European Sleeper experience

[AdamWW]

Absolutely, but I think questions about doors and curtains become more pertinent in a discussion about whether you can throw some mattresses and nicer duvets into these couchettes, sell them to individuals/couples and call them a sleeper. In general I like these coaches a lot and I'm willing to say yes, but if so I'm also more predisposed to grumble about their faults!

So far as I can see they aren't calling them sleepers though.

 

[thaitransit]

You think its bad in Europe with overnight trains. Try riding on Queensland Rails the Inlander train from Townsville to Mount Isa its 21 hours on an overnight train with only 2 + 1 seats and no buffet car at all!

 

[danshrimp]

So far as I can see they aren't calling them sleepers though.

Only as far as they're not using the word 'sleeper' anywhere any more, but these are in the 'Comfort' category rather than 'Classic', and (presumably) priced accordingly.

 

[Jealgu]

From the latest sharefunding mail:

We expect to share good news about our new route within a few weeks. We’re currently finalising the carriage rental and setting a start date, which will likely be in the second half of 2026. Keep an eye on our newsletter for the latest updates.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==

Interesting developments:

Unique opportunity to
take over Paris-Berlin

European Sleeper has decided to revive the
historic Paris – Berlin night train by the end of
March 2026, following the news that ÖBB and
SNCF will discontinue all their Nightjet services to
and from Paris as of 15 December 2025.


By routing the service via Brussels, European
Sleeper increases the frequency between Brussels
and Berlin to six times a week combined with its
existing trains. This way, the new Paris–Berlin
connection is not only economically sustainable in
itself, but also contributes to the success of the
existing route.


To cover preparation expenses for
launching the Paris–Berlin route, we
started a new sharefunding round!

Starting date should be 26 march.

Milan or Barcelona should start in October.
See https://platform.eyevestor.com/eyeventures/NL_EUS?lang=en&mc_cid=159f552030&mc_eid=350ae1210d

 

[Krokodil]

By routing the service via Brussels

Is this just an extension of the existing service then?

 

[Jealgu]

No it is departing on the other days, so there are six days with departures from Brussels and Berlin. Prague is not mentioned at all for the Paris train. No idea about the exact route, but I think going via Amsterdam is a bit too tight. Leaving around 6pm from Paris and midnight from Amsterdam could just work, but then either the arrival in Amsterdam would be really early, or the Arrival in Paris quite late. Would be more likely to go directly to Germany from Brussels, with option of serving cities like Liege, Aachen and Cologne.

 

[danshrimp]

Yes Amsterdam is noticeably absent (makes sense in terms of both optimal timings and minimising logistical challenges given that running in France, and indeed Germany, isn't always the easiest). So it sounds like:

3x Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague
3x Paris-Brussels-Berlin
per week

Seems like a smart move. They were going to up their frequency anyway so may as well try and carve out a bit more market with it. And hopefully it gives the option of a more palatable arrival time in Berlin!

 

[popeter45]

i Guess they will copy the stopping pattern of Ouigo classic Trains between Paris Nord and Brussels Midi

 

[railfan99]

In September 2025, I travelled on European Sleeper from Brussels to Dresden.

The loco was E186 182 02, Railpool Lineas.

I had sole occupancy of a compartment in one of the two sleeping cars, car 18. I was in the middle of the car. The toilets did not work in either sleeper so I had to walk to a couchette car.

There were about 380 passengers on the train according to the conductor, but she said at time they'd had up to 600. My train was the Monday night one: you'd expect loadings on the Friday night one to be higher.

We departed Brussels a minute late. By Amsterdam Central we were 13 minutes late on departure at 2247 hours.

At Bad Bentheim (0110-0116), we were refuged to cross a freight.

We were at Berlin Hbf 0654 to 0700.

I slept well, and enjoyed the provided breakfast. The curtain did not completely block light.

We arrived Dresden at 0938, 44 late. This was probably due to having to divert due to trackworks.

