - 10pm to 10am, perfect. But it has a 2:45am - 3:15am change at Frankfurt, so it's actually a ~5h train followed by a ~7h train at a very inconvenient time. Sure, I'd be in Amsterdam by 10am, but after the equivalent of a terrible night. Is there a better way to do this kind of thing?
- martopix 4y ago
  Coincidentally I took Zurich-Amsterdam and Amsterdam-Zurich right this week. It was a direct nightjet sleeper, not sure what you're talking about.
- lqet 4y ago
  I am not sure which connection you found - the 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58). NJ 402 has some additional cars attached which run as an InterCity, so it might be possible that no bed is available until Frankfurt, and you have to sit in an IC car until Frankfurt and change into the sleeper there, or vice versa.
  - kmlx 4y ago
    > 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58) something seems off. it takes 12 hours by train from zurich to amsterdam? it looks like just 8 hours by car. and the same distance ~800 something kms took me 3h50m Tokyo to Hiroshima with the Hakata shinkansen.
    - lqet 4y ago
      Night trains typically use slower routes and are parked somewhere during the night to ensure that you have enough time to eat something in the evening, get dressed for bed, sleep 8 hours, get up, get dressed again, and eat breakfast. 8 hours is definitely not enough time for a comfortable night train ride, especially if you travel with children. We took an 11-hour night train from Vienna to Zurich a few months ago with a 3 year old, and we would've been grateful for an additional hour in the morning.
sinistersnare 4y ago
This seems to be a great resource! However, when I looked at prices, seats are quite expensive. Does anyone have any advice for finding cheaper train tickets?
- oakesm9 4y ago
  If you're not from any country that the train travels through and you're taking a few trains, then maybe getting an Interrail pass[1] would be an option. You need to pay a bit extra for seat reservations and sleeper trains, but it could work out better in some cases[2]. [1]https://www.interrail.eu/en https://www.interrail.eu/en [2]https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#overnight-trains https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#over...
- Freak_NL 4y ago
  Expensive is very relative. I'm taking the ÖBB NightJet in April from Utrecht Centraal to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof, taking a private cabin with two beds (my partner and me). It costs almost €400 for the two of us, one-way, but a sleeper train does a number of things that significantly benefit your journey: * You arrive early in the morning, (somewhat) well-rested, and have the whole day ahead of you for further travel or activities — essentially this means you save on accommodation (hotels in Austria and Italy cost upward of €80 a night per room, €120 and up if you want something actually nice). * Breakfast included (nothing fancy, but hey). * Travel in a sleeper train doesn't fatigue you like the equivalent day time trip of almost 9 hours would. * Day time travel by train costs at least €140, per person, in any case. The extra €50 or so is more than worth it. * Flying is not only environmentally burdensome, it is also (for this trip) a lot more expensive, and airports in Europe suffered from a lot of problems last year with missing luggage and queues in excess of 4 hours — want to bet that this year these issues will all be solved? And of course: cheaper is possible, even in the same train. Still young and on a budget? Grab a bunk bed in shared cabin or a sleeper chair. The latter is a non-starter for me with my 200cm, but then again I am gainfully employed and can afford to book a private cabin. One additional benefit for couples in private sleeper cabins: * Sex on a train. Can recommend.
  - 4y ago
Roark66 4y ago
Are these all proper sleeper trains? I took the one that goes from Gdańsk to Kołobrzeg in Poland many years ago (with a bunch of friends) going to a "copy party"(yes before the Internet we had parties for copying software in person, eventually they turned into demoscene events). We spent the entire night drinking beer and smoking weed, but this was in a normal 8 seat compartment. I don't remember if there were sleeper cars in the train too. Also, this map doesn't show that there are many local train services that are aligned in time so people can come from off the main route to get on the sleeper train. So those trains can be seen less as connecting cities and more like connecting regions. One could take a regional train from their all town to a big city then when one arrives there is a mad dash because you have 10 minutes before your sleeper train leaves (your train is usually late 9 min 30 s in such situations). In many cases when regional trains are late the sleeper will wait for them, but only giving people 30s a minute to disembark, find out where are they supposed to go, find the right train (not so easy at a big station) and get on. I miss the times when those trains cost peanuts. One could go 400km for a price of 5l of fuel.
- yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
  I don’t think there’s a sleeper train between Gdańsk and Kołobrzeg. It’s too short a journey, and it’s not on the way to anything. AFAIK, the sleeper trains start from Gdańsk (or actually, Gdynia Główna, which is not far away), and then head south to Warzawa, Kraków, Wrocław, etc.
- mns 4y ago
  Not really. While it looks good on paper, booking some of these is quite a pain. I loved travelling by train as a kid, and would love to do it now, but when you compare the offers, it's quite bad. A flight is 1:15 between 2 places of interest for me. The train routes on this map exist (used it twice), but part of it is at night but only has normal compartments. Whole train journey is 15:34 (compared to 1:15 flight), with a sleeper cart only on the last 6 hours (and that is actually at 10 am in the morning, the first part, from midnight until 10am is the normal train). Not only that, but you can't buy only one ticket, you need a ticket for the first train from one operator and another ticket from the second operator. Once we get a more unified european system that properly covers also medium size cities and not just connections between major hubs and capitals, I think more people would switch to trains.
