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Airlines win: DB throws in the towel - end of European night trains?

Airlines win: DB throws in the towel - end of European night trains?

Old Feb 7, 2016, 4:12 pm
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Yes please, pictures to add to a trip report are always welcome. And I actually have no clue how overnight trains in Sweden are!

May I ask how much you paid for a ticket? Booked a private compartment or a berth in a shared compartment? I'm interested to hear as well how the deal is with a hotel breakfast at the Radisson Blu included. Combined with a cosy train, sounds like good oldfashioned slow travel at its best!
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Old Feb 8, 2016, 3:20 pm
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I got no sleep at all on the Stockholm-Malmo sleeper. But then I generally don't sleep well on overnight trains, pity really because I love them. Must try and fit one in this year.
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Old Feb 16, 2016, 8:19 am
  #18  
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Originally Posted by Romanianflyer
Yes please, pictures to add to a trip report are always welcome. And I actually have no clue how overnight trains in Sweden are!

May I ask how much you paid for a ticket? Booked a private compartment or a berth in a shared compartment? I'm interested to hear as well how the deal is with a hotel breakfast at the Radisson Blu included. Combined with a cosy train, sounds like good oldfashioned slow travel at its best!
The ticket cost SEK 1424, or GBP 106 at the time, private compartment. Only these tickets qualify for the breakfast.

More pics: http://imgur.com/a/4egj4





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Old Feb 22, 2016, 4:02 am
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I've regularly done the rather nonsensical Berlin - Dusseldorf/Cologne and vice versa-trip in sleepers as domestic flying doesn't appeal to me outside of the US and sleeping in trains is easy due to early exposure since childhood.

Shall do a few more DB sleeper trips this summer and autumn and then continue to enjoy the excellent sleepers on the British Isles, China, Japan and Russia.
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Old Feb 28, 2016, 9:22 pm
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Sad to hear this. I've been contemplating a London - Cologne - Vienna with the EuroNight Sleeper Service for the last leg (which I know is OBB not DB) this summer as a fun way to get from London to Vienna. This might push me to try it since I don't know when I'll get the chance again (with OBB or DB).
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 4:17 am
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[QUOTE=Duke787;26258915]Sad to hear this. I've been contemplating a London - Cologne - Vienna with the EuroNight Sleeper Service for the last leg (which I know is OBB not DB) this summer as a fun way to get from London to Vienna. This might push me to try it since I don't know when I'll get the chance again (with OBB or DB).[/QUOTE

I'm not at all familiar with night trains in Europe but am considering taking the night train from Paris to Prague or Budapest (if there is a decent connection) in June. I've been debating a train or a plane so the idea of night sleeper trains ending in Germany may tip the scales. What is the difference between the OBB line and the DB lines and their sleeper cars and dining cars? Which train line goes from Paris to Prague and/ or Budapest. Any info would be really appreciated!
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Old Mar 17, 2016, 9:13 am
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Originally Posted by konaflyer
I'm not at all familiar with night trains in Europe but am considering taking the night train from Paris to Prague or Budapest (if there is a decent connection) in June. I've been debating a train or a plane so the idea of night sleeper trains ending in Germany may tip the scales. What is the difference between the OBB line and the DB lines and their sleeper cars and dining cars? Which train line goes from Paris to Prague and/ or Budapest. Any info would be really appreciated!
From Paris, Prague is shorter and easier to do with one connection.
Option 1a: ICE or TGV to Mannheim or Frankfurt, then CNL to Prague
Option 1b: Thalys to Kln, then CNL to Prague
Option 2 (3 days a week): RZD Paris-Moscow Express to Berlin, then an EC day train to Prague

Budapest seems to have only one option with a single connection (TGV to Munich, then BB EN to Budapest); other routes with multiple connections can also include a night train segment, such as BB Zrich-Budapest or CNL Frankfurt-Vienna.

Consider doing your own comparison: Paris to Prague, then a day or few later take the BB EN from Prague to Budapest.
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Old Mar 19, 2016, 1:00 pm
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Originally Posted by pseudoswede
I'm pretty sure Scandinavia still has night train service, albeit domestic network.
Indeed. Isn't there still some kind of seasonal night train service from Germany into Sweden or Denmark or from Sweden/Denmark to Germany?