 

[danshrimp]

This has appeared in the Dutch press this evening but doesn't appear to be reported anywhere else yet.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2593893-spoo...omer-met-nachttrein-van-amsterdam-naar-milaan

Courtesy of Google Translate:

Railway company will start night train from Amsterdam to Milan next summer​

The Dutch-Belgian railway company European Sleeper will run a night train to Milan from next summer. From 18 June, passengers will be able to board three times a week in Amsterdam or Brussels. Between Aachen and Cologne both trains are coupled. With stops in Cologne, Bern, Brig, Stresa (Lake Maggiore), the train then continues to Milan.

"The timetable is not yet completely final, but the departure from Amsterdam is probably around 19:00," says Chris Engelsman of European Sleeper. "The intention is that he arrives in Milan before 10:00 am, but we don't have definite times in Italy yet."

The train departs from Amsterdam and Brussels on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Return travel from Milan is possible on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. 500 to 600 people can travel per ride, depending on the number of carriages. The train set that is used consists of seating and sleeping cars. For the sleeping cars, there is a choice between three- and five-person compartments. Those first coupés offer more luxury.

One-way ticket for 80 euros​

As with airlines, travelers pay less if they book early. Engelsman expects that a one-way ticket to Milan with a simple sleeping compartment will cost an average of 80 euros. The target group is both the tourist and the business traveler.

European Sleeper has been running with night trains on the Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin-Dresden-Prague route. From the end of March, the company will also operate on the Paris-Berlin route. In 2027 or 2028, it wants to set up a night connection with Barcelona.

 

[ABB125]

This has appeared in the Dutch press this evening but doesn't appear to be reported anywhere else yet.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2593893-spoo...omer-met-nachttrein-van-amsterdam-naar-milaan

Courtesy of Google Translate:

I wonder where the stock is coming from?

Could it be the coaches that are no longer required for the (now cancelled) Basel - Malmo service?

 

[Jealgu]

Yesterday evening they already explained the intention to run Amsterdam/Brussels too Milan (with coupling near Cologne) in a presentation for potential investors, though I did not realize they would run earlier than October as that month was mentioned in earlier crowdfunding documentation.

The mentioned "German rental agencies" as source for carriages. Explaining that they have surplus carriages, in part because the took over surplus OBB carriages. This must mean RDC, this company acquired BVCMBZ in recent years.

This does not depend on the cancellation of Basel Malmo (that would be very soon, as that was made official yesterday). RDC had plenty of couchettes available, 47 are mentioned on there website. If they have taken over all of OBB BVCMBZ ( not entirely sure on this one) that would even be 58. It does mean, though, that they have more option for adding actual sleepers.


They also mentioned that they expect OBB to sell some vehicles next year. They explained they could not strike a deal already because European competition law forces OBB to sell those publicly. But their should be some extra availability.

 

[rvdborgt]

This has appeared in the Dutch press this evening but doesn't appear to be reported anywhere else yet.

Treinreiziger.nl now also has an article, with some more details, and it mentions the more logical Wed/Fri/Sun for the return journey from Milan:

https://www.treinreiziger.nl/european-sleeper-start-in-juni-met-nachttrein-naar-milaan/

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

RDC had plenty of couchettes available, 47 are mentioned on there website.

Does that mean 47 couchettes available to rent now and not currently in use?

 

[Struner]

Treinreiziger.nl now also has an article, with some more details, and it mentions the more logical Wed/Fri/Sun for the return journey from Milan:

https://www.treinreiziger.nl/european-sleeper-start-in-juni-met-nachttrein-naar-milaan/

treinreiziger, also a news site, doesn’t seem to supply a quote either

 

[Krokodil]

They must be pretty confident of the economics of the proposed operation if they're prepared to introduce the extra expense of portion working.

 

[Jealgu]

Does that mean 47 couchettes available to rent now and not currently in use?

No, that does include vehicles used for SJ Euronight, their Hamburg lorrach night train, the couchette that runs Prague - Zurich for CD. When these run at max capacity around 20 are used (with a very healthy amount of reserves assumed).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Dec 2025 ==

They must be pretty confident of the economics of the proposed operation if they're prepared to introduce the extra expense of portion working.

They mentioned that Amsterdam is a tourism hotspot and Brussels, besides serving the Belgian market, is a good connection for the UK. They also said Brussels is a hub for them, I imagine they do not want (or can) open an extra shunting and maintenance depot in Amsterdam.