arethuza 4y ago
What is probably my favourite hotel/restaurant which is 15km up a single track road from the nearest village on the edge of the Moor of Rannoch is right next to where the wonderfully named Deerstalker train has a stop - so even though there are like 3 buildings in the middle of nowhere they have a direct train service from London: https://www.seat61.com/deerstalker.htm https://www.seat61.com/deerstalker.htm https://www.moorofrannoch.co.uk/ https://www.moorofrannoch.co.uk/
- whalesalad 4y ago
  Very cool, didn't even realize the UK had such large mountains/ranges.
  - arethuza 4y ago
    Well, the mountains aren't very high but they can be quite challenging and rather pretty: e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAWJnD0Jro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAWJnD0Jro Also for more details: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ Also, for the mountain bikers out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA
    - dboreham 4y ago
      > mountains aren't very high Yes and no. For example Aonach Beag is 4049 ft above sea level. But it basically begins at sea level. By contrast Mt Cowen, one of the highest local peaks near me here in Montana is 11212ft above sea level, but the bottom of it is roughly 5000ft so not that much higher in terms of actual mountain to climb.
      - arethuza 4y ago
        A fair point - I remember thinking that when I worked in Denver for a bit and visited the Rocky Mountains up past Estes Park and thought that the scale of the mountains top to bottom looked kind of familiar - just that the bottom was a hell of a lot higher than sea level!
martopix 4y ago
There is a clear lack of connection toward France and Spain. EDIT: Paris is of course well connected, but southern France and Spain are not. I live in Zurich and it's quite easy to go north, south, and east by train, but going south-west towards Marseille, Toulouse, Barcelona is really inconvenient. And it's not just about Zurich, because doing so from Milan or Frankfurt, I would guess, is the same. However I heard of plans for a Zh-Barcelona night train, does anybody know anything about it?
- kergonath 4y ago
  True. One of the issue is the different gauges. This used to be avoided by variable-gauge Talgo cars, and now by high-speed trains (TGV) on standard gauge on the Spanish side. But AFAIK there are no sleeper high-speed trains, and I am not even sure those Talgo are still running (and they also were not sleepers when they did run). So even in the best cases there could be connections but no direct services. Also, there will be only 2 possible routes because of these pesky mountains. There are several ways to work around that though, and I think this will happen in the reasonably near future.
  - ant6n 4y ago
    One issue with running standard gauge trains to Barcelona are the extremely high track fees on the cross-border (Perpignan-Figueras) segment.
- Freak_NL 4y ago
  One cause is that France is rather obstinate when it comes to sleeper trains passing through, but not stopping in, France. A direct line from the Netherlands and Belgium to Spain (e.g., Barcelona) would be viable and possible on standard gauge, but it wouldn't make sense to stop in Paris at 2:00 in the night or so. SNCF and the relevant French agencies insist on trains serving France as well. Maybe some company will manage with a perfunctory stop in Perpignan?
  - flal_ 4y ago
    You van already do Bruxelles to Perpignan with a direct ( french ) TGV train, in 6/7 hours. If you want to go to Spain I believe bruxelles Barcelona via Paris is also quite practical. Everything is much pricier than plane and no night train though
philposting 4y ago
I clicked to look at the highres version... and I really don't understand why websites feel the need to put PDFs behind an interface. Every common browser has a perfectly good PDF viewer built-in, in fact it's normally better than anything website-provided. Am I missing something?
- thesimon 4y ago
  Looks like they are using nextcloud and just uploaded the file there instead of providing a direct download link. Probably just out of convenience.
- Nullabillity 4y ago
  That looks like it's the same PDF.js viewer that Firefox bundles anyway.
- ant6n 4y ago
  This site is run by volunteer sleeper train fans, working with WordPress, not some paid web developers. But they’d probably welcome some more technical volunteers.
Freak_NL 4y ago
I'm looking forward to the new Brussel–Amsterdam–Berlin sleeper line. Not sure if I'll manage to book something this year (the site was overloaded when it opened this week), but still cool.
- contravariant 4y ago
  That one seems a bit weird to me though, that doesn't sound like the kind of distance that requires an overnight stay.
  - Freak_NL 4y ago
    Amsterdam–Berlin takes 6 hours now by day (7 hours from Brussels). Something which might improve to 4 hours eventually. That's OK, but if I have the choice between getting a sleeper and stepping out of Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Tief) at 6:30 or arriving past 14:00, I know which has my preference. The service is planned to eventually continue to Dresden and Prague by the way, further increasing its usefulness.
asow92 4y ago
Here we are wishing that we had daytime trains half as good in the US. Yes it's fine if you live near the northeast corridor, but what about the rest of us out here in "flyover country"?
- ant6n 4y ago
  You can take long distance trains, which incidentally have pretty nice sleeping accommodations, much nicer than most European sleeper trains.
  - asow92 4y ago
    I've taken the Lake Shore Limited overnight from NYC to Chicago and loved it! Would love to try the California Zephyr next.
- IIAOPSW 4y ago
  Amtrak runs a whole 3 cross country services. Empire Builder (parallel Canada to Oregon), California Zephyr (Chicago to SF straightish line), Southeast Chief (LA through the Southern border states). These trains run through some of the most sparsely populated low demand regions to exist. Every state in the lower 48 except for Wyoming has at least one service passing through it. There's only so much Amtrak can do. At some point, if Americans want to see quality rail travel, they will need to make some life style changes with respect to the sorts of houses they buy, neighborhoods they choose, tradeoffs they make. We can't make trains to literally everywhere, so at some point people will have to choose living close enough together to justify a train.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
