Yet it is financially a more complicated story around the sleeper trains. Because the wagons have to pass through several countries, with a relatively large number of personnel on board, the ticket prices are a lot higher than those of normal train journeys.
And then there is the discussion about subsidies. The NS sleeper train between Amsterdam and Vienna is sponsored annually with millions of euros, while this does not apply to other sleeper train initiatives. Partly for this reason, a number of transport companies set up a procedure against the NS. The companies said they had not had a fair chance to compete for the night train concession to Vienna.
The Dutch Railways does not want to say much about the subsidy. “It is not up to us to judge who will or will not receive a subsidy, that is decided by the government.” The carrier does say that their next sleeper train, to Zurich, will not be subsidized.
New destinations
Despite the subsidy issue, both NS and Green City Trip are positive about even more sleeper trains in the future. Although they do not want to anticipate which European destinations are feasible.
Foreign sleeper train operators are not always so keen to continue to the Netherlands, because of its geographical location, according to the NS. “We are almost always the start or end point. For a transit route, the Netherlands just doesn’t make much sense, which is the case in Germany, for example.”
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