More than one took Elmer van Buuren and Chris Engelsman to be enlightened when they presented a cooperative two years ago that sought to attract financing from private investors to revive night trains in Europe without the support of any of the large railway operators. Those doubts were put to rest just over a week ago, when the first European Sleeper night train left Brussels Zuid station for Berlin, stopping in Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Now with the guarantee of having made it a reality and having trains running on the tracks, the company has started the procedures to create a night train route between Amsterdam and Barcelona with a stop in Brussels. The goal is for it to start providing service in the spring of 2025, as confirmed this Friday by Van Buuren, one of the two founders of European Sleeper, who presented the project at the congress of the European federation of passenger entities, of which it forms part of the association for the promotion of public transport (PTP).
The working group with professionals from different fields has already been created and in two weeks they will hold their first meeting at the European Sleeper offices in Utrecht. “There are significant barriers to overcome,†acknowledges van Buuren. The first and fundamental one is the need to acquire second-hand trains to carry out a comprehensive intervention inside them that involves converting the wagons with seats into sleeping cars, with their respective enclosed spaces.
Subsequently, the rolling stock must be approved and train drivers qualified, with the complexity that involves the fact that it passes through different countries, each with its specific requirements. The French railway agency is used to being especially picky in this regard, as Renfe well knows, which stopped operating in the neighboring country in December and it will not be for a few weeks when it will be able to circulate on French roads.
The schedule is another aspect to be defined. The route seems clearer and although initially it had been said that from Barcelona to Amsterdam it would stop in Paris and Brussels, finally the French capital has been discarded because it would lengthen the travel time too much and it will only stop in the community capital.
European Sleeper is also studying how to offer complementary services for travelers when they arrive at their destination such as breakfast or showers, as well as flexible work spaces from which they can wait for the train to leave while answering emails. At the same time, they want to establish synergies with other railway companies such as Renfe so that travelers can also make the trip from Sants to the station of origin or final destination by Rodalies train.
