Second night train in Belgium by the summer: from Brussels to Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague
Belgium will have an additional night train by the summer of next year. Then the train Brussels – Amsterdam – Berlin – Prague should run for the first time, the Dutch-Belgian start-up European Sleeper announced on Monday. The company aims to announce an additional nightly connection every year.
Source: BELGA
An exact date is not yet available for the first ride. “Early summer,” says European Sleeper, which is collaborating with the Chinese rail company RegioJet for the connection. The timetable has already been expanded. The train will run three times a week, with departures from Brussels South on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, each time at 19:22. In Belgium, the train also stops in Antwerp Central (at 8.01 pm). Then it goes via the Netherlands and more Germany and Dresden to the capital Prague, arriving at a slightly different hour. The return journey is on Sunday, Tuesday of Thursday, with arrival back the following day in Antwerp at 8.47 am and in Brussels at 9.54 am.
The plans are a little more limited than first announced. For example, European Sleeper hoped to start in April, but that will be the summer. And the would drive after Brussels to Ghent, Bruges and Ostend, but that turns out not to be feasible. “The implementation costs are incurred in Belgium, that continuation cannot be carried out. We are looking at whether this has yet been realized in 2023,” says the company.
It doesn’t make the start any less ambitious. So it wants to run the connection as soon as possible. And in 2023, the company also wants to connect Brussels and Amsterdam with the Polish capital Warsaw. That would happen with the same night train, which would then be split up in Germany. And after that, European Sleeper has “the ambition to use a new night train from the Netherlands and Belgium every year”, it still sounds.
Tickets from April
At the beginning of 2022, European Sleeper will announce more details about the comfort classes, the ticket prices and the exact start date of its first night train. Ticket sales would start in April. Travelers will be able to take their bicycles with them, it sounds like.
European Sleeper was founded by two Dutch private individuals. In the middle of this year, they joined forces with the Belgian start-up Moonlight Express. He originally wanted to organize nightly train rides from Brussels via Liège to Berlin.
international trains there is one night train in Belgium. The NightJet of the Austrian railway company ÖBB runs three times a week between Brussels (via Liège and Germany) and the Austrian capital Vienna.
Another initiative, from the company OVOE (Ostende-Vienne-Orient-Experience), has again been delayed, says initiator Kristof Blomme. He had originally intended to be able to start night trains around this time. That would be the summer of 2022, but that turned out to be unfeasible, says Blomme. He regrets that the government, especially in the “European Year of Rail”, does not play an active role in the provision of night trains. OVOE is now aiming for the start of night trains to the Austrian ski areas at the end of 2022.