    Look at railroad maps from ~1930, and you see railroads connecting to almost everywhere, even in much of so called flyover country, and difficult terrain. To get an impression, just have a look at the first map from there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_and_Rio_Grande_Western_Railroad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_and_Rio_Grande_Western_... What can be seen there extends to much of the rest of the CONUS. Therefore I conclude it has nothing to do with life style, tradeoffs regarding location, and so on. > We can't make trains to literally everywhere... You could, and you did. Then the Great Depression and WWII came, and after this you decided to throw it all away for the automobile. The same with streetcars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp... vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_systems_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_systems_in_t...
rwmj 4y ago
Sleeper trains sound fun, but I found it tricky to sleep on. I don't think I can sleep in a bed which suddenly moves back and forth. Anyway here's the cool video I took of our JR sleeper (Aomori City to Sapporo if I remember correctly, through the Seikan Tunnel the world's deepest tunnel at the time): http://oirase.annexia.org/tmp/VID_20110215_213825.3gp http://oirase.annexia.org/tmp/VID_20110215_213825.3gp (No idea what a 3GP file is, but it plays in my browser.)
- grishka 4y ago
  The trick is to be very tired. Then it feels like teleportation.
  - malermeister 4y ago
    Or take a dramamine, which both helps with the motion sickness and knocks you out.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  Try a top bunk in a Chinese hard sleeper coach, only 80cm vertical clearance! See https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/hard-soft-sleeper.htm https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/hard-soft-slee... I've only ever taken one soft sleeper before, and it was fine. Hard sleepers are OK for me as well (e.g. from Shanghai to Urumuqi), but I was younger back then.
grishka 4y ago
It's strange that Moscow and St Petersburg are both on the map, but the train route between them is not shown. It's very popular and very cheap. There are multiple trains per night every night.
- thriftwy 4y ago
  In the first section of the article they refer to another map[1], which is more detailed and has Russian/Caucasus trains. It is still lacking though - very detailed for Azerbaijan (some of which may not be served by proper sleepers?) but does not show many destination of Russian Caucasus (Makhachkala for example) Looks like they only plot named trains. Still, I was surprised to learn there is no sleeper rail connection between Russia and Baku, which turns out to be true. 1. http://www.night-trains.com/files/night-trains-europe-map.png http://www.night-trains.com/files/night-trains-europe-map.pn...
  - vaccarium 4y ago
    Azerbaijan has closed its land borders for Covid. Still hasn't reopened, three years later.
    - thriftwy 4y ago
      The map has Tbilisi-Baku trains, though!
bannedbybros 4y ago
[dead]
tmilard 4y ago
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
- aziaziazi 4y ago
  What line "booked 2 months before departure" did you encountered ? Just checked my routine line (Paris-Toulouse) and there's still seats and bed available for tommorrow night at a reasonable price.
- ant6n 4y ago
  Many night trains running through Germany will have some intercity seating cars operated by Deutsche Bahn, which doesn’t operate sleeper cars anymore. The seating cars won’t require a reservation, just a ticket.
iShrimp 4y ago
Those sound good on paper but then reality hits you. Last summer we as a family decided to take a night train to reach our vacation destination. What should have been 6-7 hour car drive was ~12 hour train ride. Sleep was not great, getting to and out of train stations, herding two small kids etc so at the time we've reached our destination we were pretty tired. Much more tired if we just drove. The route back is where things went south. One of the beds in our cabin fell apart. Then there was some sort of the outage en route back so the train had to skip our station and we landed almost 150km away from our home. Train company was trying to get us on the bus or train to get us back home but there were no free seats so it looked like we were to spend a night there. In the we've decided to take cab back home. We should have been back home ~10 in the morning. When we got home it was close to 6pm. On top of that bathrooms were super dirty and there was no running water in the sinks. We've paid ~700 euros for both ways and additional ~150 euros for the cab. If we just drove the whole round-trip would have cost us under 100 euros including lunch on our way there and back. I just don't see this as an alternative to driving or flying in Europe — they are too expensive and the level of comfort they offer for the price is just horrible. Even if everything went according to the plan and our route back was without any hiccups driving would have been much more convenient.
- woile 4y ago
  Maybe it's not convenient for a whole family but more for solo travelers. A car with one traveller is an absolute waste. And instead is more convenient to travel by train
  - joshe 4y ago
    It's still better to fly.
    - armarr 4y ago
      Depends on how you define better. I don't mind planes but I hate the process of getting off and on a plane. There is no single best mode of transport. There are so many variables involved. Price, time, proximity, personal preferences,..
mastax 4y ago
Man I love vector maps, even if it's a PDF download. Compare TFL's tube map website: https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track. That's a non-animated GIF.
hobbescotch 4y ago
Stockholm to Narvik without changes and with private room was amazing. Very cozy experience, would do it again.
poulsbohemian 4y ago
