European Sleeper plans to open bookings on December 16 and launch service between the French and German capitals on March 26, 2026, after France's national rail company abandoned the night line.
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.
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.