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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

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.
- petschge 4y ago
  Things could certainly be better, but it is a but disingenuous to give the pure flight time of 1:15, when we all know that flying has quite a bit of time requirements on both ends. Not enough to bring it to 15.5 hours, but still easily enough to triple the trip time.
  - throwaway29495 4y ago
    That doesn't match my experience. Flights within the EU - especially if I travel with a carry-on only - are quick and frictionless. I arrive at the airport 30 minutes before departure. I check in using a mobile app. Automatized gate with facial recognition tech takes my ID and boarding pass QR code - there are so many gates there's never a queue. The worst part of the ordeal - the security check of baggage - takes 5-10 minutes or so. I sit in the plane and we fly. At the destination I simply walk away without any queues anywhere (single duty zone...). Definitely not 3x the travel time, no way. I never had boarding take more than an hour, and it only took that long when I was going out of EU.
    - frosted-flakes 4y ago
      Don't forget that trains take you right to the city centre, but airports are outside of the city.
      - throwaway29495 4y ago
        Where I live it's 20 minutes trip from the city centre. So yep, you're right - adds some time. But not enough to add up to 3x travel time, by far. This is usually more of a concern for people traveling with lowcost airlines - these cheap out and arrive at another town's airport in many cases. National airlines like Lufthansa will take you much nearer your actual destination.
  - mns 4y ago
    Of course there is, it's just that when you look at the overall picture, it's faster and more convenient. Just to give an example, as this was my general setup and still is for quite some time. One flight is at 10 PM, you can still work the whole day, go leave for the airport at around 7-7:30 PM, at 1 AM I'm at my destination (with a +1 hour timezone change), so that is about 5 hours. But can still sleep afterwards and have a full day the second day. By car you can leave at around 7 AM and best case scenario you drive 9 hours, worst case 12. Train you leave at around midnight and get there at 4 PM, but you can't actually sleep in the train as there are no sleeper carts. When it comes to cost, car is cheapest with plane and train around the same, depending when you buy the ticket. When it comes to setting everything up, car is basic, you just get in and drive, all vignettes online; plane buy ticket in one place, that is it, train a bit more complicated. I still hope we'll get better at this, because I don't believe that autonomous cars or self driving will solve anything and we should focus on trains when it comes to more environmentally friendly mass transportation.
itronitron 4y ago
This seems useful for finding which site has routes between which major cities. I tested out a few routes on nightjet and if you aren't traveling between capital cities then the route seems likely to include several transfers in the early morning hours (not exactly sleeper then). It would be nice if they showed the transfers up front, as I was only able to get them listed in a roundabout way.
moffkalast 4y ago
Yeah, a while back I was looking at booking a train for a decent distance and you could only get connections that had ~5 min or ~5 hours in padding, and nothing in between. It's a real planning train wreck (ha) and god forbid you need an international connection.

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.

petschge 4y ago
Things could certainly be better, but it is a but disingenuous to give the pure flight time of 1:15, when we all know that flying has quite a bit of time requirements on both ends. Not enough to bring it to 15.5 hours, but still easily enough to triple the trip time.
- throwaway29495 4y ago
  That doesn't match my experience. Flights within the EU - especially if I travel with a carry-on only - are quick and frictionless. I arrive at the airport 30 minutes before departure. I check in using a mobile app. Automatized gate with facial recognition tech takes my ID and boarding pass QR code - there are so many gates there's never a queue. The worst part of the ordeal - the security check of baggage - takes 5-10 minutes or so. I sit in the plane and we fly. At the destination I simply walk away without any queues anywhere (single duty zone...). Definitely not 3x the travel time, no way. I never had boarding take more than an hour, and it only took that long when I was going out of EU.
  - frosted-flakes 4y ago
    Don't forget that trains take you right to the city centre, but airports are outside of the city.
    - throwaway29495 4y ago
      Where I live it's 20 minutes trip from the city centre. So yep, you're right - adds some time. But not enough to add up to 3x travel time, by far. This is usually more of a concern for people traveling with lowcost airlines - these cheap out and arrive at another town's airport in many cases. National airlines like Lufthansa will take you much nearer your actual destination.
- mns 4y ago
  Of course there is, it's just that when you look at the overall picture, it's faster and more convenient. Just to give an example, as this was my general setup and still is for quite some time. One flight is at 10 PM, you can still work the whole day, go leave for the airport at around 7-7:30 PM, at 1 AM I'm at my destination (with a +1 hour timezone change), so that is about 5 hours. But can still sleep afterwards and have a full day the second day. By car you can leave at around 7 AM and best case scenario you drive 9 hours, worst case 12. Train you leave at around midnight and get there at 4 PM, but you can't actually sleep in the train as there are no sleeper carts. When it comes to cost, car is cheapest with plane and train around the same, depending when you buy the ticket. When it comes to setting everything up, car is basic, you just get in and drive, all vignettes online; plane buy ticket in one place, that is it, train a bit more complicated. I still hope we'll get better at this, because I don't believe that autonomous cars or self driving will solve anything and we should focus on trains when it comes to more environmentally friendly mass transportation.

itronitron 4y ago

This seems useful for finding which site has routes between which major cities. I tested out a few routes on nightjet and if you aren't traveling between capital cities then the route seems likely to include several transfers in the early morning hours (not exactly sleeper then). It would be nice if they showed the transfers up front, as I was only able to get them listed in a roundabout way.

moffkalast 4y ago

Yeah, a while back I was looking at booking a train for a decent distance and you could only get connections that had ~5 min or ~5 hours in padding, and nothing in between. It's a real planning train wreck (ha) and god forbid you need an international connection.