It is written that this is the first ever direct train between Berlin and Rotterdam. This is true but only if we don't go back to the '80s, when a direct train connected Berlin and Hoek van Holland (via Rotterdam), with direct cars from Warszawa and Moskwa.
Great video. It’s wonderful to see the return of sleeper trains across Europe. While some people are critical of the older rolling stock, if it’s comfortable, does the job and the fares are reasonable, why not? 😊
"It’s wonderful to see the return of sleeper trains across Europe". No. Sleeper trains had just disappeared from *Western* Europe but Europe is fortunately much larger than just its Western part. It's mindblowing to see how stubbornly Westerners believe that "Europe = Western Europe".
@@FromtheWindowSeat Thanks for your reply. Other than that, thanks for this report. I'm highly interested in this new night line, especially once it's extended to Dresden and Prague. I hope European Sleeper will keep expanding - and inspire more private and public rail companies into following suit.
The fares are not reasonable, not for multi occupancy sleeping cars with layouts from the immediate post WWII era. How many people after two + years of covid terrorizing, and social distancing are going to want to share a room overnight with 4 to 6 random strangers. Walk up airfares are cheeper than this train and if you are going to be stuffed into a sardine can it might as well be for as short a period of time as possible. The operators are starting these services before having adequate modern equipment, good grief nonAC cars in 2023? My bet is within a month this service will be down too 5-7 mostly empty cars as many of the other recently launched overnight trains have done.
@@emilkarpo Blablabla... No one forces you to take this train if you don't want to but please stop pouring your nonsense and frustrations onto people who are happy about it and plan to travel on it. Recent experience is proving time and time again that the "new" overnight train lines that are reopening in Western Europe are highly successful and often booked up.
The sleeping cars on "The Canadian" also have been operating since 1955. I have traveled on it 51x since 1964. The Budd corp sure built them to last. Thanks for posting this. Cheers from Vancouver.
how lovely; it reminds me of my youth (alsmost 78), need a private bathroom and then I retake the sleeper towards Praha! Time and speed are no issue, nor the costs
Doc, great video and quick as well. As one of the many investors in this project I was very anqious to see how it went and I enyoded the video very much. The two dutch entrepeneurs will be happy to see your video.
A great retro train ride without a dining car through three countries with a delay of only 45 minutes! Not even for three hours, according to German tradition. Congratulations! It was great!
I'd love to have time and funds to afford such travel at least once in lifetime. BUT if not, your movies give are the best possible substitute! I feel like have travelled myself!
I think this a great way to travel, overnight and avoiding hotel cost too. In 1992 I took the overnight motorail service Santander - Malaga, still remember being woken up by train as we passed Madrid!! There needs to be night sleepers service from London to Germany / Austria & onwards HS1 is little used at night. Better still Manchester - Birmingham - Paris, hopefully the loading gauge will permit these trains. Later in the year I will be travelling Amsterdam - Berlin, but at about 7 hours this is not long enough to warrant using an overnight sleeper.
A sleeper service between London and Frankfurt was originally planned. They even built the carriages shortly before the plan was scrapped. They are now used in Canada.
Just when I was planning my trip to Brussels, you give me this option to travel to Amsterdam, cheaper than Thalys. In the next years will be traveling to Praha. Thanks!!
Still an amazing night train service, even with those stainless steel cars nearly 70 years old. I thought VIA rail Csnada ran very old equipment. Haha! Great video.😊
Deluxe + €239 = no en suite shower?!? I'm impressed. And apart from what looks like a mediocre breakfast served at an ungodly hour there's no other catering available? You have to bring your own drinks? I'm even more impressed. BER-BRU is 1h25, and prices start at about €57. No-brainer. Only downside of flying is that you don't get to spend a night with a cute little flashing mood light. In addition to a platoon of media types and another one of train fanatics, were there any genuine passengers on board, I wonder?
Why aren't there any window curtains on the "premium sleeper" cabins? I noticed curtains in the cheaper coach cabins but none at all in the private sleeper cabins, which seemed awful strange to me. Are people expected to be clothed all the time while sleeping in their private cabins, or is it okay in Europe for passengers in private sleepers to flash people outside the train?
