An idea from the premium end of long-haul airliners could become the solution for budget travelers on overnight trains, and could possibly allow a rapid expansion of available overnight sleeper rolling stock.
DreamSuite, an adaptation of business-class lie-flat seats from the airlines, was developed by Future Travel Studio under a grant from the UK Department for Transport and Innovation, working with train builder Alstom.
Overnight sleeper trains have regained popularity in Europe over the past few years, usually as a combination of budget sit-up-and-maybe-recline-a-bit coach seats and private sleeper and couchette compartments at a premium price. The DreamSuite is aimed at travelers who find sleeping on coaches difficult but whose budgets don't stretch to the true sleeper cars.
Because standard coaches could easily be converted to sleepers by replacing regular seats with DreamSuite, the new seating could also help solve another problem: there is a limited stock of existing sleepers, and it takes time and a big investment to build new ones or upgrade existing stock. The shortage has delayed or prevented the start of a number of planned routes.
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