It exists! European Sleeper inaugural departure. 3x a week, Berlin - Amsterdam - Brussels night train. It’s pretty retro, but it’s a heroic effort to even get this to run
@jon oh nice, they were built not even 20 km from me :-) Also love how they apparently only cleaned the part where the sticker would go, as if they were a bit in a hurry :D
@jon
Having recently had my first experience of European Sleeper services (Vienna > Amsterdam) I'm much less enthusiastic about sleeper trains.
Maybe OK if you're someone who can sleep anywhere, easily, and probably younger than me!
We had a compartment with loo, but even so we were wrecked the next day.
Couchettes would be a nightmare (& the communal loos looked gross on arrival)
Is this #sleepertrain boom based on some sort of nostalgia thing?
@MikeFromLFE it’s based on increased environmental consciousness I think. And yes, couchettes are generally pretty bad. But a sleeper ought to be ok. Why couldn’t you sleep? Too noisy?
@jon
I don't doubt the environmental credentials - it's just not the panacea for everyone.
In future I'd split the journey with a hotel night.
Sleeping? It's hard to define, but it certainly wasn't noise - compartment very quiet. I suspect it was the uneven ride (particularly across Germany!) It may have been the firm berth - I like thicker pillows too.
I'm guessing modern designs will address a lot of this - I hope so for future travellers.
@MikeFromLFE Hmm I hope so. Re. what makes a comfortable bed, yes, I am with you on that - these are not to everyone's tastes. And I don't think night trains are the solution for all, and for all journeys. We need more of all sorts of railways, not just night trains!
@jon@MikeFromLFE I've tried lots of sleepers, my almost 2m tall husband is a problem. The Swedish ones are most comfy, the nightjet is only ok, but if a couchette my advice is always to take ear plugs, a sleeping mask and an extra sleeping bag liner/sheet sleeping bag..
Kids love them though.
@Ruth_Mottram@MikeFromLFE Trains in Sweden and Finland (that has the best night trains of all) have wider bodywork so longer beds. Unless you put beds lengthwise it’s not simple to solve. I’m 1m 83 so I manage ok even in ÖBB beds ;-) But my basic rule is I’ll only take a couchette if there’s no sleeper available (like next week Paris - Latour du Carol).
Here's the Amtrak Dreamliner sleepers, which are used everything West of Chicago, where everything is long-haul sometimes measured in days (Chicago to SF is nearly 3000km). For size reference, the cars are 3m wide, and the hallways something under 1m. The roomettes are "cozy" and bunk beds at night. (East Coast trains are similar but single-deck)
@olavf@jon@Ruth_Mottram
Thanks.
We were in a sleeper from NY to Chicago and then on the Empire Builder service from Chicago to Seattle as part of our 25th Wedding Anniversary trip (10 years ago).
We also used the VIA rail Canadian service from Vancouver to Toronto on the same trip.
We don't remember having any issues sleeping in North American trains - potentially because we were younger, or maybe it was the car size, lower speeds, or better beds?
Top speeds on most trains is 135km/h, but bigger the suspension has a fair amount of dampening so the cars don't sway quite as much, and you don't feel every track joint. Beds are okay, but it individually may depend on how the bed is oriented in the car
@jon@MikeFromLFE I had the same experience. I guess I had a couchette, no own loo and sharing with 2 friends - and in the middle of the night a stranger entered for the fourth bed. The bed was uncomfortable, it was noisy. The catering was bad, toilets gross. Talking about Düsseldorf-Vienna 2019.
@jon@MikeFromLFE what I also didn’t like is that the beds cannot be stowed away. So we left at 21.00 and had to sit hunched (is that what you’d call it?) on the lower bed until we went to sleep. Same in the morning: “woke up” at 7, and spent the next 2 hours in this uncomfortable position.
@heleenkuiper@jon
Those are exactly the type of issues we were trying to avoid by having a compartment rather than using a couchette.
I am doubtful that couchettes will still be in use in newer trains - possibly to be replaced by 'capsule' berths.
We didn't find the journey noisy at all.
@MikeFromLFE@heleenkuiper I reckon there’ll still be some couchettes for families. But yes, the capsules ÖBB is adding in its new trains are a good call.
@jon uh, quite expensive and the Amsterdam arrival is, so you get one train on the entire route, ridiculously crazy early (6:30?), to be honest, i am just not convinced these things will ever work
@becha@jon@ahrkrak thanks! Looks....underwhelming. Not even a power socket on a (fairly expensive) night train doesn't seem like a winning formula. Even local buses have charging points these days! And it doesn't look as modern as expected... I remember City NightLine being really nice.
Now not so much looking forward to my return trip this coming weekend.
@els76uk@becha@ahrkrak didn’t check the sleeping car, but there are sockets in the couchettes. And yes it IS underwhelming - it’s cobbled together from very old rolling stock because no one has anything more modern!
@jon will be interesting what I find. I don't care how old the carriages are, but they obv had to refurbish them inside. surprised they didn't even get a paint job though. @becha@ahrkrak
@jon fair point, but do you think Flixtrain own their own carriages? because they got them repainted. I reckon more likely they don't have enough money. same reason they didn't install power sockets. @becha@ahrkrak
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