Locomitive is Alstom TRAXX F140 MS. Alstom did not get the "Bombardier" rights and not allowed to use it since the "Bombardier" ciompany is still alive after liquidation of everything except 2 business jets. The train's speed is more likely to be limited by 1955 rolling stock and what the bogies and suspension speed limit was for those cars.
25:30 - 46 Apeldoorn 26:05 Kootwijk (highest point between Apeldoorn-Amersfoort) 26:33 between Amersfoort and Baarn 27:28 A'dam Muiderpoort (missing the international yard at Watergraafsmeer by minutes) 28:06 - 50 passing former Dijksgracht Yard (demolished to make way for a dive-under) (you travelled the first Dutch railway line from Amsterdam to Haarlem, openend in 1839) 30:44 NS main workshop at Haarlem 31:54 Route 4; Amsterdam - Gouda - Rotterdam as used by a direct stopping train every 30 minutes). 32:57 after Den Haag HS 34:06 Schiedam Centrum (former known as Schiedam - Rotterdam West and a stopping point for the Hoek van Holland - Moskou express via Berlin, correcting the statement at 34:46) 36:08 crossing the Maas at Dordrecht. The return trip was watched by me (with the same loco) at Roosendaal and Amersfoort and was straight on time....
They don't use the high speed line as it probably cost them more then the regular line. And idk. if all the waggons are fitted with the nesessay equipment (NBÜ)
The SNCB and NS will well sell ticket for Europeansleeper services. However, due to technical reasons this is indeed not yet the case but will soon be resolved. Interrail and Eurail pass will aslo normally be valid, but for the same reason, this is not yet the case.
Good grief, 1970 called and they want their rolling stock back. Around 21:40 that sleeping car sounds like it has some bad flat spots on at least one set of wheels. The whole service looks rushed to market. A few of the cars looked clean and fresh but most of the train looks like it was hauled out of long term storage and barely given a once over.
European sleeper said they plan to get new rolling stock in the future. A new company would have a great upfront investment and could only start years later of they wanted to use new rolling stock from the beginning. It's not as if you could buy ready-made factory new sleeping cars immediately.
For what it's worth, Nightjet is getting some newly-built sleeper trains added over the next two years, and they have a few routes across a decent part of mainland Europe
Looks too expensive for what you get and how much it lasts. You get super cheap flights in Europe nowadays so I wonder how long this business will last
It are stations where the train has to stop and wait until there is room for it on the tracks to proceed further (somewhere between the many freight trains that run at night) as opposed to a stop to allow passengers to board and/or leave the train.
@@doc7austin there used to be a direct train Moskva - Berlin - Schiedam Rotterdam West - Hoek van Holland ( Schiedam Rotterdam west is renamed to Schiedam centrum a few years ago )
Well you didn't get much sleep on the sleeper train did you? I can't see the point of it. You can take one of the daytime trains between Berlin and Amsterdam which takes 6 hours 30 minutes.
Well I’m just NOT impressed at all. 😕. No dining car for dinner nor a leisurely breakfast 👎🏻. A “deluxe sleeper “ should have an en-suite 🤔. The only people that will use this are those who want to avoid a hotel bill. Still have to spend for a sleeper though 🤷♂️. I’d rather take a daylight high speed train with restaurant car or at your seat meal service and able to watch the scenery go by. To each their own but this is a NO from me. 🤨
About 300 per cent better than a wasteful, uncomfortable RyanAir/EasyJet/Wizz Air flight where some staff treat you like children as you pack into a single aisle aircraft. From Australia, I never use short-haul air in Europe: always rail. Sleeping car trains are usually very good. This looks no exception.
At least the flight is over quickly. What sort of market, after 2+ years of covid terrorizing, and social distancing, is there for a service that packs from 4-6 random strangers in a room overnight and a nonAC room t that. Even the cheapest bed is slightly less or more than walk up airfares and that's in a 50-70 year old product. This is an example of taking something that failed in the past and doing the whole thing again but expecting a different outcome. The operators should have waited until adequate modern equipment was available.
