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.
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.
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.