As a young traveller I took a handful of night trains...one time a family member had shared a bottle of homemade grappa - I was super excited about this! We were on a night train sharing a sleeper with an Austrian single mom with a couple of tweens. I think we were headed to somewhere deep in the Italian boot and it was summer - so very hot, with eight people in the sleeper car. Somewhere in the middle of the night, the heat in the room caused the stopper in the bottle of grappa to come loose. It didn't just spill - it evaporated into everything in the car. Every inch of our clothes, hair, etc reeked of booze. Conductor's face when he opened the door to check our tickets was absolutely hilarious. So be careful on those night trains. ;-)
- kylecazar 4y ago
  Oh wow. Based solely on my own grappa experiences, that may have been for the best.
  - poulsbohemian 4y ago
    To paraphrase Steve Jobs said "You're holding it the wrong way" ;-D. Grappa can be a wonderful, bonding experience... or it can taste like something you should put in your petrol tank. ;-D.
agapon 4y ago
No night trains to / from Baltics?
- synotna 4y ago
  New/improved rail links are planned/in progress as part of TEN-T which will probably help https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t_en https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructu... https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t/north-sea-baltic-corridor_en https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructu...
- thriftwy 4y ago
  They have mostly wasted their railway infrastructure following the collapse of USSR. RVR[1] car maker wound down, some tracks has closed down due to lack of use or excessive wear. They have some commuter trains and some coordinated cross-border train pairs. Russia to Kaliningrad also runs through Lithuania as mandated by international agreements. I don't think you can embark at Vilnus though. There were Moscow-SPb-Tallin and Moscow-Riga sleeper trains for a long time, but COVID and lack of funding led to their demise, and now the war, too. There was also Moscow-SPb-Helsinki "Lev Tolstoy" sleeper train of the same fate. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rīgas_Vagonbūves_Rūpnīca https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rīgas_Vagonbūves_Rūpnīca
Arrath 4y ago
I've been on one night train (Moscow to St Petersberg) and, for the experience, I greatly enjoyed it. Was it the most comfortable? Naw. The bed was too short, too hard, and it was far too hot and stuffy in the cabin. But I'm glad I did it.
- insane_dreamer 4y ago
  Was it a platzkart? Those are only for the most hardy travelers. I've only done kupe, but SV looks pretty decent.
  - Arrath 4y ago
    No it was a more traditional sleeper car ala From Russia With Love. Private cabins of 2-4 bunks per.
    - insane_dreamer 4y ago
      If it was 4 bunks (two upper, two lower) then it was a "kupe" (2nd class). If it had 2 bunks (lower only), then it's SV (1st class). Though these days they may have other combinations.
      - Arrath 4y ago
        Kupe it was. That was expensive enough, I don't even what to know what SV cost.
IIAOPSW 4y ago
Tangential I know but I hate just how dominant and unquestioned the London Tube style is for transit maps. Its supposed benefits are less important than imagined. Those thick ribbons of all one color could all just be a single line. People are perfectly capable of making that abstraction, there's no need to spell it out with 6-8 lane ribbons of mostly redundant information. All that does is add clutter, not clarity. Even more egregious is the empty space between the lines. It makes them needlessly fat and it interlaces clashing colors from the background geography. I will give it credit for coloring things in a way that incidentally sorts the lines into useful groups (namely, colored by operator). The dotted line thing is mostly ok but the last one ("opens this year") is out of order and misleading. The choice of visual vocabulary could have been better. Not the worst map, but I've been obsessed lately and had to nitpick.
insane_dreamer 4y ago
I've taken Zurich - Budapest, and Paris - Vienna sleeper trains years ago, was a great experience. (Though the Zurich - Vienna ride is so beautiful you'll want to take a day-time train, which I have on other occasions.) Not shown here, but I've also taken sleeper trains across Russia (Moscow - Novosibirsk) which was quite a fun experience. Get to meet all kinds of people, drink lots of tea / vodka :). Always wanted to the 7-day Moscow-Vladivostok but didn't quite make it. This was early 90s though -- no idea what the experience is like these days.
NiagaraThistle 4y ago
I LOVE this! As someone who tells EVERYONE to take a night train to save precious time during daylight hours for walking around a destination and not staring out of a window wishing you could, this is a great tool. So often people online tell me such-and-such night train route is no longer in service (my first trip was almost 30 years ago now, so many of my night train memories stem from an earlier era). But now i can actually see and point to something with night train routes people can take advantage of. Also, as someone who is building a Europe Travel planning web app, this is also a great resource to link to for train travel. Thanks for posting/making this.
joeman1000 4y ago
I just spent two weeks going across Europe by many modes of transport. - Australia to Amsterdam by plane (of course) - Amsterdam to Berlin by train (first class cabin, ~6h) - Berlin to Krakow by plane (Ryanair, at airport 2h before flight via train, plane ride is 1h) - Krakow to Vienna by plane (roughly the same deal as the previous flight) - Vienna to Verona by ÖBB sleeper train (11h or so) - Verona to Breschia by train - Breschia to Milan by bus - Milan to Australia (3h buffer before flight, 20h flying total with 3h stopover in Doha) - More transport to get home from the airport after that.. a bus, a train and another bus. A hell of a lot of transport. I was glad to have it all over and done with. Plane trips were quicker and cheaper normally. I would only travel by train if I there’s a sleeper cabin available and you can book it so it’s private. Otherwise you’ll be travelling and sleeping near other people. If I could, I would probably just take planes everywhere. The night train to Verona was OK, but it’s still cramped and uncomfortable depending on the cabin you book. And it’s pricey depending on when you book. It’s fun to experiment but planes were a bit better, at least on this trip.

