“…comfortable and unhurried travel is the main selling point of Nightjets.”
“…most important is to depart and arrive at a convenient time.”
I think they could replicate that in the United States in some corridors for both vacation and business travelers. It would cost a lot more money in the United States to setup though and you would have to nurse maid Amtrak beyond it’s internal objection for train departures past 9:00 p.m. from major stations - origination points.
It’s been noted many times previously here that the United States has vaster distances between its cities than Europe. So if ever a country was ideal for long distance overnight train travel, it’s us. But right now one wouldn’t know that, to judge from Amtrak’s current mis-direction.
As a tourist and railfan in Europe, I’m afraid overnight trains don’t work for me. Most hotels want me to depart by noon; most overnight trains, especially in Europe, depart in the late evening. That means that from before lunch until after dinner I have to find a place to check my bags, use a restroom a time or three, and have no place where I can crash out, unless I’m traveling by first class and have access to a station lounge. Not cheap or convenient. Of course, I could buy a hotel room for an additional day and check out in the evening, but this is an expensive option.
While traveling at night I miss all the scenery, the very reason I’m riding a train instead of flying.
In the morning I’m likely to arrive around 8 AM, when nothing but cafes, Starbucks and an occasional restaurant are open. No stores or museums. Check in time at most hotels is 3 or 4 PM, so that gives me 8 hours to be without a room and a place to access my bags. Once again, I could buy a hotel room for the same night I’m on the train in order to have a room available when I arrive in town, but how silly is that?
Although I enjoyed using CityNightLine a few times, the above obstacles presented themselves. Nevertheless, I think OBB is on the right track as far as future travel, especially for young people, and I admire them for finding a formula or business plan that seems to work.
When the Lake Shore Limited began operating in 1975 it’s schedule had it call at Cleveland around 11:45 PM, and arrive at GCT around 12:45 PM: quite conven
Because you think like an American and sometimes presume Europe operates the same way and it really operates a bit differently in most of the places you listed above as issues…
Most Train stations in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark at least have luggage lockers or a staffed room to check your luggage.
You can rent a decent hotel room by the hour via reputable American chain or European chain in a nice area in order to crash or take a shower in most areas
I thought most hotels would check a bag before check-in/after check-out. I don’t do it often, but I never had a problem with this, or camping out in the lobby for hours.
Some weeks I commute on Southwest Airlines to KC from Dallas and spend the entire week at the Hotel there (Marriott Bonvoy Chain). So when I fly out on Fridays I check out at 8:00 a.m. and free the room for the next guest but check my luggage with the bellman or concierge, then work until 10-11:00 a.m. from either my workplace or the hotel lobby, board the airport shuttle.
Was also able to setup a deal because I fly-in every 5-6 weeks to spend a week at that hotel, I can check a suitcase to stay permanently at the hotel. That way I only need to fly with my laptop and clothes on my back. They will ship the suitcase back on demand as well via Email request (had that done as well). They would do all of the above even if I was not a frequent guest. I am not the only returning guest that checks a bag to stay at the hotel either. They have a bunch of guests that do that. The guest services manager at the front desk is fully empowered on hotel rates, and to make agreements like this. A lot of Americans have no clue on their negotiation power sometimes and take just the first hotel rate offered instead of attempting to bargain (and listen to the newly hired front guest person instead of talking with the more experienced front desk manager…who looks at your stay history, company, etc).
I can’t bargain in KC on rates since it was agreed to between the hotel and Corporate but other cities I try to when I check in…especially if the hotel is not full. You can do the same on rental car rates during holidays when they are short on cars. I got a double upgrade in Milwaukee to full size Suburba
This is from Bloomberg news as printed in the National Post, a Toronto newspaper.
This from The Guardian. The future of sleeper trains is looking good!
Railway age atricle showing how European RRs made mistakes similar to Amtrak.
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/sleeper-service-why-we-should-follow-europes-lead/
Did you actually read the article you linked? Whatever resurgence there is in night trains isn’t about prior mistakes. It’s about climate change: “What’s driving this seemingly unsupported initiative, you may rightly ask? It’s climate change, and Thunberg, among others, is leading the charge by posting photos of herself riding trains. In Sweden, her activism has now inspired “flight shaming,” one result of which is that the Swedish government has authorized the national transport authority to re-introduce overnight international trains to other European nations, and funded this with a $4.2 million initial outlay.”
In other words, it’s all good news! Thunberg, flight shaming- me I don’t really care as long as I can take a sleeper train in Europe, something I have done many times since 1975 and is the most civilised way to travel ever since they retired the original Queen Mary.