@@emilkarpo If you want to look at scenery during the day and save money by also travelling at night in a sleeper, avoiding costly hotels, rail is ideal. Do you criticise Boeing 744s (i.e. 747-400s) just because they're 'old'? Sleeping cars of this vintage were extremely well built so with a few tweaks, and proper maintenance, can be around for a while yet. For those who visit Europe and love travelling in aluminium tin cans crammed into an A320 or B7378 middle seat, air is wonderful. But you fail to realise many international visitors don't want to replicate stressful air where one sees little or nothing travelling between European cities, and is sometimes dumped at airports 60 or 70 kilometres from the city centre.
@@edmundcarew7235 The fares these operators are charging are higher than an inexpensive hotel or guest house and you get a room you don't have to share with a bunch of strangers.
The "tac tac tac" ssound of wheels (especially when you were in rear car is trademarked by VIA Rail in Canada who makes sure all its train cars hacve that sound :-( It is often due to mismatched equipment with different braking performance cars with better brakes will see the wheels stop and slide while other cars don't brake as well, and this creates flat spots. Surprised that for newly rented equipment, the onwer wouldn't have put the wheels through the machine to remove flat spots and make the wheels round again. This is not a sound one would expect in Europe, it is a Canadian sound !
I think you're also forgetting something here. The market in Europe for night train equipment is in extremely high demand, yet with very little supply. Its also why sleeper cars from the mid 1950's are also still in use for services like this. The young start up firms, of which European Sleeper is one of many, dont have the money to buy brand new coaches, none of them do. The only ones that do are the large state owned railways, or operators with already big companies bankrolling them, like how First Group owns Lumo in the UK, NTV runs Italo in Italy, and MTR owns MTRX in Sweden. And even for some like Transdev owned Snälltåget from Sweden, its simply easier and more practical for them to get their hands on second hand rolling stock. Now with ÖBB getting new Nightjet rolling stock, it means a ton of their displaced coaches will likely end on the second hand market and in the hands of leasing firms and new start ups, hopefully easing the pressure a little bit.
@@drdewott9154 the old sleeping cars got insides and systems rebuilt. But having flat wheels indicates poor ongoing maintenance. When European Sleeper rented those coaches it should have insisted the wheels get maintained through a turning machine before car is delivered. Once in dialy service, it becomes harder to take it out and have its wheels fixed.
Is that coaching stock really 70 years old? Wow. They are so cool and nicer than trains like IC 😊. How many weeks in a year in central and Western Europe is ac needed? And should sleeper trains be arriving in the early hours of the morning rather than being a slower way to travel avoiding a night’s hotel cost so arriving at 6h or 7h? Just asking because you are clearly an expert and I don’t know
better this than an ICE with faulty a/c, which turns into a sauna because you can't open the windows. Of course high-speed trains cannot have openable windows, but slower ones like night trains definitely can, so why not. Also, this is just the beginning. They will refurbish carriages eventually, it's just not so easy to get sleeper carriages at all.
@@sxflyer5410 very odd opinion! We do not need AC, because it can be out of service in a high speed Train! If we want night trains for the future, we have to get away from these start-up companys, who are playing around with low quality nostalgic trains.
@@GöranNilsson-m2n Without these start-up companies there would be no or very limited international night-train service after all. This is better than nothing. Big players like DB sadly don't care about night trains. And new rolling stock is unavailable, so this is better than nothing. I do hope European Sleeper is successful and will manage to get enough money to be able to upgrade their carriages. I personally just don't mind the lacking a/c too much tbh, in my opinion a fully open window gets similar results, especially at night time when the sun is not out.
@@sxflyer5410 You are of course right. NightJet (ÖBB, DB, SBB and SNCF) operate 20 routes (2 more coming in December), and in cooperation with others they operate 10 more routes! In Sweden, Norway, Poland,Italy among other there are night trains operating. NightJet have fairly modern coaches, have launches 20 comfort couchettes and have 33 (231 coaches) completely new night trains on order! But why take these under consideration, when we have one ore two start-up companies, operating with up to 70 year old wagons? The nostalgia factor is high!!!!