206 points by robin_reala 4y ago

Extremely cool and useful map! Night trains fill an important travel niche in terms of distance/comfort/time/eco-friendliness and can be super practical. Recently I took a night train for the first time since I was a teen instead of a 40 minute flight for the comfort levels and the emissions, and it was surprisingly comfortable. Not a perfect night's sleep (I'm a light sleeper), but perfectly enjoyable. PS: Sadly I doubt the Ukrainian night trains are all running at the moment..

braymundo 4y ago
They are (the Ukrainian trains). :) I took one recently from Przemysl to Kyiv and back. On time, comfortable, highly recommend.
- rob74 4y ago
  I guess they are also needed, as flying is not possible (or highly hazardous) at the moment: https://safeairspace.net/ukraine/ https://safeairspace.net/ukraine/
  - martopix 4y ago
    Yes, even heads of state who visit Kiev are currently mostly travelling by train afaik
    - braymundo 4y ago
      Ukrzaliznytsia (https://www.uz.gov.ua/en/ https://www.uz.gov.ua/en/) are heroes. There is a nice piece on the NYT about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/world/europe/ukraine-war-trains.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/world/europe/ukraine-war-...
excieve 4y ago
Ukrainian Railways are operating even close to the front lines (where physically possible due to destruction). Outside of those the service is pretty much as usual — both sleepers and daytime intercity. Sometimes there are delays if the electric grid gets hit by the missiles, but then they just attach a diesel locomotive to pull the train instead. International connections work too. My mother recently came to visit it us here. She took an intercity from Przemyśl, Poland on the way here and then a sleeper to Wien, Austria on the way back. Both arrived more or less on time.
yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
Ukrainian trains are still working fabulously, and are putting most of the rest of Europe to shame. They’re cheap, reliable, and comfortable. Even in a war. The only frustrating thing is they don’t seem to be doing first class cabins going across the border into Poland anymore (because of the war), and taking a first class cabin across Ukraine to Lviv and then another connection across the border is not particularly convenient.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  I think expecting first class rail travel during a major war is probably the most entitled attitude I've ever seen on HN.
  - yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
    Have you visited Ukraine? Have you travelled by train in Ukraine? The first class carriages are still in use between Odessa and Kyiv or Odessa and Lviv, just not on the train between Odessa and Przemysl. I can't work out why.
    - Symbiote 4y ago
      I couldn't care less about first class train service in Ukraine. Anyone who does care has the wrong priories. (I've been, but it was a brief visit a long time ago.)
      - yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
        I live in Ukraine and I’ve had to shelter from the missiles. I’ve seen and heard them. And the attack drones. The sirens. The explosions. Who the hell are you to tell me where my priorities should lie?

ggambetta 4y ago

I would love to do this more! Trying to replace short flights with trains. I'm taking the Zürich - Venice one in a couple of weeks. But I'm looking for example at Zürich - Amsterdam. 12 hours - 10pm to 10am, perfect. But it has a 2:45am - 3:15am change at Frankfurt, so it's actually a ~5h train followed by a ~7h train at a very inconvenient time. Sure, I'd be in Amsterdam by 10am, but after the equivalent of a terrible night. Is there a better way to do this kind of thing?

martopix 4y ago
Coincidentally I took Zurich-Amsterdam and Amsterdam-Zurich right this week. It was a direct nightjet sleeper, not sure what you're talking about.
lqet 4y ago
I am not sure which connection you found - the 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58). NJ 402 has some additional cars attached which run as an InterCity, so it might be possible that no bed is available until Frankfurt, and you have to sit in an IC car until Frankfurt and change into the sleeper there, or vice versa.
- kmlx 4y ago
  > 21:59 Nightjet NJ 402 from Zurich goes directly to Amsterdam (9:58) something seems off. it takes 12 hours by train from zurich to amsterdam? it looks like just 8 hours by car. and the same distance ~800 something kms took me 3h50m Tokyo to Hiroshima with the Hakata shinkansen.
  - lqet 4y ago
    Night trains typically use slower routes and are parked somewhere during the night to ensure that you have enough time to eat something in the evening, get dressed for bed, sleep 8 hours, get up, get dressed again, and eat breakfast. 8 hours is definitely not enough time for a comfortable night train ride, especially if you travel with children. We took an 11-hour night train from Vienna to Zurich a few months ago with a 3 year old, and we would've been grateful for an additional hour in the morning.

sinistersnare 4y ago

This seems to be a great resource! However, when I looked at prices, seats are quite expensive. Does anyone have any advice for finding cheaper train tickets?

oakesm9 4y ago
If you're not from any country that the train travels through and you're taking a few trains, then maybe getting an Interrail pass[1] would be an option. You need to pay a bit extra for seat reservations and sleeper trains, but it could work out better in some cases[2]. [1]https://www.interrail.eu/en https://www.interrail.eu/en [2]https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#overnight-trains https://www.seat61.com/how-to-use-an-interrail-pass.htm#over...
Freak_NL 4y ago
Expensive is very relative. I'm taking the ÖBB NightJet in April from Utrecht Centraal to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof, taking a private cabin with two beds (my partner and me). It costs almost €400 for the two of us, one-way, but a sleeper train does a number of things that significantly benefit your journey: * You arrive early in the morning, (somewhat) well-rested, and have the whole day ahead of you for further travel or activities — essentially this means you save on accommodation (hotels in Austria and Italy cost upward of €80 a night per room, €120 and up if you want something actually nice). * Breakfast included (nothing fancy, but hey). * Travel in a sleeper train doesn't fatigue you like the equivalent day time trip of almost 9 hours would. * Day time travel by train costs at least €140, per person, in any case. The extra €50 or so is more than worth it. * Flying is not only environmentally burdensome, it is also (for this trip) a lot more expensive, and airports in Europe suffered from a lot of problems last year with missing luggage and queues in excess of 4 hours — want to bet that this year these issues will all be solved? And of course: cheaper is possible, even in the same train. Still young and on a budget? Grab a bunk bed in shared cabin or a sleeper chair. The latter is a non-starter for me with my 200cm, but then again I am gainfully employed and can afford to book a private cabin. One additional benefit for couples in private sleeper cabins: * Sex on a train. Can recommend.
- 4y ago

Roark66 4y ago

Are these all proper sleeper trains? I took the one that goes from Gdańsk to Kołobrzeg in Poland many years ago (with a bunch of friends) going to a "copy party"(yes before the Internet we had parties for copying software in person, eventually they turned into demoscene events). We spent the entire night drinking beer and smoking weed, but this was in a normal 8 seat compartment. I don't remember if there were sleeper cars in the train too. Also, this map doesn't show that there are many local train services that are aligned in time so people can come from off the main route to get on the sleeper train. So those trains can be seen less as connecting cities and more like connecting regions. One could take a regional train from their all town to a big city then when one arrives there is a mad dash because you have 10 minutes before your sleeper train leaves (your train is usually late 9 min 30 s in such situations). In many cases when regional trains are late the sleeper will wait for them, but only giving people 30s a minute to disembark, find out where are they supposed to go, find the right train (not so easy at a big station) and get on. I miss the times when those trains cost peanuts. One could go 400km for a price of 5l of fuel.

yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
I don’t think there’s a sleeper train between Gdańsk and Kołobrzeg. It’s too short a journey, and it’s not on the way to anything. AFAIK, the sleeper trains start from Gdańsk (or actually, Gdynia Główna, which is not far away), and then head south to Warzawa, Kraków, Wrocław, etc.
mns 4y ago
Not really. While it looks good on paper, booking some of these is quite a pain. I loved travelling by train as a kid, and would love to do it now, but when you compare the offers, it's quite bad. A flight is 1:15 between 2 places of interest for me. The train routes on this map exist (used it twice), but part of it is at night but only has normal compartments. Whole train journey is 15:34 (compared to 1:15 flight), with a sleeper cart only on the last 6 hours (and that is actually at 10 am in the morning, the first part, from midnight until 10am is the normal train). Not only that, but you can't buy only one ticket, you need a ticket for the first train from one operator and another ticket from the second operator. Once we get a more unified european system that properly covers also medium size cities and not just connections between major hubs and capitals, I think more people would switch to trains.

arethuza 4y ago

What is probably my favourite hotel/restaurant which is 15km up a single track road from the nearest village on the edge of the Moor of Rannoch is right next to where the wonderfully named Deerstalker train has a stop - so even though there are like 3 buildings in the middle of nowhere they have a direct train service from London: https://www.seat61.com/deerstalker.htm https://www.seat61.com/deerstalker.htm https://www.moorofrannoch.co.uk/ https://www.moorofrannoch.co.uk/

whalesalad 4y ago
Very cool, didn't even realize the UK had such large mountains/ranges.
- arethuza 4y ago
  Well, the mountains aren't very high but they can be quite challenging and rather pretty: e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAWJnD0Jro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAWJnD0Jro Also for more details: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ Also, for the mountain bikers out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA
  - dboreham 4y ago
    > mountains aren't very high Yes and no. For example Aonach Beag is 4049 ft above sea level. But it basically begins at sea level. By contrast Mt Cowen, one of the highest local peaks near me here in Montana is 11212ft above sea level, but the bottom of it is roughly 5000ft so not that much higher in terms of actual mountain to climb.
    - arethuza 4y ago
      A fair point - I remember thinking that when I worked in Denver for a bit and visited the Rocky Mountains up past Estes Park and thought that the scale of the mountains top to bottom looked kind of familiar - just that the bottom was a hell of a lot higher than sea level!

martopix 4y ago

There is a clear lack of connection toward France and Spain. EDIT: Paris is of course well connected, but southern France and Spain are not. I live in Zurich and it's quite easy to go north, south, and east by train, but going south-west towards Marseille, Toulouse, Barcelona is really inconvenient. And it's not just about Zurich, because doing so from Milan or Frankfurt, I would guess, is the same. However I heard of plans for a Zh-Barcelona night train, does anybody know anything about it?

kergonath 4y ago
True. One of the issue is the different gauges. This used to be avoided by variable-gauge Talgo cars, and now by high-speed trains (TGV) on standard gauge on the Spanish side. But AFAIK there are no sleeper high-speed trains, and I am not even sure those Talgo are still running (and they also were not sleepers when they did run). So even in the best cases there could be connections but no direct services. Also, there will be only 2 possible routes because of these pesky mountains. There are several ways to work around that though, and I think this will happen in the reasonably near future.
- ant6n 4y ago
  One issue with running standard gauge trains to Barcelona are the extremely high track fees on the cross-border (Perpignan-Figueras) segment.
Freak_NL 4y ago
One cause is that France is rather obstinate when it comes to sleeper trains passing through, but not stopping in, France. A direct line from the Netherlands and Belgium to Spain (e.g., Barcelona) would be viable and possible on standard gauge, but it wouldn't make sense to stop in Paris at 2:00 in the night or so. SNCF and the relevant French agencies insist on trains serving France as well. Maybe some company will manage with a perfunctory stop in Perpignan?
- flal_ 4y ago
  You van already do Bruxelles to Perpignan with a direct ( french ) TGV train, in 6/7 hours. If you want to go to Spain I believe bruxelles Barcelona via Paris is also quite practical. Everything is much pricier than plane and no night train though

philposting 4y ago

I clicked to look at the highres version... and I really don't understand why websites feel the need to put PDFs behind an interface. Every common browser has a perfectly good PDF viewer built-in, in fact it's normally better than anything website-provided. Am I missing something?

thesimon 4y ago
Looks like they are using nextcloud and just uploaded the file there instead of providing a direct download link. Probably just out of convenience.
Nullabillity 4y ago
That looks like it's the same PDF.js viewer that Firefox bundles anyway.
ant6n 4y ago
This site is run by volunteer sleeper train fans, working with WordPress, not some paid web developers. But they’d probably welcome some more technical volunteers.