 

[rvdborgt]

ES now have some info online themselves:

Night train to Milan | European Sleeper

The direct night train connection from Amsterdam and Brussels to Milan city centre is planned from September 2026.

www.europeansleeper.eu

Ticket sales should start in January or February.

 

[doc7austin]

I'd like to point out that ÖBB must have a huge surplus of Couchette Cars.
From next week ÖBB will withdraw from Berlin-Paris, Vienna-Paris, Munich-Milan, and Vienna-Milan. In addition Hamburg-Zürich will be chanched to NJ2.

In addition with the failure of Basel-Malmö RDC should have surplus capacity, as well.

 

[danshrimp]

Some very pertinent questions here. But as Jon Worth analysis goes, they've come off relatively unscathed...

Now we're going to get a Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Milano night train. Or are we?

After yesterday's news that Basel-Malmö will not happen, today there's news that a new night train route will open up - European Sleeper is proposing to run from Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Switzerland and Milano from June 2026. Their press release about it is here (PDF). A few

jonworth.eu

After yesterday’s news that Basel-Malmö will not happen, today there’s news today that a new night train route will open up – European Sleeper is proposing to run from Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Switzerland and Milano from June 2026. Their press release about it is here (PDF).



A few of relevant parts from the statement to the press: “In Switzerland, the train will follow the historic Simplon route via Bern, Brig, and Domodossola into Italy, stopping in Stresa on the shores of Lago Maggiore before arriving in Milan.” Well that one is going to pose a conundrum for a start – as you can’t enter Bern from Basel and exit towards Simplon without reversing, and Bern station is currently being rebuilt and is congested anyway, so no way that’s going to work. And the Simplon route is going to be closed at multiple times in 2026 as well.

“To offer suitable departure and arrival times from both Amsterdam, Brussels, as well as Cologne, European Sleeper decided to split and combine separate train parts to/from Amsterdam and Brussels in Western Germany. The company strongly believes all three city trip destinations are important for a viable business case , also because of their large populations and travel potential.” This is, in principle, not a bad idea. But it complicates the operations and increases the costs.

And then “Departures from Amsterdam and Brussels are scheduled for Monday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings, arriving in Switzerland and Milan the following morning. The return
service from Milan will operate on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday nights.” – so like all of European Sleeper’s other routes it is going to be 3x a week, so there will be Bruxelles-Amsterdam-Berlin-Praha 3x a week, Paris-Bruxelles-(Hamburg?)-Berlin 3x a week, and Bruxelles/Amsterdam-Köln-Bern-Milano 3x a week. This looks quite a mess to me, but maybe there is some logic to it that I otherwise do not see.

Then there is my usual objection to things like this: where are the carriages going to come from to operate this train?

This time I am a bit more reassured than I am normally, as a source I cannot reveal has confirmed to me that European Sleeper has managed to find some extra carriages for this service – from a source different to those used for their other services. But how many carriages, and of what quality, I have no idea. Finding suitable locomotives should also be no major headache as the train does not go through France.

So is this going to work? It might, just about. In the coming weeks and months we will be able to fill in some of the pieces of the jigsaw. And, as ever, give European Sleeper their due – they try things, and are not beholden to subsidies before having a go. That is to be commended.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Dec 2025 ==

The timetable for the new Paris-Berlin route, freshly published by the French government:

Paris Nord 19:00
Aulnoye-Aymeries 20:55
Mons 21:18
Brussel-Midi 21:59
Liège-Guillemins 23:12
Hamburg-Harburg 06:01
Berlin Hbf 09:00

Berlin Hbf 20:30
Harburg 22:59
Liège 5:50
Brussel-Midi 07:05
Mons 07:44
Aulnoye-Aymeries 08:07
Paris-Nord 09:52

This compares quite favourably with the NJ timings as they were (Paris Est-Berlin Hbf 1912-0826, return 1908-0938) especially given the extra value of serving Brussels.

 

[Krokodil]

Getting access to Hamburg (and hence Denmark) without a stopover would be very good news.

 

[BRX]

Getting access to Hamburg (and hence Denmark) without a stopover would be very good news.

It would!
A bit of an early arrival time but not too bad and as you imply would give you a good headstart for onwards travel northwards.