There are indeed night trains still operates in Sweden. Most of these are SJ operated but some are/were operated by other companies. Some are year-round night trains and some are seasonal. The Veolia-operated night train from Malmo/Stockholm to Are, for example, allows for hitting the mountain at lift-opening time even if needing to pick up rental equipment.
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Old Mar 19, 2016, 2:54 pm
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Indeed, Snlltget also run a Malm-Berlin overnight service in the summer, running via the Trelleborg-Sassnitz ferry. It's pretty basic, though, with couchettes only.
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Old Mar 20, 2016, 5:20 pm
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Originally Posted by SkyBuck
From Paris, Prague is shorter and easier to do with one connection.
Option 1a: ICE or TGV to Mannheim or Frankfurt, then CNL to Prague
Option 1b: Thalys to Kln, then CNL to Prague
Option 2 (3 days a week): RZD Paris-Moscow Express to Berlin, then an EC day train to Prague

Budapest seems to have only one option with a single connection (TGV to Munich, then BB EN to Budapest); other routes with multiple connections can also include a night train segment, such as BB Zrich-Budapest or CNL Frankfurt-Vienna.

Consider doing your own comparison: Paris to Prague, then a day or few later take the BB EN from Prague to Budapest.
Thank you for your input. I just booked Option 1b. It was a few hundred dollars more than flying on Easyjet, but it's the end of the era for German sleeping compartment night trains and I don't want to miss it.

I'm still curious what is the difference between DB and OBB in terms of sleeping compartments, on board restaurants, seats etc?
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Old Apr 5, 2016, 4:42 pm
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Traveling with our family of four this summer, and part of our journey from Munich to Berlin will be on CNL. We thought it would be a fun experience for our kids before it goes away. We have a Eurail Flex Pass, but it was cheaper to buy DB Sparpreis tickets than to book the sleeper supplement!
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Old Apr 6, 2016, 9:35 am
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Originally Posted by jilliusc
Traveling with our family of four this summer, and part of our journey from Munich to Berlin will be on CNL. We thought it would be a fun experience for our kids before it goes away. We have a Eurail Flex Pass, but it was cheaper to buy DB Sparpreis tickets than to book the sleeper supplement!
Sounds great!

Actually what you mention is to me part of the problem at hand: compared to booking a simple flight itinerary, booking trains can be ridiculously complicated, certainly for multi-country routings. Let alone the way how tickets are priced/can be booked is no match for air travel (unfortunately) on many international routes. The creation of high-speed rail and such ridiculous surcharges you mention for pass-holders (I'm positively surprised you looked into normal ticket deals! Not many people do!) are also to blane for the demise of international rail travel in (Western) Europe.

Quite sad, I have many great memories on trains! Falling asleep on a night train from Amsterdam to Warsaw, or dining on a great schnitzel paired with a Blauer Zweigelt in a restaurant car through the Austrian alps. Sure, it's still possible! But to pay the same price as a business class flight ticket for intra-European journeys??
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Old Apr 6, 2016, 1:54 pm
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Bought for Berlin-Kln next month, will see how it goes
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Old Apr 7, 2016, 5:22 pm
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I don't think the title of this thread is accurate. The day services of the railways involved, won.
I travel to Europe regularly, and I used the night trains. ( Paris-Berlin, Paris-Munich, and Munich-Berlin). However although excellent, they are inconvenient for the tourist, with checkout from the hotel at 11am. I became an expert at using left luggage lockers at main stations, while I filled in my day waiting for the night train.
With the day services speeded up, it is now quite feasible to travel London-Berlin and vv by the day trains, which I now do.
Travel by air in Europe inevitably requires a train trip from the main station to the airport. It is just as easy to get a fast day train to your destination.
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Old May 9, 2016, 1:08 pm
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Originally Posted by jt82
Bought for Berlin-Kln next month, will see how it goes
Reasonable enough, the train being diverted and not stopping at the Hbf leaving me to divert to whatever a Gesundbrunnen is, was expecting it to be cramped but not quite as cramped as it was, I'm 5'7" and didn't have a great deal of space to play with. And naturally the only shower at Kln Hbf was broken
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