Sweden set to be within easy reach of London by sleeper train

[whole diary]

[Celestial]

Vienna to Frankfurt.

Although currently suspended, Vienna to Brussels is already a reality since earlier this year (?), twice a week. Nightjet's original plans were  to go up to daily from December.

[stuving]

I felt the article was clickbait - when you look at the details, it's an aspiration to get a sleeper train from Malmo to Brussels via Cologne, with getting the authorisations being seemingly tricky to do.

Personally, if I was in the sleeper train business, I'd be looking for pairs of cities about 8-10 hours apart by sleeper, with heavy expense-account business traffic. Perhaps Milan to Frankfurt, Paris to Madrid, Vienna to Frankfurt. I'd then put on a premium overnight service with decent catering for business travellers, cheaper 'classic' compartments with room-service, and 'capsule' pods to compete with Ryanair/bus. Train leaves at 11, arrives at 6, kick out at 7 to clear the platform for rush-hour, with a lounge at the end so the plebs can shower and shave. Run it as a joint venture, Accor for hotel & catering services, a freight operator for the traction and someone like Hitachi for the rolling stock.

Don't forget this is Sweden - "Swedish Railways" don't run trains, they'd have to get a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) to run them. The Independent's article does say that:

Swedish authorities notably need to decide whether to provide subsidy for night trains and who should run them.

[grahame]

Delighted to find this diagram - "So you want to run a night train across Europe" as part of Rail Action 18 from RailFuture ... and all the more delighed that it's available for sharing under Creative Commons with very deserved credit to Jonworth


Click on image to see it a bit bigger

[grahame]

From The Guardian

For all their promise of romance and adventure, Europe’s sleeper trains had appeared to have reached the end of the line.

Cripplingly expensive to run and forsaken by travellers for budget airlines, a decision by the German rail operator Deutsche Bahn to terminate the service connecting Paris to Berlin six years ago ushered in the closure of routes across the continent including almost all of France’s network.

But as Europe continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, there are tentative signs of a new dawn for the couchettes and twin bunks, as the concerns of both governments and travellers’ over the environmental impact of short-haul flights are being complemented by a desire to avoid airport departure lounges and security queues.

In the last few weeks there has been a flurry of announcements and inaugural journeys. Last Thursday the Swedish government said it would provide funds for two new routes to connect the cities of Stockholm and Malmö with Hamburg and Brussels.

[grahame]

From that great authority of complete an unbiased news - the Daily Mail

Night train to Nice? Rail body calls for sleeper trains to use Channel Tunnel due to rise in post-Covid eco-tourism
* Night trains, including from Brussels to Stockholm and Vienna, are being revived
* Rail industry has proposed to run sleeper trains through Channel tunnel
* It is in order to cater for growing demand for environmentally-friendly travel
* Many sleeper services were phased out after the rise of budget air travel

[snip]

Overnight trains running internationally from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) could mean passengers going to bed in the UK and waking up for breakfast in Barcelona.

 

Behind a firewall at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/call-to-let-sleeper-trains-use-channel-tunnel-mt7sv0bdk, The Times addresses the issue of the economics of running sleepers through the Channel Tunnel

... night trains are being revived in several European countries, including from Paris to Nice and Brussels to Stockholm and Vienna, and rail companies also want international sleepers to serve the UK.

However, to do so economically, they say the stringent safety rules governing the Channel tunnel would need to be relaxed because they currently require very specific and expensive rolling stock. ...

A few years back now, Lisa and I came back from Barcelona overland by train - evening train to Toulouse (I think it was), Sleeper to Paris, Metro across the city, Eurostar to St Pancras, 205 (I suspect - can't recall) to Paddington, HST^▸ (High Speed Train) to Swindon, local train to Melksham, taxi for the final mile.  Would love to be able to cut out some of the awkward Paris and London stuff, though a sleeper service from Barcelona to Weymouth, dropping off at small intermediate stations like the Deerstalker with servicing facilities in Jersey Sidings like they have at Long Rock, sounds far fetched and a hard economic case to make.  Mind you, there might be not only a market for Southern England to Spain for holidays (passengers from the West Country change at Westbury, from Bristol and South Wales change at Swindon), but also for Toulousians and Parisians to visit the wonders of Dorset and the Jurassic Coast for their green holidays.  Start the lowland Caledonian Sleeper in the early evening from Weymouth too ... a mad idea, but then who knows what might happen in the coming decades?

[CyclingSid]

Look to the past. There used to be a Glasgow to Eastbourne sleeper, possibly only seasonal. Noticed this when looking up Eastbourne station on Wikipedia and the details of the Eastbourne rail crash. The composition of the train was interesting;  "Glasgow to Eastbourne car sleeper consisted of 16 vehicles, two coaches, three sleeping cars, ten vans for luggage and motor cars and a guards van at the rear". Do the Channel Tunnel car transporters fit the rest of the uk gauge?

[Bob_Blakey]

In the not too distant past I have used sleepers to travel between Paris & Venice and Prague & Cologne. I would be absolutely delighted if more services were reinstated.

[TaplowGreen]

Look to the past. There used to be a Glasgow to Eastbourne sleeper, possibly only seasonal. Noticed this when looking up Eastbourne station on Wikipedia and the details of the Eastbourne rail crash. The composition of the train was interesting;  "Glasgow to Eastbourne car sleeper consisted of 16 vehicles, two coaches, three sleeping cars, ten vans for luggage and motor cars and a guards van at the rear". Do the Channel Tunnel car transporters fit the rest of the uk gauge?

Would you care to hazard a guess as to why there is no longer a sleeper service from Glasgow to Eastbourne?

[CyclingSid]

I wasn't advocating a sleeper service from Glasgow to Eastbourne. But did the composition of the train, car sleeper, suggest a way of encouraging potential passengers for am international service. I doubt if the return of Motorail in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) is much more likely than a seasonal Glasgow to Eastbourne car sleeper.

[rogerw]

The Glasgow - Eastbourne service was a motorail service so you could only travel on it with a car

[eXPassenger]

Look to the past. There used to be a Glasgow to Eastbourne sleeper, possibly only seasonal. Noticed this when looking up Eastbourne station on Wikipedia and the details of the Eastbourne rail crash. The composition of the train was interesting;  "Glasgow to Eastbourne car sleeper consisted of 16 vehicles, two coaches, three sleeping cars, ten vans for luggage and motor cars and a guards van at the rear". Do the Channel Tunnel car transporters fit the rest of the uk gauge?

The car transporters take a lorry / coach or 2 levels of cars so there is no way they would fit the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) loading gauge.

[MVR S&T]

I still keep reading the subject line as SWINDON set to be in easy reach of London by sleeper train....