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I’m from Sweden, so if I’m traveling in Europe I’m mainly taking flight to the continent, and then travel by train between countries in the continent. Must be even worse to only rely on train for the Finnish.
Always taking train between cities within Sweden, unless I’m going to a northern city like Umeå for some reason (incredibly rare for me).
But as the map shows, Sweden has good night trains, both south directly from Stockholm to Hamburg and Berlin, and north to Umeå and beyond.
I'd maybe call 'good' a slight overstatement. They exist, but currently leave much to desire.
I’ve only tried the ones going south (SJ to Malmö/Copenhagen and SJ and Snälltåget to Hamburg and Berlin) and have found them to be perfectly adequate. The rolling stock is old (ex-Deutsche Bahn) but refurbished, they’re mostly punctual (though running through Germany can compromise that) and offer a comfortable journey. SJ Stockholm to Berlin (leaving at around 17:30 and arriving before 9 the following day) is just about manageable, though once the Fehmarn Belt tunnel is complete, I imagine that will depart around 20:00 to arrive at the same time. Other than shortening the journey, my wishlist would be ÖBB NightJet-style single-person capsule compartments, onboard WiFi and a dining carriage (though apparently they’re working on the latter).
Will that improve with the Fehmarn Belt tunnel?
It very well could, yes! It would certainly shorten the amount of time spent within the Danish mainland.
I wish we had accessible public transportation in America. Cool map!
Earlier this year, I did a last-minute trip to mainland Europe and I ended up using two sleeper trains: Rome-Vienna and Vienna-Amsterdam. I slept like a baby on both, and I can't being to explain the magic of lying in bed peeking through a blind at the countryside passing by outside, the strange shifts in gravity as the train rounds corners on mountain passes, and waking up in a new country, stepping out of your bedroom into the very centre of a thriving city. The costs were about €100 each, which isn't much more than a cheap hotel room.
I cannot recommend them enough.
Now that's a more useful map - trains you can really ride on now !
(cf previous map of TENs - about european project funding).
Indeed I have taken many of these routes.
It's great if you live near hubs like Praha, Wien, Stockholm or indeed Lviv.
However there are so many gaps which existed not so long ago. For example I remember the hotel-trains across Spain from Irun to Lisbon and Algeciras (for Maroc), nightly trains Bruxelles-Luxembourg-Basel-Milano and Bruxelles-Warszawa, also Villach-Belgrade. Going back even further I even recall (London-)-Ostend-Moscow and Thessaloniki-Istanbul.
So I hope some of these will come back again, and/or go longer distances in one night using high-speed lines (as in China).
Thank you for the post!
Glad :) while we are at it, here's another web that may come handy: chronotrains.com
Thanks for the post, small addition, avoid Germany
We tried to take the night train twice this year. Both times were economically infeasible, the night train cost twice the price of a normal train ride AND an additional night in a hotel. Taking normal trains works well though 👌
No - as I live in Norway and we have ahit train systems. If I go by car to Sweden and then it’s possible
The channel tunnel needs to be open at night, night bus is already a great way to travel benelux/rheinland to london but imagine a Berlin/Barcelona/Milan to UK night train it'd be great
They’d also need to build and certify rolling stock to the tunnel’s safety requirements, which are stringent, and one of the reasons why no other companies have offered services through the tunnel.
When the tunnel was built, they actually did plan sleeper train services between Scotland and Paris/Brussels, and commissioned compliant sleeper carriages. The service ended up never happening, and the carriages were sold to Canada.
@anzo This is the only possible/feasible way I could take an international train. Never did so far, because I would have to spare a couple of days for the train route, and it is also a bit pricey for me to travel abroad. I think I would start off with an internal route, from my corner of this country to a different one, just so I can get accustomed to sleeping in a night train.
I wish I had the ability to travel to other countries, it's all so expensive, and I can't travel by train because it's not even an option.
Being a Moroccan is not fun. Yes, we have trains, but you're limited to national travel with them.
I did not try the night trains yet, but did use regular high-speed trains to go on vacations. I have good connections to Austria, Italy, France, Netherlands, Czechia and even Denmark from the middle of Germany that I have used for various vacations. But you waste two days of your vacation for traveling to your destination and back (which you usually also have to do if you go by car or fly).