 

[danshrimp]

And well timed with the improvements in the Hamburg-Copenhagen offering we're expecting to see this year. An opportunity for ES to reach into the Scandinavian market here, among others.

 

[Austriantrain]

Some very pertinent questions here. But as Jon Worth analysis goes, they've come off relatively unscathed...

Now we're going to get a Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Milano night train. Or are we?

After yesterday's news that Basel-Malmö will not happen, today there's news that a new night train route will open up - European Sleeper is proposing to run from Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Switzerland and Milano from June 2026. Their press release about it is here (PDF). A few

jonworth.eu

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Dec 2025 ==

The timetable for the new Paris-Berlin route, freshly published by the French government:

Paris Nord 19:00
Aulnoye-Aymeries 20:55
Mons 21:18
Brussel-Midi 21:59
Liège-Guillemins 23:12
Hamburg-Harburg 06:01
Berlin Hbf 09:00

Berlin Hbf 20:30
Harburg 22:59
Liège 5:50
Brussel-Midi 07:05
Mons 07:44
Aulnoye-Aymeries 08:07
Paris-Nord 09:52

This compares quite favourably with the NJ timings as they were (Paris Est-Berlin Hbf 1912-0826, return 1908-0938) especially given the extra value of serving Brussels.

If it operates at least half punctually and they can offer consistent service quality, it is actually much more attractive than the NJ offer. As much as portion working was a good idea initially to get services started, it really has lots of drawbacks - unattractive routing and stops, long journey times and too much interdependance.

 

[chris2]

Getting access to Hamburg (and hence Denmark) without a stopover would be very good news.

Yes this would be great!

 

[30907]

If it operates at least half punctually and they can offer consistent service quality, it is actually much more attractive than the NJ offer. As much as portion working was a good idea initially to get services started, it really has lots of drawbacks - unattractive routing and stops, long journey times and too much interdependance.

I agree, though Amsterdam-Basel isn't multi-portion

 

[Jealgu]

Well, bookings are open. Only stops in Paris, Brussels and Berlin are mentioned, Hamburg, Liege and Aulnoye omitted. Travel times longer than posted here.

 

[chris2]

I asked someone on their chat facility (says it’s a real person) and the reply confirmed only Paris Nord -> Brussels Midi -> Berlin for now. But say they will add more later. No timeframe given!

 

[danshrimp]

Interesting. The timetable posted above was shared by an European Sleeper employee and is in the official French documentation with a start date of 26.3.26.

This is the new timetable for everyone's reference:

17:45 Paris Nord
21:45 Bruxelles-Midi
09:59 Berlin Hauptbahnhof

18:31 Berlin Hauptbahnhof
07:06 Bruxelles-Midi
10:00 Paris Nord

So they're starting off with a much much more conservative timetable - I can only assume because they're either expecting trackwork already or they're just being cautious and testing the waters to start with?

They got burned pretty bad on the Brussels-Venice route with departure (and arrival) times moving all over the place as they rapidly learned the complexities of the route/path/operators (or lack thereof) and I suspect they would want to avoid a repeat of that. Better to announce a very early departure time at the booking stage and then retime it later than vice versa, I suppose. But obviously there's the risk of putting off potential customers - a 17:45 departure for a train with minimal catering is very far from ideal.

(As an aside, I gather from the latest sharefunding webinar that they're working on a second iteration of the dining car pilot, this time using a couchette coach - which they have plentiful access to, and which are more reliable and require less complex logistics than the actual dining car they briefly rented - to serve proper meals into compartments essentially converted to private dining rooms with tablecloths, little lamps etc. No timeframe on that though.)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Dec 2025 ==

I note that the email that has just gone out from ES to their newsletter subscribers says, regarding the timetable, "We are still optimising parts of the route, and it is quite likely that we will be able to add more intermediate stops. To be confirmed within a few weeks. [...] Please note that departure and arrival times may differ from the timetable above for certain stations and on certain dates. If changes are made after you have booked your ticket, we will inform you by email, or by SMS in the case of last-minute changes."

 

[quantinghome]

This is very good news for those of us who'd like to travel by train from the north of England to Berlin. The later departure from Brussels makes it a genuine alternative to a daytime train (the civilised arrival time in Berlin helps as well).