Reliability of City Night Line sleepers

[Tim R-T-C]

Hi folks, me again:

Planning a mini-expedition in November into Europe using the CNL sleepers, seeing how many cities I can visit in four days without needing a hotel. I was just wondering how reliable people have found the CNL trains as I will only have about 6-8 hours in each city and if they routinely run a few hours late it will somewhat eat into that time.

Is there a particular route that this most recommended. I was considering going Amsterdam > Copenhagen > Prague > Basel > Amsterdam

 

[317666]

In the past I've found them to be a bit hit and miss but generally not too bad.

If you're after how likely a specific service is to be late, try looking on http://www.zugfinder.de/ - you just enter the service number in the 'Zugnr. eingeben' box and it'll show you what its punctuality has been like for the past month or so.

 

[30907]

There's always a risk with long-distance services, particularly as almost all of them swap portions en route; the Prague-Copenhagen could be particularly tricky because it does a swap of direction.

Particular problems I have been aware of in the past which seem to have been resolved
- late departures from Amsterdam (by changes to ECS working and servicing)
- delays coming from Poland (portion is now combined with a Berlin-Warsaw Express and has layover time in Berlin)

There are, not infrequently, issues with individual vehicles meaning that you might be downgraded to couchettes.
Other than that, and assuming you aren't constrained by your budget, I would try for

- the CD sleepers on the Prague-Amsterdam
- the CNL doubledecker (1st class, upper deck!); these don't run to/from NL, but you could use them to/from Basel (or Munich).
For your combination this would mean A-Prague-Basel-Copenhagen-A would work particularly well.

The Berlin-Basel also has a double-decker and you can connect from Prague into it (and dine on the EC train - BTW it's reported that all remaining CNL restaurant cars are withdrawn from April)

(Depending on your ticketing arrangements, I've noticed that Copenhagen-Basel seems to come in more expensive than the others).

 

[dutchflyer]

As I myself, being Dutch, only used them to/fro AMS-they are most often 1-2 hrs late coming into AMS. Due to the standard hourly pattern, if they reach the outer border-Emmerich, like 45 mins late-they will run 1 hr later in NL as the timetable.
NOTE; WARNING; in NOVember they are-or were in the past- often cancelled alltogether or on some routes-even if one was able to prebook the usual period advance. Also that month is prone to storms, resulting in floodings sometimes and sometimes the first snow etc-and all can and will play havoc with any schedule.
It may pay off to get a normal Interrail, like for 5 in 10 days (read the ''next day'' lines for overnight travel, as this will allow you to use at will alternative trains, like the German ICE. One should be able to prebook as ''passholder only'' accomodation, seats or sleepers in addition.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately the November date is limited because that is my wife's birthday so can't really change this. Might just simplify the route to Amsterdam - Prague or Copenhagen and back to avoid any chance of getting stuck somewhere!

Other than that, and assuming you aren't constrained by your budget, I would try for

- the CD sleepers on the Prague-Amsterdam

What are these?

 

[gordonthemoron]

CD is czech railways

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

Hey, Tim R-T-C, stick with your original plan! You should be able to do 4 nights no problem. The trains are rarely that late and, even if they are, you just get less time in Prague/Copenhagen/Basel etc. during the day. If you go near Amsterdam at the weekend, the Emmerich-Utrecht route is often subject to engineering work and trains are diverted further South, via Venlo, so check the timetable for your planned dates carefully.

 

[34D]

Will you be able to cope with 4 consecutive nights of poor sleep?

The three times I have used the Night Riviera here I think I had about 2 hours sleep (and one time, had no sleep at all).

Euro ones are hopefully better

 

[Glenmutchkin]

When we did the Great Circular European Railway Challenge last July it involved 11 nights out of 16 in sleeper trains. Sleeping was not a problem.

I did take Nytol with me just in case but had no need of it at all.

Our City Night line experience was not great. The Amsterdam - Copenhagen train was diverted in Northern Germany and got in 3 hours late. We almost missed our conection north.