Freak_NL 4y ago

I'm looking forward to the new Brussel–Amsterdam–Berlin sleeper line. Not sure if I'll manage to book something this year (the site was overloaded when it opened this week), but still cool.

contravariant 4y ago
That one seems a bit weird to me though, that doesn't sound like the kind of distance that requires an overnight stay.
- Freak_NL 4y ago
  Amsterdam–Berlin takes 6 hours now by day (7 hours from Brussels). Something which might improve to 4 hours eventually. That's OK, but if I have the choice between getting a sleeper and stepping out of Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Tief) at 6:30 or arriving past 14:00, I know which has my preference. The service is planned to eventually continue to Dresden and Prague by the way, further increasing its usefulness.

asow92 4y ago

Here we are wishing that we had daytime trains half as good in the US. Yes it's fine if you live near the northeast corridor, but what about the rest of us out here in "flyover country"?

ant6n 4y ago
You can take long distance trains, which incidentally have pretty nice sleeping accommodations, much nicer than most European sleeper trains.
- asow92 4y ago
  I've taken the Lake Shore Limited overnight from NYC to Chicago and loved it! Would love to try the California Zephyr next.
IIAOPSW 4y ago
Amtrak runs a whole 3 cross country services. Empire Builder (parallel Canada to Oregon), California Zephyr (Chicago to SF straightish line), Southeast Chief (LA through the Southern border states). These trains run through some of the most sparsely populated low demand regions to exist. Every state in the lower 48 except for Wyoming has at least one service passing through it. There's only so much Amtrak can do. At some point, if Americans want to see quality rail travel, they will need to make some life style changes with respect to the sorts of houses they buy, neighborhoods they choose, tradeoffs they make. We can't make trains to literally everywhere, so at some point people will have to choose living close enough together to justify a train.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
  Look at railroad maps from ~1930, and you see railroads connecting to almost everywhere, even in much of so called flyover country, and difficult terrain. To get an impression, just have a look at the first map from there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_and_Rio_Grande_Western_Railroad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_and_Rio_Grande_Western_... What can be seen there extends to much of the rest of the CONUS. Therefore I conclude it has nothing to do with life style, tradeoffs regarding location, and so on. > We can't make trains to literally everywhere... You could, and you did. Then the Great Depression and WWII came, and after this you decided to throw it all away for the automobile. The same with streetcars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp... vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_systems_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_systems_in_t...

rwmj 4y ago

Sleeper trains sound fun, but I found it tricky to sleep on. I don't think I can sleep in a bed which suddenly moves back and forth. Anyway here's the cool video I took of our JR sleeper (Aomori City to Sapporo if I remember correctly, through the Seikan Tunnel the world's deepest tunnel at the time): http://oirase.annexia.org/tmp/VID_20110215_213825.3gp http://oirase.annexia.org/tmp/VID_20110215_213825.3gp (No idea what a 3GP file is, but it plays in my browser.)

grishka 4y ago
The trick is to be very tired. Then it feels like teleportation.
- malermeister 4y ago
  Or take a dramamine, which both helps with the motion sickness and knocks you out.
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
Try a top bunk in a Chinese hard sleeper coach, only 80cm vertical clearance! See https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/hard-soft-sleeper.htm https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/hard-soft-slee... I've only ever taken one soft sleeper before, and it was fine. Hard sleepers are OK for me as well (e.g. from Shanghai to Urumuqi), but I was younger back then.

grishka 4y ago

It's strange that Moscow and St Petersburg are both on the map, but the train route between them is not shown. It's very popular and very cheap. There are multiple trains per night every night.

thriftwy 4y ago
In the first section of the article they refer to another map[1], which is more detailed and has Russian/Caucasus trains. It is still lacking though - very detailed for Azerbaijan (some of which may not be served by proper sleepers?) but does not show many destination of Russian Caucasus (Makhachkala for example) Looks like they only plot named trains. Still, I was surprised to learn there is no sleeper rail connection between Russia and Baku, which turns out to be true. 1. http://www.night-trains.com/files/night-trains-europe-map.png http://www.night-trains.com/files/night-trains-europe-map.pn...
- vaccarium 4y ago
  Azerbaijan has closed its land borders for Covid. Still hasn't reopened, three years later.
  - thriftwy 4y ago
    The map has Tbilisi-Baku trains, though!

bannedbybros 4y ago

[dead]

tmilard 4y ago

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

aziaziazi 4y ago
What line "booked 2 months before departure" did you encountered ? Just checked my routine line (Paris-Toulouse) and there's still seats and bed available for tommorrow night at a reasonable price.
ant6n 4y ago
Many night trains running through Germany will have some intercity seating cars operated by Deutsche Bahn, which doesn’t operate sleeper cars anymore. The seating cars won’t require a reservation, just a ticket.

iShrimp 4y ago

Those sound good on paper but then reality hits you. Last summer we as a family decided to take a night train to reach our vacation destination. What should have been 6-7 hour car drive was ~12 hour train ride. Sleep was not great, getting to and out of train stations, herding two small kids etc so at the time we've reached our destination we were pretty tired. Much more tired if we just drove. The route back is where things went south. One of the beds in our cabin fell apart. Then there was some sort of the outage en route back so the train had to skip our station and we landed almost 150km away from our home. Train company was trying to get us on the bus or train to get us back home but there were no free seats so it looked like we were to spend a night there. In the we've decided to take cab back home. We should have been back home ~10 in the morning. When we got home it was close to 6pm. On top of that bathrooms were super dirty and there was no running water in the sinks. We've paid ~700 euros for both ways and additional ~150 euros for the cab. If we just drove the whole round-trip would have cost us under 100 euros including lunch on our way there and back. I just don't see this as an alternative to driving or flying in Europe — they are too expensive and the level of comfort they offer for the price is just horrible. Even if everything went according to the plan and our route back was without any hiccups driving would have been much more convenient.

woile 4y ago
Maybe it's not convenient for a whole family but more for solo travelers. A car with one traveller is an absolute waste. And instead is more convenient to travel by train
- joshe 4y ago
  It's still better to fly.
  - armarr 4y ago
    Depends on how you define better. I don't mind planes but I hate the process of getting off and on a plane. There is no single best mode of transport. There are so many variables involved. Price, time, proximity, personal preferences,..

mastax 4y ago

Man I love vector maps, even if it's a PDF download. Compare TFL's tube map website: https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track. That's a non-animated GIF.

hobbescotch 4y ago

Stockholm to Narvik without changes and with private room was amazing. Very cozy experience, would do it again.