You bet it is. It should not have left us in the first place.
I don’t know of a corridor in the U.S. that could support overnight sleeper service and cover its operating costs. Forget about the capital costs.
Most people are not going to trade a comfy hotel room for one on a train that is slightly larger than a broom closet. Not to mention the challenge of paddling down the hall in the middle of the night to use the toilet! At least for folks in an economy room!
Only a government agency that can dump it mistakes on the taxpayers would consider running an overnight train in the U.S. No investor owned commercial enterprise would even consider it.
An overnight sleeper may work in Europe. That does not mean that it would be a good option for the U.S.
Why does 1/2 of the country think that the other half will follow their beliefs?. I probably have no use at present for the type of overnight sleeper service depicted here. But cannot say there is not demand from other persons. The WASH <> BOS route may certainly be ripe for some persons to use such service.
“IF” there was enough equipment and decent routes then we might know. At the present there are no alternatives other than driving or flying. There is much pressure to keep it that way. When will we ever learn? There is a real need to balance transportation but it never happens due to the merge every business into one giagantic single entity.
Overlooked in all the hoopla is one inconvenient fact. Overnight trains are now and in the last 25 years a miniscule segment of the passenger train ridership in Europe. The addition of the new trains will restore ridership to what it was 20 years ago, a small bite out of the apple, for the reasons PSJ1 listed.
Actually I disagree with absolutist statements like this. What your basically stating outright is there is not enough interest in a rail corridor that carries hundreds of thousands of people a year to even fill what amounts to a single train full of sleepers between the two city points on an overnight run (at the most maybe 150-200 people). Understood it is a personal opinion.
However, in Europe the sleeping accomodations on the economy end of the scale are shrinking smaller then the Amtrak Economy bedroom, additionally if you visit the OBB nightjet sight they sell shared bedroom accomodations for what would be much cheaper than what Amtrak charges for an Economy bedroom with the disclaimer that Men and Women will be seperated. &nb
Also, one more thing. Virgin Trains is an international player and with them there will be a LOT more international marketing of passenger trains in the United States as well as a lot more of those international trains are going to be using Amtrak reservations system to make reservations on Virgin Trains as well as potentially using Amtrak trains as connections…the world is shrinking in that aspect of Amtrak usage no longer being exclusively American as well.
The argument PJS1 is making, however, is not that that there is little demand for overnight service, or even that there is adequate demand for it at many times. It is that demand for a full, sustainable, bidirectional service offered on a regular timetable basis is not there.
Ed Ellis came to this conclusion after trying what is perhaps the most “sustainable” business model for such a thing: restored Pullman equipment from the ‘golden age’ of streamliners, operated as a premium service ‘by appointment only’ in a popular corridor with good overnight destination pairs. He was unable to make enough money to sustain the operation.
I’d be more inclined to think that there is a future for ‘hostel’-style sleeping accommodations … basically a sort of return to open sections, where riders get to curl up in a sort of cubbyhole but at least can stretch out flat with some privacy and a reading light and USB/Qi charging arrangement. That has proven popular in other contexts, and certainly would improve a long-distance ‘coach-class’ experience at little marginal cost increase.
I agree with OM.
The luxury Ed Ellis model has a very limited market. It’s something I might conceivably do once, but that’s it.
However, to me, sitting up all night in a coach is excruciating. If I could pay, say, 35% more for some really basic dorm-type bunk (it would have to come with a little lock-box for valuables), I’d be very interested. My body gets to a point where it needs to be horizontal, period. The space would need to provide tha
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Overmod
blue streak 1
But cannot say there is not demand from other persons.The argument PJS1 is making, however, is not that that there is little demand for overnight service, or even that there is adequate demand for it at many times. It is that demand for a full, sustainable, bidirectional service offered on a regular timetable basis is not there.
Ed Ellis came to this conclusion after trying what is perhaps the most “sustainable” business model for such a thing: restored Pullman equipment from the ‘golden age’ of streamliners, operated as a premium service ‘by appointment only’ in a popular corridor with good overnight destination pairs. He was unable to make enough money to sustain the operation.
I’d be more inclined to think that there is a future for ‘hostel’-style sleeping accommodations … basically a sort of return to open sections, where riders get to curl up in a sort of cubbyhole but at least can stretch out flat with some privacy and a reading light and USB/Qi charging arrangement. That has proven popular in other contexts, and certainly would improve a long-distance ‘coach-class’ experience at little marginal cost increase.
I agree with OM.
The luxury Ed Ellis model has a very limited market. It’s something I might conceivably do once, but that’s it.
However, to me, sitting up all night in a coach is excruciating. If I could pay, say,