@@juhakeskinen1103 because it is overnight. No one goes for dinner at 3am, lol. The sleeper train from Stockholm to Berlin also only has a dining car during daytime (Stockholm to Malmö).
@@sxflyer5410 yes but there is many hours before night and next morning. In Finland they close few hours during night. On train from Stockholm to Berlin you can buy something from conductor/train stuff
Dining in a restaurant car is another lost pleasures of rail travel. If only there was a way to add a dining car and have it available for dinner at (say) 20.00 and then again at 06.00 it would be extremely popular. It isn't just backpackers who would use a sleeper train. Adding 50-60 Euro to the train ticket to include dinner and breakfast would give a firm basis for funding it - plus the income from the sale of drinks etc.
What? This was only filmed yesterday?? That's amazing. Amazing work, as always. Thanks!
It's amazing to think that those sleeping cars have been in service since the 50's. Really says something about the quality.
That's awesome are there no plans to withdraw them yet?
Loved the trip !
It is written that this is the first ever direct train between Berlin and Rotterdam. This is true but only if we don't go back to the '80s, when a direct train connected Berlin and Hoek van Holland (via Rotterdam), with direct cars from Warszawa and Moskwa.
Great video. It’s wonderful to see the return of sleeper trains across Europe. While some people are critical of the older rolling stock, if it’s comfortable, does the job and the fares are reasonable, why not? 😊
"It’s wonderful to see the return of sleeper trains across Europe". No. Sleeper trains had just disappeared from *Western* Europe but Europe is fortunately much larger than just its Western part. It's mindblowing to see how stubbornly Westerners believe that "Europe = Western Europe".
@@majy1735 Oops. Fair point.
@@FromtheWindowSeat Thanks for your reply. Other than that, thanks for this report. I'm highly interested in this new night line, especially once it's extended to Dresden and Prague. I hope European Sleeper will keep expanding - and inspire more private and public rail companies into following suit.
The fares are not reasonable, not for multi occupancy sleeping cars with layouts from the immediate post WWII era. How many people after two + years of covid terrorizing, and social distancing are going to want to share a room overnight with 4 to 6 random strangers. Walk up airfares are cheeper than this train and if you are going to be stuffed into a sardine can it might as well be for as short a period of time as possible.
The operators are starting these services before having adequate modern equipment, good grief nonAC cars in 2023? My bet is within a month this service will be down too 5-7 mostly empty cars as many of the other recently launched overnight trains have done.
@@emilkarpo Blablabla... No one forces you to take this train if you don't want to but please stop pouring your nonsense and frustrations onto people who are happy about it and plan to travel on it. Recent experience is proving time and time again that the "new" overnight train lines that are reopening in Western Europe are highly successful and often booked up.
Thanks for being so fast posting this recent trip.
What a cool compartment with window near upper bed!
The sleeping cars on "The Canadian" also have been operating since 1955. I have traveled on it 51x since 1964. The Budd corp sure built them to last. Thanks for posting this. Cheers from Vancouver.
how lovely; it reminds me of my youth (alsmost 78), need a private bathroom and then I retake the sleeper towards Praha! Time and speed are no issue, nor the costs
Thanks for this interesting video. And yes it was the Magdeburger Dom. My Dad was born there.
Doc, great video and quick as well. As one of the many investors in this project I was very anqious to see how it went and I enyoded the video very much.
The two dutch entrepeneurs will be happy to see your video.
well, I was never invited to the press events both at the brussels hotel and in lichtenberg ; seat61 and simply railway were invited
A great retro train ride without a dining car through three countries with a delay of only 45 minutes! Not even for three hours, according to German tradition. Congratulations! It was great!
Thanks again for a nice video. I hope this new railcompany will succeed!
I feel like I was there :)
Superbe vidéo, merci !!!
