More than one saw how enlightened Elmer van Buuren and Chris Engelsman were when they presented two years ago a cooperative that sought to attract financing from private investors to revive night trains in Europe without the support of any of the major operators railways Doubts disappeared just a week ago, when the first European Sleeper night train left Brussels South station bound for Berlin, with stops 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 aim is for it to start providing service in the spring of 2025, confirmed yesterday 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 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 important barriers that need to be overcome”, acknowledges Van Buuren. The first and fundamental is the need to acquire some second-hand trains in order to carry out a comprehensive intervention in the interior, which involves the conversion of the carriages with seats into sleeping carriages, with the respective closed spaces.
Subsequently, the rolling stock will have to be approved and the drivers qualified, with the complexity that comes from the fact that it passes through different countries, each with specific requirements. The French railway agency is usually particularly vulnerable in this regard, as Renfe knows, which stopped operating in the neighboring country in December and will not be able to circulate on French tracks again for a few weeks.
The schedule is another aspect that has yet 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, the French capital has finally been ruled out because it would extend the travel time too much, and it will only stop at the community capital.
European Sleeper is also looking at how to offer complementary services for travelers when they arrive at their destination, such as breakfast or showers, as well as flexible workspaces where 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 journey from Sants to the station of origin or final destination with the Rodalies train.
