Please can it have a nightclub carriage playing this song.
Route via Aulnoye makes sense, but then since ES already runs a night train from Brussels to Praha, this one could better run along the dorsale wallon direct to Liege. And then why via Hamburg - seems a strange deviation unless heading to go to Scandinavia ?
Hamburg must be just a mix-up by the French reporter. Hannover must have been meant, I believe.
Hamburg is not a huge detour and obviously there will be more customers interested in getting on or off the train there than Hannover or so. Also the tracks between Hamburg and Berlin are currently being renovated, so once those are done, the ride is probably going to be a lot smoother.
Hamburg HBf is an extremely congested station. That means, it’s difficult to find a slot for your train there and the risk of delays is especially high in Hamburg.
Also, at Hamburg HBf the train would need to be reversed, which takes some half an hour of time with a train that doesn’t have a steering wagon in its other end.This could be alleviated by running through the Hamburg-Harburg station, which is reachable from HBf by S-Bahn in a bit under 15 minutes, but by doing that, you lose a lot of the potential for changing trains from Scandinavia and Finland to this night train for Paris.
Even though for me personally a route through Hamburg HBf would be very welcome, I hope it won’t go that way. It seems to be, all in all, much better for the European railway network that the train will take the more direct way from Berlin to Belgium.
This is becoming quite a chestnut in Europe. If only there were as many people who wanted to take night trains as there are who want to save them.
They are somewhat niche, but on the lines where they run they don’t seem to have problems with demand.
So why are they always fighting closure? What is certain is that they are, AFAIK, never profitable (unlike many high-speed lines). Not every train line has to be profitable - but then, if there’s no problem with demand, why would they not just raise prices to ward off closure? Something’s off!
In France the track usage fees are very high, and you need state support to be able to cover them. Germany, for example, doesn’t give such subventions to night train companies.
European Sleeper can run to Paris because they have chosen a route where they minimize the kilometres run on French territory.
But indeed: Where are those lines really fighting closure? Currently all of Europe’s night train wagons are in use, and if some connection is closed, the same amount of capacity (the same wagons) will appear elsewhere in Europe.
I don’t think we’d be having trouble with the availability of wagons if things were as you claim.
Yes I was aware of France’s abusively high track fees.
I’m just noting a societal phenomenon that IMO affects France in particular, as it happens. Many of the same people who complain about night trains being axed do not in fact take night trains themselves. Aspirational night-train passengers, you could call them. They themselves take cheap flights, which are objectively easier, more comfortable and (uh) cheaper.
French night trains, which I have taken a number of times, are not very full and not very good. I know things are better in central Europe. Personally, I’m convinced they will never be the answer to planes. If they were, China would be investing in them and not in high-speed rail. The market for night trains will never be more than a romantic footnote and I wish we would not be so distracted by them.
Where’s this information from that people are complaining about night trains being axed even though they are not being axed are flying anyway? That contradicts my experiences. Usually you need to buy places in night trains a long time in advance because they tend to run full-booked.
Also, China has high-speed night trains.
We could do the same. The infrastructure is in place for a night train from Stockholm to Barcelona. I would leave around six and arrive around ten. China is doing that, why are we not?The statistics show that for typical night-train itineraries, flying is far (far) more popular. The rest is just my own anecdotal experience.
China’s high-speed night train is definitely an option. I doubt it will ever happen, there are so many other projects with higher priority (the kind of projects that the Chinese get done in a year and that take Europe a decade).
I have taken trains of all kinds all over Europe, and indeed all over China. Including the 30-hour variants. My opinion is that if we want to get people out of planes, slow trains (day or night) are basically an irrelevance. Even if they were cheap they will still just be toooo slooooow for most people. The only thing that can compete is high-speed for the 600km itinerary. The rest is nice to have. It’s a romantic experience for train fans like us, and irrelevant for almost everyone else.