I can't wait to take this train!! I hope this train is a big success!
Thank for video! Hope soon some discount for railway staff FIP holders. Greattings from Scotland
I love those big old-style cars. This ride and the scenery reminded me of Amtrak going through the Midwest. TY for the video.
I'd love to have time and funds to afford such travel at least once in lifetime. BUT if not, your movies give are the best possible substitute! I feel like have travelled myself!
I can’t wait to try this. Did my first European train trips last year and loved them. Great video!
Nice video sir
This is awesome. I'm definitely going to do this soon.
I think this a great way to travel, overnight and avoiding hotel cost too. In 1992 I took the overnight motorail service Santander - Malaga, still remember being woken up by train as we passed Madrid!! There needs to be night sleepers service from London to Germany / Austria & onwards HS1 is little used at night. Better still Manchester - Birmingham - Paris, hopefully the loading gauge will permit these trains. Later in the year I will be travelling Amsterdam - Berlin, but at about 7 hours this is not long enough to warrant using an overnight sleeper.
A sleeper service between London and Frankfurt was originally planned. They even built the carriages shortly before the plan was scrapped. They are now used in Canada.
After Brexit we can forget about more trains from London to Europe....
Thank you for this video.
Great working! Waiting for next videos
Just when I was planning my trip to Brussels, you give me this option to travel to Amsterdam, cheaper than Thalys. In the next years will be traveling to Praha. Thanks!!
I hung out at Amsterdam Central in 2008, but didn't see all the train sheds until now. Thanks.
Still an amazing night train service, even with those stainless steel cars nearly 70 years old. I thought VIA rail Csnada ran very old equipment. Haha! Great video.😊
But here it is necissady because a shortage of sleeping/night train wagons
The detour via Bremen was because of track renewal between Wunstorf and Haste.
Interesting journey !!!🥸
Nice!
Looks like fun!
Great video, thanks as always
Thanks! At one point you say entering Rotterdam city tunnel, when I think it's actually Antwerp.
perbaccolina ho dimenticato aggiungere mio gradimento per questo video
Thanks for the great video. Looked like a great experience ! Btw, saw you on the video of Brix the Penguin. :D
Thanks for the strontium about the new night train :). A small note: This wasn’t the first direct night train between Berlin and Rotterdam ;)
Nice!!
Nice video!
nice trip
Bedankt voor de mooie reportage
Good you got some food!
Great views and nice ride.
As always, great!
Deluxe + €239 = no en suite shower?!? I'm impressed. And apart from what looks like a mediocre breakfast served at an ungodly hour there's no other catering available? You have to bring your own drinks? I'm even more impressed. BER-BRU is 1h25, and prices start at about €57. No-brainer. Only downside of flying is that you don't get to spend a night with a cute little flashing mood light. In addition to a platoon of media types and another one of train fanatics, were there any genuine passengers on board, I wonder?
A felt utilization of 65% on the inaugural journey does not bode well for the long-term future of the European Sleeper project
without an en suite it's not a proper deluxe
Good video as always
Why aren't there any window curtains on the "premium sleeper" cabins? I noticed curtains in the cheaper coach cabins but none at all in the private sleeper cabins, which seemed awful strange to me. Are people expected to be clothed all the time while sleeping in their private cabins, or is it okay in Europe for passengers in private sleepers to flash people outside the train?
Amazing trip...
Locomitive is Alstom TRAXX F140 MS. Alstom did not get the "Bombardier" rights and not allowed to use it since the "Bombardier" ciompany is still alive after liquidation of everything except 2 business jets.
The train's speed is more likely to be limited by 1955 rolling stock and what the bogies and suspension speed limit was for those cars.
160 km/h i think, the rolling stock was modernized in the 1990s
A good route to open up, will the fares come down with advance booking? If only the UK could join the sleeper network.
Type P cars were built with an interesting stagging of compartments and windows, then they were refitted to a more common layout.
Interesting! What was the original layout?
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the red and white coloured carriages are normally used by the Optima Express.