poulsbohemian 4y ago

As a young traveller I took a handful of night trains...one time a family member had shared a bottle of homemade grappa - I was super excited about this! We were on a night train sharing a sleeper with an Austrian single mom with a couple of tweens. I think we were headed to somewhere deep in the Italian boot and it was summer - so very hot, with eight people in the sleeper car. Somewhere in the middle of the night, the heat in the room caused the stopper in the bottle of grappa to come loose. It didn't just spill - it evaporated into everything in the car. Every inch of our clothes, hair, etc reeked of booze. Conductor's face when he opened the door to check our tickets was absolutely hilarious. So be careful on those night trains. ;-)

kylecazar 4y ago
Oh wow. Based solely on my own grappa experiences, that may have been for the best.
- poulsbohemian 4y ago
  To paraphrase Steve Jobs said "You're holding it the wrong way" ;-D. Grappa can be a wonderful, bonding experience... or it can taste like something you should put in your petrol tank. ;-D.

agapon 4y ago

No night trains to / from Baltics?

synotna 4y ago
New/improved rail links are planned/in progress as part of TEN-T which will probably help https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t_en https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructu... https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t/north-sea-baltic-corridor_en https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructu...
thriftwy 4y ago
They have mostly wasted their railway infrastructure following the collapse of USSR. RVR[1] car maker wound down, some tracks has closed down due to lack of use or excessive wear. They have some commuter trains and some coordinated cross-border train pairs. Russia to Kaliningrad also runs through Lithuania as mandated by international agreements. I don't think you can embark at Vilnus though. There were Moscow-SPb-Tallin and Moscow-Riga sleeper trains for a long time, but COVID and lack of funding led to their demise, and now the war, too. There was also Moscow-SPb-Helsinki "Lev Tolstoy" sleeper train of the same fate. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rīgas_Vagonbūves_Rūpnīca https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rīgas_Vagonbūves_Rūpnīca

Arrath 4y ago

I've been on one night train (Moscow to St Petersberg) and, for the experience, I greatly enjoyed it. Was it the most comfortable? Naw. The bed was too short, too hard, and it was far too hot and stuffy in the cabin. But I'm glad I did it.

insane_dreamer 4y ago
Was it a platzkart? Those are only for the most hardy travelers. I've only done kupe, but SV looks pretty decent.
- Arrath 4y ago
  No it was a more traditional sleeper car ala From Russia With Love. Private cabins of 2-4 bunks per.
  - insane_dreamer 4y ago
    If it was 4 bunks (two upper, two lower) then it was a "kupe" (2nd class). If it had 2 bunks (lower only), then it's SV (1st class). Though these days they may have other combinations.
    - Arrath 4y ago
      Kupe it was. That was expensive enough, I don't even what to know what SV cost.

IIAOPSW 4y ago

Tangential I know but I hate just how dominant and unquestioned the London Tube style is for transit maps. Its supposed benefits are less important than imagined. Those thick ribbons of all one color could all just be a single line. People are perfectly capable of making that abstraction, there's no need to spell it out with 6-8 lane ribbons of mostly redundant information. All that does is add clutter, not clarity. Even more egregious is the empty space between the lines. It makes them needlessly fat and it interlaces clashing colors from the background geography. I will give it credit for coloring things in a way that incidentally sorts the lines into useful groups (namely, colored by operator). The dotted line thing is mostly ok but the last one ("opens this year") is out of order and misleading. The choice of visual vocabulary could have been better. Not the worst map, but I've been obsessed lately and had to nitpick.

insane_dreamer 4y ago

I've taken Zurich - Budapest, and Paris - Vienna sleeper trains years ago, was a great experience. (Though the Zurich - Vienna ride is so beautiful you'll want to take a day-time train, which I have on other occasions.) Not shown here, but I've also taken sleeper trains across Russia (Moscow - Novosibirsk) which was quite a fun experience. Get to meet all kinds of people, drink lots of tea / vodka :). Always wanted to the 7-day Moscow-Vladivostok but didn't quite make it. This was early 90s though -- no idea what the experience is like these days.

NiagaraThistle 4y ago

I LOVE this! As someone who tells EVERYONE to take a night train to save precious time during daylight hours for walking around a destination and not staring out of a window wishing you could, this is a great tool. So often people online tell me such-and-such night train route is no longer in service (my first trip was almost 30 years ago now, so many of my night train memories stem from an earlier era). But now i can actually see and point to something with night train routes people can take advantage of. Also, as someone who is building a Europe Travel planning web app, this is also a great resource to link to for train travel. Thanks for posting/making this.

joeman1000 4y ago

I just spent two weeks going across Europe by many modes of transport. - Australia to Amsterdam by plane (of course) - Amsterdam to Berlin by train (first class cabin, ~6h) - Berlin to Krakow by plane (Ryanair, at airport 2h before flight via train, plane ride is 1h) - Krakow to Vienna by plane (roughly the same deal as the previous flight) - Vienna to Verona by ÖBB sleeper train (11h or so) - Verona to Breschia by train - Breschia to Milan by bus - Milan to Australia (3h buffer before flight, 20h flying total with 3h stopover in Doha) - More transport to get home from the airport after that.. a bus, a train and another bus. A hell of a lot of transport. I was glad to have it all over and done with. Plane trips were quicker and cheaper normally. I would only travel by train if I there’s a sleeper cabin available and you can book it so it’s private. Otherwise you’ll be travelling and sleeping near other people. If I could, I would probably just take planes everywhere. The night train to Verona was OK, but it’s still cramped and uncomfortable depending on the cabin you book. And it’s pricey depending on when you book. It’s fun to experiment but planes were a bit better, at least on this trip.