Overnight train travel is returning to Europe after a few decade hiatus. Should you try it? Bottom Line Up Front from the late Amy Winehouse:
Way back in the Cold War, I got a few chances to take the train system in western Europe, and it was a great experience: inexpensive, efficient, timely (especially when run by Germans). A few times I got to take night trains, in second-class cars where the opposing seats pulled out and together to form one large bed for the four-to-six riders. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it worked. I even got one opportunity to take an overnighter which crossed from (then) Czechoslovakia through East Germany into West Germany. I had a sleeper berth on that one, with the added service of a East German Border Polizei shining a night-stick sized flashlight in my face at zero dark thirty.
I enjoyed the trains, especially the night trains; there is something about the gentle rocking motion, the fun of waking up at your destination, the freedom to walk around and enjoy the scenery, or go eat in a cafe car that just appealed to me.
The end of the Cold War and the gradual elimination of borders and customs among European countries should have been a golden age for trains. But as it happened, governments looked at the cost of maintaining national rail systems and they blinked. Deregulation allowed cut rate air carries like RyanAir to offer low-cost travel in direct competition. And the big national railways were directed to compete with each other, rather than cooperate. Long-range overnight train travel was among the casualties.
Recently, there has been a surge of interest in bringing back overnight trains. Some countries are limiting middle distance flights for ecological reasons. The rail system has solid infrastructure and most of the waste or redundancy has been wrung out of the system. So several companies or national lines are re-introducing overnighter trains.
When planning our current trip, I stumbled across the website “The Man in Seat 61” (link here) and it gave detailed instructions for almost any European rail adventure. Sure enough, there were such instructions to get from Amsterdam, where our cruise ended, to southern Italy, where our expat investigation began. We signed up for the OBB Nightjet train, run by Austria, which took us from Amsterdam Centraal to Zurich Hauptbanhof. There we caught another famous line across the Alps to Milan for a day stop. Then back to a day trip on a Frecciarossa high-speed (300 kph) train all the way to Bari. After a tour in Sicily, we signed up for a Trenitalia sleeper train which not only took us from Palermo, Sicily, to Rome, it also is the only train which boards a ferry (to cross the Messina Strait).
I was most looking forward to the Nightjet experience, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. First, it leaves at almost nine pm, which means you’ll be spending some quality time in the train station with all your luggage. When time came to board, the car concierge couldn’t find the correct key to unlock the inner security door, leaving a pile of customers stuck halfway into the train. This was an augur of things to come. She was very good at telling us what she couldn’t do, but less helpful otherwise. She did explain that the “call button” worked (i.e., it rang in her work area) but she would rarely be there so don’t bother. Hmmmmm.
We booked a two person sleeper, which was private and cozy. There was an adequate air system which seemed to provide the warm/cool air desired, good storage space, and a hidden wash basin. The bed was comfy enough, although I did flag down the concierge and have her open the middle row bed (each cabin has four beds, three on one side and one on the other) since the rounded-off top of the cabin made my head and feet touch the opposing walls. We filled out a nice little card (in four languages) with a selection of six breakfast items like coffee, brötchen (fresh German rolls) cheese and various meats.
The ride itself was uneventful: a few stops, no interruptions, and very sleep-able. Some of the staff took to holding a conversation outside our cabin, but they moved on before it turned into a problem. Around seven in the morning, the concierge was due to deliver our breakfast order. By seven-thirty, I was getting concerned, since we were due to arrive before eight-thirty. She knocked on the cabin door to announce she had only some yogurt, coffee, and orange juice, and would we like that? You take what you can get, so we agreed. But what was the purpose of the elaborate order the night before? Finally, the train arrived on time in Zurich.
The Trenitalia night train boarded in Palermo just before seven in the evening, but it had no cafe car, so we were warned to bring a meal along if we wanted one. The cabin was smaller than the Nightjet one. Both were clearly refurbished stock from the 1970s/80s. Again, possibly four beds, good storage (although much of it is overhead, tough to use for a large suitcase), and a hidden sink. The cabin steward surprised us with some travel snacks, bottled water, and I was even able to buy a small bottle of wine.
The cabin was a little stuffy, so we turned on the air conditioning. It worked well for about ninety-minutes, then suddenly switched to heat. The cabin quickly turned into a sauna, so I jumped out to find the steward. I flagged him down, and explained what the problem was; he was probably the least-English-fluent person we met on the entire trip. But he nodded, put his hand on the air vent (warm), checked the control (set to coldest), shook his head, then . . . opened the window. That was it. He couldn’t turn the heat off, but he could open the window. Which sounds ok, except the train was travelling at more than one-hundred miles per hour. At that speed, the sound is deafening, worse still when you pass another train going in the opposite direction.
Sample test question: Pat leaves Palermo going east at 100 mph. His air conditioning stops working in ninety minutes. Assuming otherwise normal conditions, how long does it take for Pat to fall asleep?
A) Instantly, but he wakes every few seconds due to the noise.
B) thirty minutes, but the dripping sweat wakes him up.
C) two hours, then he dreams of murdering the cabin steward.
D) All of the above.
From the revised SAT
Granted, we made it from Amsterdam to Zurich, and Palermo to Rome, in one piece. And the cost was less than separate airline tickets and a hotel room. But the experience was decidedly bargain, but not at cut-rate prices. Maybe it will take a little longer for the night train experience to peak.
Our trips in business or first class aboard Trenitalia were better: faster, cleaner, more comfortable, better food, wifi, and customer service. If you book far enough in advance, they can be very economical, but that is an art form in itself, and I recommend the Seat 61 website for all the key tips.
So for the time being, only consider a sleeper train if it has a new cabin. Stick to day trips on the high speed lines, and leave the sleeping to hotels. Maybe someday the sleeper will return!
Probably hotter in Mexico than on the train
Lol
I took an overnight train from Munich to Paris with my 2 small dogs. It was a most comfortable
roomette BUT in the middle of the night 3 American students came in. I had paid dearly for my OWN roomette. I was upset as they stayed up all night. I complained but to no avail. I discovered that the conductors or whomever often book on their own.
My advice is be firm!
In 1986, I took a sleeper from Venice to Palermo. The cabin had 4 occupants. After the sunset, the elderly couple left the cabin and returned in their pajamas. They folded down an overhead bed, creating something similar to bunk beds. Next, the Italian dude sitting next to me left the cabin and returned in his pajamas. When in Rome… I followed suit, returned and crawled into my bunk. Slept great until they began unbuckling cars to fit the train on the ferry.