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Belgium will get a night train by the summer of next year. Then the train Brussels – Amsterdam – Berlin – Prague should run for the first time, the Dutch-Belgian start-up European Sleeper announced on Monday. The company aims to launch an additional nightly connection every year.
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mtmSource: BELGIAN
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There is not yet an exact date for the first ride. “Early summer,” says European Sleeper, which is collaborating with the Czech rail company RegioJet for the connection. The timetable is already fixed. The train will run three times a week, with departures from Brussels South on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, each time at 19:22. In Belgium, the train also stops in Antwerp Central (at 8.01 pm). Then it goes via the Netherlands and Germany (with stops in Berlin and Dresden, among others) to the Czech capital Prague, arriving just after 10 am. The return journey is on Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday, arriving the following day in Antwerp at 8.47 am and in Brussels at 9.54 am.
The plans are a little more limited than was first announced. For example, European Sleeper hoped to start in April, but that will be the summer. And the train would continue after Brussels to Ghent, Bruges and Ostend, but that does not seem feasible. “Operational costs in Belgium are so high that such an extension cannot be carried out cost-effectively. We will see later whether that is still feasible in 2023,” says the company.
It doesn’t make the start-up any less ambitious. For example, it wants to perform the connection daily as soon as possible. And in 2023, the company also wants to connect Brussels and Amsterdam with the Polish capital Warsaw. That would happen with the same night train, which would then be split up in Germany. And afterwards, European Sleeper has “the ambition to introduce a new night train from the Netherlands and Belgium every year”, it still sounds.
Tickets vanaf april
At the beginning of 2022, European Sleeper will announce more details about the comfort classes, the ticket prices and the exact start date of its first night train. Ticket sales would start in April. Travelers will be able to take their bicycles with them, it sounds like.
European Sleeper was started by two Dutch private individuals. In the middle of this year, they joined forces with the Belgian start-up Moonlight Express. He originally wanted to organize nightly train rides from Brussels via Liège to Berlin.
There is currently one night train in Belgium. The NightJet of the Austrian railway company ÖBB runs three times a week between Brussels (via Liège and Germany) and the Austrian capital Vienna.
Another initiative, from the company OVOE (Ostende-Vienne-Orient-Experience), has again been delayed, says initiator Kristof Blomme. He had originally hoped to be able to start night trains around this time. That would be the summer of 2022, but that also turns out not to be feasible, says Blomme. He regrets that the government does not play a more active role in facilitating night trains, especially in the “European Year of Rail”. OVOE is now aiming for the start of night trains to the Austrian ski areas at the end of 2022.
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