Arguments for reinstating the Paris-Brussels-Berlin/Hamburg Sleeper Service

• Ticket costs
• Time
• London
• Brussels (Liège)
• Berlin
• Hamburg (and Dortmund, Münster, Osnabrück, Bremen)
• Bielefeld and Wolfsburg

Ticket costs

Night trains have fixed prices, which are often a lot cheaper than those on daytime trains and compare favourably to flying. Daytime trains on international connections are not through-ticketed and travellers have to piece together different deals and buy them from a number of different websites, often with different sale periods. This means prices are almost always way above those of flying.

The other bad news is that saver ticket prices seem to have gone up. The saver tickets seem to have a different price on different days. They used to be €29/€39/€49 for a seat/a couchette in a compartment of 6/of 4. Now they seem to start at €89 for a couchette on some days. With these prices the train cannot compete with the plane.

Time

Train connections compare favourably to flying for train journeys of under 4 hours (for business travellers) and under 6 hours (for leisure travellers). For longer journeys only overnight trains can overcome the distance because you travel while you sleep and do not lose a day (and possibly save on hotel accommodation).

Daytime trips from London, Paris and Brussels to Berlin and Hamburg are all well above these limits. The only people who take them will be rail enthusiasts and pensioners with plenty of time.

The train was never really properly marketed, certainly not in London or Germany. Nevertheless, there were a large number of travellers using this route every day. Proper marketing and easy ticketing would no doubt have increased the number of passengers using it even more.

London

The tickets from or to London could not and cannot be bought online in one go: Eurostar, sleeper and connecting tickets have to be bought separately. Only specialist outlets (e.g. DB UK) can sell tickets for the entire journey. If travellers could buy through tickets online (e.g. on the Eurostar and DB websites) this would make it more convenient and lead to an increase in travellers.

Unfortunately, night trains are not part of Railteam portfolio and unfortunately this train was pulled before through ticketing with Railteam will come into action in the next few years.

The old connection was a lot faster and there was no need, for instance, to take any time off work for a weekend in Berlin:

Compare this to the replacement train via Paris.

Brussels (Liège)

The Belgian and EU capital loses its direct train connection with the German capital, Hamburg and stations in between. Daytime connections take more than 7 hours and are not viable as against flying. Brussels is therefore now the only capital of a neighbouring state apart from Luxembourg with no direct train connection with the German capital.

Berlin

The new replacement service to Paris takes longer than it did before leaves earlier and arrives later in Berlin on the return.

Hamburg (and Dortmund, Münster, Osnabrück, Bremen)

There is no night train to these cities from Paris, Brussels and Liege any more. Seats on an ICE between Hanover and Hamburg get a CNL night train number, but this cannot be booked online at www.bahn.co.uk, intermediate stations lose out altogether.

Bielefeld and Wolfsburg

Bielefeld and Wolfsburg are also losing their direct connection to Paris and Brussels. A train to Hannover to connect with the Paris train will cost up to €27 extra.

Railteam

© Andrea Woelke 2008