25:30 - 46 Apeldoorn 26:05 Kootwijk (highest point between Apeldoorn-Amersfoort) 26:33 between Amersfoort and Baarn 27:28 A'dam Muiderpoort (missing the international yard at Watergraafsmeer by minutes) 28:06 - 50 passing former Dijksgracht Yard (demolished to make way for a dive-under) (you travelled the first Dutch railway line from Amsterdam to Haarlem, openend in 1839) 30:44 NS main workshop at Haarlem 31:54 Route 4; Amsterdam - Gouda - Rotterdam as used by a direct stopping train every 30 minutes). 32:57 after Den Haag HS 34:06 Schiedam Centrum (former known as Schiedam - Rotterdam West and a stopping point for the Hoek van Holland - Moskou express via Berlin, correcting the statement at 34:46) 36:08 crossing the Maas at Dordrecht. The return trip was watched by me (with the same loco) at Roosendaal and Amersfoort and was straight on time....
There is a 4th route to rotterdam a/dam utrect gauda r/dam
They don't use the high speed line as it probably cost them more then the regular line. And idk. if all the waggons are fitted with the nesessay equipment (NBÜ)
@ European Sleeper Train Berlin - Amsterdam - Brussels
The SNCB and NS will well sell ticket for Europeansleeper services. However, due to technical reasons this is indeed not yet the case but will soon be resolved.
Interrail and Eurail pass will aslo normally be valid, but for the same reason, this is not yet the case.
Wow, that was really fast posting a video for you 😅
Good grief, 1970 called and they want their rolling stock back.
Around 21:40 that sleeping car sounds like it has some bad flat spots on at least one set of wheels. The whole service looks rushed to market. A few of the cars looked clean and fresh but most of the train looks like it was hauled out of long term storage and barely given a once over.
Was it a comfortable sleep - I've taken a few nightjets with OBB and barely slept due to the noise and excessive movement
Haha now you must film the part to praque😅
It was daylight before the sun came up?
What is a technical stop?
Is there a shower in the train or just the sink and a WC?
❤
Buen vídeo. Un tren muy interesante 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Bruxelles North, Europe's most beautyful... You're joking, aren't you?
of course
Arguably slightly nicer than Bruxelles Midi / Brussel Sud
Mooie video, maar........ROTTERDAM City Tunnel?
In Belgium ?
Ich wundere mich, was der Zug in Bremen macht. Die direkte Route wäre Hannover Minden Osnabrück.
Wegen Bauarbeiten zwischen Wunstorf und Haste.
21:27 looks like an Amtrak locomotive
What is the tipping situation on European sleeper trains? Whom and how much?
I wouldn't even consider it.
Non-existent. Culturally, and this is essentially budget travel.
It is good to see that night trains are back. However, it looks like they use old wagons. What do you think?
European sleeper said they plan to get new rolling stock in the future. A new company would have a great upfront investment and could only start years later of they wanted to use new rolling stock from the beginning. It's not as if you could buy ready-made factory new sleeping cars immediately.
For what it's worth, Nightjet is getting some newly-built sleeper trains added over the next two years, and they have a few routes across a decent part of mainland Europe
@@DanielLamando i have seen them, looking forward to it, looks like more is needed in Europe
Sounds like your sleeping car has a flat tire at 21:57.
Looks too expensive for what you get and how much it lasts. You get super cheap flights in Europe nowadays so I wonder how long this business will last
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 Brasil
I dont know why this train go to Bremen, when can go direct from Hanover to Bad Benthein 100 km less in this route.
There was big construction work somewhere around Minden
What are technical stops?
It are stations where the train has to stop and wait until there is room for it on the tracks to proceed further (somewhere between the many freight trains that run at night) as opposed to a stop to allow passengers to board and/or leave the train.
@@m.moolhuysen5456 Thank you.👴🏾✌🏾
First ever direct train from Berlin to Rotterdam? Has there really never been a boat train from Berlin to Hoek van Holland?
a lot of decades ago
@@doc7austin there used to be a direct train Moskva - Berlin - Schiedam Rotterdam West - Hoek van Holland ( Schiedam Rotterdam west is renamed to Schiedam centrum a few years ago )
This might be the first train from Berlin to stop at Rotterdam Centraal
Well you didn't get much sleep on the sleeper train did you?
