The growing popularity of Europe’s once-shrinking network of overnight sleeper trains has picked up a new enthusiast, Sweden’s national rail operator. No surprises here: Sweden is the home of the ‘flight shame’ movement that wants to cut down on unnecessary flying.
The proposed train, which would serve Malmo, Copenhagen and terminate in Cologne, Germany would leave Malmo at 7:40 pm for a 6 am arrival in Cologne, where passengers could make connections for other cities. Passengers could be in London before noon, in Amsterdam by 9:30, Paris by 10 or Munich by 11.
Service would start in 2022, and is part of an overall Swedish plan for more night trains, including routes to Hamburg and other German cities, and possibly a direct route to Brussels that would connect to Eurostar for even earlier London arrivals.
It ‘s quite a reversal for night trains; only five years have passed since Deutsche Bahn ended most of its services, including Paris-to-Berlin, a route that has many railfans hoping for a revival. A big winner in the revival is Austria’s OBB, which bet heavily on continuing and expanding services, and took over most of Germany’s remaining routes in 2016.
I’d agree on the Amtrak experience: fine trip, but not sleep-friendly on the Sunset Limited or the Coast Starlight. But I also found the Catania-to-Naples night train not the smoothest either, but it did come with the excitement of the entire train being loaded onto the ferry for the crossing to the mainland!
My Amtrak night bedroom trips were all up and down the eastern USA mid and south Atlantic.
I remember taking the night train from Munich to Paris. It was very smooth and quiet. Hit the sack in the evening and wake up in Paris. I’ve taken Amtrak bedrooms on overnight trips, but got little sleep from the rocking and noises.