The majority of short haul flights are taken for business purposes and night trains are simply not an alternative for this customer segment.
By flying, I can leave in the morning, spend the day working in another city and then fly back the same day. Business travelers also do not arrive 2h earlier to the airport (my rule of thumb is ~15min prior to boarding), further increasing the convenience and time savings of flights.
Even for tourists, night trains are often cost-prohibitive, and from a comfort perspective sleeping on a shared (or even private) bunk among strangers without proper (private) shower facilities might appeal to a crowd on a budget, but then the cost-prohibitive argument comes in again.
Instead of wasting money and other resources on night trains, it would be better to focus on frequent, fast and reliable connections between cities that are 1-4h from each other by high speed rail; that’s the real sweet spot.
Please make one to the ski stations. Like sleeper train to Moutier or close the bus stations.
Regularly use the Caledonian Sleeper to get up to Glasgow. Its heavily subsidised so you can often get a seat for £50. Seats a three across the aisle instead of 4. Its an OK way to travel in my book. Better than busses anyway.
As someone who likes train rides I’m genuinely stoked for this.
I’ve been to Paris more than once, you get on the TGV in Munich in the morning and arrive in Paris for lunch.
Less cramped than flying, really nice views and no useless sitting around at airports.
I dislike flying, but if night trains become an option there are SO many places in Europe I want to travel to.
Estonia is definitely top of my list right now.
I’m loving this trend. Europe is so close geographically that a night train means you can go to a new city hundreds of kilometers away for the weekend, and be back at work on Monday morning.
If you rely on normal trains or flights you waste 40% of your weekend with travel time.
As someone who took Eurostar from London to Amsterdam tonight. The train stopped in Brussels for 3 hours. Then at 1am we were all kicked off. Basically abandoned. I’m now paying a 500 euro cab back to Amsterdam with 3 other people.
There are some fundamental problems with the railways and clearly no procedures in place. Children stuck at this station. Confused elderly. A fucking mess.
6 comments
The majority of short haul flights are taken for business purposes and night trains are simply not an alternative for this customer segment.
By flying, I can leave in the morning, spend the day working in another city and then fly back the same day. Business travelers also do not arrive 2h earlier to the airport (my rule of thumb is ~15min prior to boarding), further increasing the convenience and time savings of flights.
Even for tourists, night trains are often cost-prohibitive, and from a comfort perspective sleeping on a shared (or even private) bunk among strangers without proper (private) shower facilities might appeal to a crowd on a budget, but then the cost-prohibitive argument comes in again.
Instead of wasting money and other resources on night trains, it would be better to focus on frequent, fast and reliable connections between cities that are 1-4h from each other by high speed rail; that’s the real sweet spot.
Please make one to the ski stations. Like sleeper train to Moutier or close the bus stations.
Regularly use the Caledonian Sleeper to get up to Glasgow. Its heavily subsidised so you can often get a seat for £50. Seats a three across the aisle instead of 4. Its an OK way to travel in my book. Better than busses anyway.
As someone who likes train rides I’m genuinely stoked for this.
I’ve been to Paris more than once, you get on the TGV in Munich in the morning and arrive in Paris for lunch.
Less cramped than flying, really nice views and no useless sitting around at airports.
I dislike flying, but if night trains become an option there are SO many places in Europe I want to travel to.
Estonia is definitely top of my list right now.
I’m loving this trend. Europe is so close geographically that a night train means you can go to a new city hundreds of kilometers away for the weekend, and be back at work on Monday morning.
If you rely on normal trains or flights you waste 40% of your weekend with travel time.
As someone who took Eurostar from London to Amsterdam tonight. The train stopped in Brussels for 3 hours. Then at 1am we were all kicked off. Basically abandoned. I’m now paying a 500 euro cab back to Amsterdam with 3 other people.
There are some fundamental problems with the railways and clearly no procedures in place. Children stuck at this station. Confused elderly. A fucking mess.