I can't see the point of it. You can take one of the daytime trains between Berlin and Amsterdam which takes 6 hours 30 minutes.
Relaxing and sleeping is the point of it. All they need now is a restaurant car.......
@@harri2626 I disagree with you.
Pourquoi nous a t'on supprimé la voiture lits sans raison valable sans remboursement et que l'on nous a mis dans une vieille couchette tres sale ?
Two stainless steel sleeping cars resemble Budd-built cars. I expected them to have superior ride quality but I was wrong.
They were built using Budd Co. stainless steel shot welding methods.
Well I’m just NOT impressed at all. 😕. No dining car for dinner nor a leisurely breakfast 👎🏻. A “deluxe sleeper “ should have an en-suite 🤔. The only people that will use this are those who want to avoid a hotel bill. Still have to spend for a sleeper though 🤷♂️. I’d rather take a daylight high speed train with restaurant car or at your seat meal service and able to watch the scenery go by. To each their own but this is a NO from me. 🤨
Error Antwerpen City Tunnel in place off Rotterdam at 37:38 Thank's
About 300 per cent better than a wasteful, uncomfortable RyanAir/EasyJet/Wizz Air flight where some staff treat you like children as you pack into a single aisle aircraft.
From Australia, I never use short-haul air in Europe: always rail. Sleeping car trains are usually very good. This looks no exception.
At least the flight is over quickly. What sort of market, after 2+ years of covid terrorizing, and social distancing, is there for a service that packs from 4-6 random strangers in a room overnight and a nonAC room t that. Even the cheapest bed is slightly less or more than walk up airfares and that's in a 50-70 year old product. This is an example of taking something that failed in the past and doing the whole thing again but expecting a different outcome. The operators should have waited until adequate modern equipment was available.
@@emilkarpo If you want to look at scenery during the day and save money by also travelling at night in a sleeper, avoiding costly hotels, rail is ideal.
Do you criticise Boeing 744s (i.e. 747-400s) just because they're 'old'?
Sleeping cars of this vintage were extremely well built so with a few tweaks, and proper maintenance, can be around for a while yet.
For those who visit Europe and love travelling in aluminium tin cans crammed into an A320 or B7378 middle seat, air is wonderful. But you fail to realise many international visitors don't want to replicate stressful air where one sees little or nothing travelling between European cities, and is sometimes dumped at airports 60 or 70 kilometres from the city centre.
@@edmundcarew7235 The fares these operators are charging are higher than an inexpensive hotel or guest house and you get a room you don't have to share with a bunch of strangers.
The "tac tac tac" ssound of wheels (especially when you were in rear car is trademarked by VIA Rail in Canada who makes sure all its train cars hacve that sound :-( It is often due to mismatched equipment with different braking performance cars with better brakes will see the wheels stop and slide while other cars don't brake as well, and this creates flat spots. Surprised that for newly rented equipment, the onwer wouldn't have put the wheels through the machine to remove flat spots and make the wheels round again. This is not a sound one would expect in Europe, it is a Canadian sound !
I think you're also forgetting something here. The market in Europe for night train equipment is in extremely high demand, yet with very little supply. Its also why sleeper cars from the mid 1950's are also still in use for services like this. The young start up firms, of which European Sleeper is one of many, dont have the money to buy brand new coaches, none of them do. The only ones that do are the large state owned railways, or operators with already big companies bankrolling them, like how First Group owns Lumo in the UK, NTV runs Italo in Italy, and MTR owns MTRX in Sweden. And even for some like Transdev owned Snälltåget from Sweden, its simply easier and more practical for them to get their hands on second hand rolling stock.
Now with ÖBB getting new Nightjet rolling stock, it means a ton of their displaced coaches will likely end on the second hand market and in the hands of leasing firms and new start ups, hopefully easing the pressure a little bit.
