Saw this item scrolling through the BBC News site today. makes interesting reading.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64950747

Thanks Alan, very interesting.
The article says in the last paragraph that "People want to get away from the stress of the airport,...".
As an international traveller I found plenty of stress on a European night train in 2014 with no baggage facilities.
And 5 minutes to board.
My compartment was taken up with airport type suitcases and it is a miracle I struggled along corridors to get them there, then find a bed.

I hope they can find a solution to that.
Kimball

My dad enlisted to the US army in 1953. He sailed to Bremmerhaven, and they sent them by the old Thunderbox train to Saarbrucken. Then on to France. He told me he was sationed at a parts and munitions depot as an inventory person in Charleroix, but isn't that in Belgium?

I am sorry to hear that. Regarding stress level comparisons, I don't know what your flying experience is. On intra-European flights, I'm fed up with time-consuming boarding procedures and baggage regulations in airports far away from city centres. That's why I prefer train travel where I have not to wait for baggage drop-off and pick-up, even if that means heaving suitcases "just in time". One advantage of auto trains is that one can leave large suitcases in the car trunk (which doesn't help you, of course).

About the solution you are hoping for: While the manual for travel with the ÖBB night trains in Germany stipiulates that a passenber can take luggage on board with a maximum dimension of 90cm x 60cm x 40cm per piece, ÖBB’s door-to-door luggage service offers to collect and send luggage from any address to any address in Austria, South Tyrol & Germany (mainland as well as the islands of Usedom and Rügen) for an unlimited number of pieces of luggage with a maximum weight of 30 kg each and a combined length and girth of 300 cm per piece. Deutsche Bahn offers a similar service within Germany and SBB within Switzerland. Furthermore, I understand that the company "Eurosender" offers luggage services for train travellers within Europe.

The only train we have been on and slept was Sydney > Adelaide > Alice Springs in central Australia. First half the Indian Pacific then on The Ghan.

It was nice to be horizontal at night, but too expensive and obviously you don't see anything at night. Have done the same trip by car and we can stop anywhere we like which we do often.



Our trains are diesel and don't see that changing for 50 years so no CO2 advantage.

My wife and I travelled by night train from Paris to Zürich in 1986. It was a fun trip. Unfortunately I have no photos of that trip. On embarking I argued with the conductor who wanted to take our passports. He said “OK, keep them and I will wake you at border crossings for the officials to inspect the passports .” Not hard to guess the outcome !

In our country our family (wife plus our three sons) did an overnight trip on the Ghan back in the early 1990’s. I have posted on this before : https://www.marklin-user...large-layouts#post518878
We enjoyed the experience. At that time it had not extended to Darwin - that trip remains on our list.

In 2009, on our way back from the Märklin Tage, we travelled by night train from Ulm to Amsterdam in the most luxurious compartment we have encountered (of a type that must have been discontinued shortly after). In addition to the berths, there was a table with two chairs, a locker, and a private bathroom. Only problem was that we did not have enough time to fully enjoy this luxury: we boarded the train at 00:30h, almost immediately went to sleep, and arrived in Amsterdam at about 9:30 in the morning.







Jeroen

That awoke memories of a 1976 Britrail Pass adventure with my mother and two sisters. One leg of our journey was London to Penzance in the night train described by Rwill. As with Rwill's train, this one was fairly empty, so we occupied two compartments between the four of us. We had the compartments to ourselves all the way to Penzance, so we had a good night's sleep; I only remember waking up for a moment in the early morning just to see the sun rising above a quiet sea, then going to sleep again. From Penzance we visited the sunny beach of Marazion, where we paddled in clear water with fish swimming around us [and a nice view of St. Michael's Mount].

It was a dry and hot summer in 1976, so much that when we visited Stonehenge most of the visitors sat down in the shadow instead of looking around. It was great afterwards to dip our feet into the Avon and enjoy the coolness inside Salisbury Cathedral. After a hot train ride to London we took sleeper compartments in the night train to Inverness, where we thankfully greeted a gentle drizzle!

Jeroen

"The best new European sleeper trains we can’t wait to ride in 2023"

Germany to Venice and Croatia
Prague to Germany and Switzerland
Brussels to Berlin (via Amsterdam and Rotterdam)
Munich and Vienna to Italy, Paris to Vienna
Budapest and Romania
Amsterdam to Cologne and Zurich
Hamburg to Stockholm
Zurich to Milan and Rome
The Orient Express to Italy

https://www.timeout.com/...ean-sleeper-train-routes

Thanks for the post Ak, I enjoyed the video.

As you know, we will be in Hamburg late next month/ early July and will later do this trip Hamburg to Stockholm in a day.
The route’s service structure seems a bit disrupted by delayed changes in the arrival of new DSB emus meaning most trains will be DB ICE from Hamburg to Fredericia then DB intercity coaches on loan pulled by Danish locomotives (until the delayed new DSB units arrive) to Copenhagen. Direct ICE from Hamburg to Copenhagen is quite limited.
Will then travel from Copenhagen to Stockholm by fast SJ X2000. (Then Stockholm to Oslo next day).

Going all the way Hamburg to Stockholm on one SJ train looks very interesting, albeit asleep most of the way.

Night trains are an interest to me (see https://www.marklin-user...running-today#post644857 ), historically romantic and it is nice that they are in resurgence but for us seniors they remain an adventurous memory of our younger years
.
Regards
PJ