Would you switch from planes to overnight trains if there were sleeping trains to more destinations and fares were cheaper?

10 comments

1. I miss the overnight trains. Back in the day we used to do the Paris-Milan route with our car on the same train. Amazing experiences.

   If the sleeping berths were not too expensive I would def consider it.

   I mean now you can do Naples-Rome-Milan-Paris in a train so why not just have a sleeper? Leave Naples at 9am, arrive Paris 9am the next day? Would be awesome (even with a few stops)

2. Abso-fucking-lutely.

   The crippling of our railways is one of Portugal’s biggest tragedies of the last 40 years.

3. I avoid flying as much as humanly possible, so I go on night trains (or day trains for that matter) quite often when travelling. I only fly when it’s impossible to take a train/ferry. I’ve flown three return trips since 2017, and two of those were through work. Whenever I’m travelling within Sweden, I insist on staying on the ground. Haven’t flown domestic in ~10 years. Can’t even remember how many times I’ve taken the night train from the north down to Stockholm and onwards.

   Mostly this is due to environmental concerns, but also my fiancée doesn’t like flying, so when we travel we naturally use other modes of transport.

   Most Swedes are not like this, though. Pretty much everyone flies when they go abroad. The fares definitely need to get cheaper for more people to start using the night trains, and we need to improve our rail infrastructure. The direct night train between Stockholm-Hamburg/Berlin that came a couple of years back is a very welcome addition.

4. Absolutely, especially because I don’t like to fly.

5. Jesus, absolutely. Arriving well rested, not having to deal with airports, no luggage/snack micro-transactions on low-cost city hoppers, more leg room, sockets to charge my devices, and the blissful absence of engine noises – it’s bliss. And you get to sleep gently rocked by the train tracks, which is one of the best sleeps I ever had in my life.

   However, it is still fairly expensive to get a berth, and if you chose a regular seat you don’t get any rest at all – the lights don’t dim, passengers get to use it as a normal train so you get drunk people shouting at 4am, and if you’re unlucky enough you have to deal with the Lovecraftian horror that is an hour-long break in Frankfurt in the wee hours of the night.

6. Yes! Years ago I took the train from Denmark to Munich, Prague and other places a couple of times. Instead of arriving well outside the city late Friday evening, I arrived in city center in the morning, reasonably well rested. In the Czech train they even have dining cars serving a hot meal of meat and “knedliky”, and have Urquell beer on tap, while all you can hope for with Ryanair, Easyjet & co is an overpriced plastic wrapped sandwich.

7. i don’t see how train could move me from Ireland to Poland in reasonable time so nope.

   On the continent/shorter routes it’s ok – same as bus

8. I love the idea. However in practice I just have a completely sleepless night I need a couple of days to recover from.

9. I think people underestimate the amount of bed bugs there would be in those overnight trains.

10. I am now over 60 and fondly remember train travel in Europe and in India, first and second and third class sleepers, dining cars…there was even a shower on the British Rail London-Glasgow. I’d love that style of traveling to come back.