NightJet Expands To Amsterdam And Brussels
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the Railway Gazette.
The Amsterdam Service
This is said about the NightJet service to Amsterdam.
- It will run daily.
- It will run between Amsterdam and Vienna via Munich.
- Service will start in December 2020.
- Journey time will be fourteen hours.
- The Dutch government is supporting the service with €6.7million.
The Dutch Minister for Infrastructure is also quoted as saying that International rail traffic to and from The Netherlands has increased by 13% this summer and that they are targeting intra-European journeys of up to six hours.
Given that it has recently been announced that the Customs and Immigration problems on the Amsterdam to London services will soon be resolved, I can shhe the following happening in the next couple of years.
- Tourists taking Eurostar from London to Amsterdam and then exploring the City before taking a NightJet to Vienna, after a night or two in Amsterdam.
- More tourists exploring Europe by rail.
- Eiurostar needing to run four daily services between London and Amsterdam.
I feel the Dutch Government are backing an obvious winner.
The Brussels Service
This is said about the NightJet service to Brussels.
- ÖBB will trial a service to Brussels from January 2020
- It will run between Brussels and Vienna via Dusseldorf and Innsbruck.
- It will initially run two days per week.
The aim would be to go daily, at the same time as the start of the Amsterdam service.
Everything said about the Amsterdam service would apply to the Brussels service, but would it be used by European politicians going to and from their home countries.
Conclusion
These two services will open up Central Europe to civilised comfortable train travel for passengers starting in the Benelux countries, Northern France and South-East England.
Vienna is a hub for other NightJet services going further East, so after a day or two the options to travel further are many and varied.
Will we ever see a London and Vienna sleeper?
We might!
But consider!
- The last Eurostar from London to Brussels leaves at 18:04 and arrives at arrives at 21:05
- The last |Eurostar from London to Paris leaves at 20:01 and arrives at 23:17
- You can get a good meal in the two top classes; Standard Premier and Business Premier.
It may be a better idea to run a later service from London to Brussels to connect with the NightJet
The Anonymous Widower 
14 hours is a long time though, a hypothetical 8pm departure and 10am arrival is not going to cut it for most business travellers (or MEPs for that matter). However, if my calculations are correct it’s an average speed of little over 80km/h! If that could be got up to something like the 120km/h mark (which is still hardly fast), then it could be a 10pm departure and 8am arrival, which is far better, allowing for a decent pre-departure dinner and arrival in time for a full working day.
Comment by digitaldeptuk | October 11, 2019 |
It should be noted that this is typical time for a sleeper. I’ve gone to Inverness from Uston and that takes twelve hours. When I did it, it was summer and it was packed.
Comment by AnonW | October 11, 2019 |
Hope you’re still blogging…? Any more news on the night jet and individual train pods?
Comment by Allypally | September 18, 2021 |
It appears there are now services from both cities to Vienna.
It looks like the first two new coaches are under test!
Comment by AnonW | September 18, 2021 |