@@drdewott9154 the old sleeping cars got insides and systems rebuilt. But having flat wheels indicates poor ongoing maintenance. When European Sleeper rented those coaches it should have insisted the wheels get maintained through a turning machine before car is delivered. Once in dialy service, it becomes harder to take it out and have its wheels fixed.
Indian trip report complete?
part 2 will follow in june
@@doc7austin Oh.....eagerly awaiting for it👍👍
Is this the future of european nighttrains - 70 years old sleepers, coaches with no AC, 140 km/h,………..
Is that coaching stock really 70 years old? Wow. They are so cool and nicer than trains like IC 😊. How many weeks in a year in central and Western Europe is ac needed? And should sleeper trains be arriving in the early hours of the morning rather than being a slower way to travel avoiding a night’s hotel cost so arriving at 6h or 7h? Just asking because you are clearly an expert and I don’t know
better this than an ICE with faulty a/c, which turns into a sauna because you can't open the windows. Of course high-speed trains cannot have openable windows, but slower ones like night trains definitely can, so why not. Also, this is just the beginning. They will refurbish carriages eventually, it's just not so easy to get sleeper carriages at all.
@@sxflyer5410 very odd opinion! We do not need AC, because it can be out of service in a high speed Train! If we want night trains for the future, we have to get away from these start-up companys, who are playing around with low quality nostalgic trains.
@@GöranNilsson-m2n Without these start-up companies there would be no or very limited international night-train service after all. This is better than nothing. Big players like DB sadly don't care about night trains. And new rolling stock is unavailable, so this is better than nothing. I do hope European Sleeper is successful and will manage to get enough money to be able to upgrade their carriages.
I personally just don't mind the lacking a/c too much tbh, in my opinion a fully open window gets similar results, especially at night time when the sun is not out.
@@sxflyer5410 You are of course right. NightJet (ÖBB, DB, SBB and SNCF) operate 20 routes (2 more coming in December), and in cooperation with others they operate 10 more routes! In Sweden, Norway, Poland,Italy among other there are night trains operating. NightJet have fairly modern coaches, have launches 20 comfort couchettes and have 33 (231 coaches) completely new night trains on order! But why take these under consideration, when we have one ore two start-up companies, operating with up to 70 year old wagons? The nostalgia factor is high!!!!
via Bremen.?
why not via Hamburg - Geldern - Straelen - Venlo to Amsterdam...
...
No curtains in the compartment ? Looks very bare and stark.
Too bad it doesn’t pick up passengers in Hanover 😢
its because of the maghreb gangs around hannover hbf; at night, you dont want people like that around that train
Rotterdam City Tunnel is in Antwerp?
I don't recommend very comfortable, no water, no soap
Hey Can you fly kuwait airways frankfurt to kuwait please ride Thalys
Dieser Zug is scheiss :) alles nicht bequem und altes
Syf, brud.....🤦👎
LOL if YT ever seize to exists my guess is lot of people gonna end up jobless 😁
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What do you mean????? I don't understand.
Thanks for a very nice video. You was not visiting dining car or wasn’t there some ??
of course the was no dining car!
@@gorannilsson2365 12 hours without dining car. Not good
@@juhakeskinen1103 because it is overnight. No one goes for dinner at 3am, lol. The sleeper train from Stockholm to Berlin also only has a dining car during daytime (Stockholm to Malmö).
@@sxflyer5410 yes but there is many hours before night and next morning. In Finland they close few hours during night. On train from Stockholm to Berlin you can buy something from conductor/train stuff
Dining in a restaurant car is another lost pleasures of rail travel. If only there was a way to add a dining car and have it available for dinner at (say) 20.00 and then again at 06.00 it would be extremely popular. It isn't just backpackers who would use a sleeper train. Adding 50-60 Euro to the train ticket to include dinner and breakfast would give a firm basis for funding it - plus the income from the sale of drinks etc.
Way to expensive and extremely slow… sorry but I would rather take a flight
Cheaper and faster
Let's hope this train will use a Vectron in the future