Night sleeper trains to Western Europe: Sold out, or very expensive. Or both. A sign of success?
The market at work? The truth,as usual, is more nuanced…
If you have been kind enough to read previous articles of mine, you may recall that I'm a big advocate of European night trains, and would like to see them succeed and develop. So for a forthcoming trip to London at the end of September I very much wanted to ensure that at least my trip back would be by rail rather than plane - and that would inevitably involve a night train. I wrote this article about my first trip back from London using the relatively new night train which runs from Basel to Prague via Karlsruhe. Although back then I was shocked by the new higher prices, which are basically dictated by ÖBB (this train is basically an ÖBB NightJet with a couple of ČD coaches attached/detached at Leipzig), everything worked smoothly, and I had already booked a journey on the same route from Colmar to Prague at the beginning of August, so I assumed I wouldn't have a problem; after all the last week in September ought to be well past the summer peak. In addition there was the possibility of an alternative train; European Sleeper finally started their service from Brussels to Prague in April, and while I have some misgivings about the quality of their service (the single sleeping car is very old) it potentially offers a much improved journey from London, as it involves just one change from a Eurostar onto the sleeper train at the same Brussels station, whereas Paris is usually more expensive than Eurostar and you have to get from one Paris station to another, where you will pay for a TGV to take you to Karlsruhe or Zurich. And on top of that, I did participate in the crowdfunder for European Sleeper so I really ought to experience this thing I have invested in!
Well that was the first disappointment when I started booking. European Sleeper only runs three times a week, so while I had a little flexibility, there was only one day when it was available for me - and the sleeping car was basically full. Secretly a little relieved, I turned to the ČD website for my tried and trusted route via Karlsruhe. The disadvantage with that route is that on the westbound train you have to get off at just after 05.00 in the morning, and I am sorry, I'm not doing that, even if I am saving on carbon emissions. The train does go on to Basel, but then you must take a different TGV route to Paris (the Lyria) which is longer and takes you into Gare de Lyon, whereas the Karlsruhe route uses the extremely fast LGV Est route via Strasbourg. Anyway it was irrelevant, because the ČD website simply could not offer me a ticket on the 20th September, nor could ÖBB, although they could for the 19th. But it was €244, more than BA offered for a business class flight to Heathrow. So guess what I did…
But then I don’t usually mind flying into Heathrow, it’s usually OK for me with my UK passport and if I only have hand baggage and no more than 2cm of snow is forecast😉. It is the return journey from Heathrow I hate; the long journey across London to get there , the crowded terminals, the aggressive security checks,; so I was determined to return by train. But it was difficult. My chosen date was 28th September, and the sleeping car was completely sold out (on both ČD and ÖBB). I could book it for the previous day, but the price for a single compartment – but without ensuite toilet and shower - was 8077 CZK. (€320) 😱
Perplexed, I looked for the alternative train; because there is one, or there should be. From Zürich, ČD operates a sleeping car which runs via Linz and České Budejovice. Yet I could not find it. After a lot of research I discovered that because of ongoing engineering works between Linz and the Czech border it only runs on a few days between now and the end of the summer timetable (in December). And my chosen day was not one of them. So I paid my 8077CZK and pondered what this says about European night trains.
There’s no doubt that their popularity is growing. The media publicity around them is positive, and in the case of European Sleeper it seems they have successfully caught the imagination of the Inter-railers. Good luck to European Sleeper. People said they would never even get a train running, and here they are. The few surviving British sleeper trains are doing well too; indeed while in England, I am taking my brother on the Night Riviera sleeper train from London to Penzance. Yet while we were warned that this too needs to be booked early, I got the tickets without any drama for the day I wanted. So is it just popularity driving the price to ridiculous levels?
No, I'm not buying that story. The truth is that the prices are going up partly because the supply of tickets has been limited. Whereas there should be two night trains between Prague and Switzerland each day, on most days this summer there is only one. Furthermore engineering works has disrupted the NightJets on other routes. They are unable to operate their very popular Paris - Vienna train, and today I read that they have also had to suspend their Vienna- Rome train too. Of course ÖBB and ČD don't like this any more than we do. And you can't really blame them for raising the prices as high as possible on the routes they can run. It's very unfortunate that these engineering works come in summer, a peak travel time, especially this year when Europe is seeing big increases in summer tourism. But it’s too easy to criticise the infrastructure managers of the railway too. They prefer the summer for engineering work because the days are longer, they can get more done; and there is certainly a lot to be done, especially in Germany which is catching up with years of neglect under a hailstorm of criticism from the German public; and of course Germany had to postpone such work for the duration of the football Euros, so some of their biggest repair projects have just started.
In the medium term, the solutions advocated by various people such as Jon Worth are the best hope for improvement that would encourage more people to take night trains. The problems are exactly the type best solved at European level. There are no spare night trains coaches, so the only way to launch more trains are to build more coaches; but they take several years to build and are of course expensive. It's unreasonable to expect one small country (Austria) to run night trains across the whole of Europe. It's also a job for Brussels to sort out the mess of ticketing for international rail journeys (not just night trains) so that you can easily book your journey from e.g. Prague to Paris on one website, secure in the knowledge that you've got the best available price – and also obtain up-to-date information about known engineering works that will disrupt the timetable in the months ahead. Without this, articles encouraging people to take night trains will continue to receive feedback telling us how they flew to the same place for three times less cost, and enquiring about the author’s judgement or even mental health.
Having said all that, and conscious that I have already discouraged many readers from even investigating a journey by night train, here are some tips and tricks which I hope will help some of you.
Don't be put off by the eye-watering prices I have paid. I am a “third-ager”, usually travelling alone on these night trains. At my age I prioritise comfort and privacy. If you travel as a couple, the price per person is lower. Young people are quite happy with the slightly less comfortable but much cheaper couchette cars, and often actively enjoy meeting strangers who may share their six berth compartment. I was such a person once.
Generally it is true that the demand is very strong, so ideally plan at least two months ahead. But you never know - I have just checked the situation on the Prague-Zurich night train which departs today (Saturday 20 June) in four hours from now - there are 25 free places in the sleeping car and 23 in the couchette cars.
Sometimes it can happen that for the same train you are offered different prices on the ČD website and on the ÖBB website, or you may even find that one website has vacant spaces even though the other does not. Ultimately this is not a smart way to run a railway, which needs to be sorted out in Brussels, but in the meantime know that this is a possibility.
Generally demand is weaker in the middle of the working week, and from October to Easter (with the exception of the Christmas and New Year holidays) so prices then are cheaper.
For more tips and stories about night trains and rail travel generally in the Czech language Michal Berg has a webpage, www.cestavlakem.cz which is both useful and entertaining. He’s also a regular contributor on Seznam Medium, for example this article describing taking the night train to a meeting in Lyon. (some of the reactions are unhinged🤣.)
Finally, consider that if you plan to travel by night train between Prague and Switzerland, you will wake up, look out of the window and be greeted by epic Alpine scenery. On the return trip, you can have breakfast while your train slips gracefully down the Elbe/Labe and Vltava river valleys. Only the train can give you that experience…