Roughly thirty years ago, I had this unique chance to travel by overnight train in Germany. You paid a premium....got yourself an entire cabin area, and I thought it was a great deal. You arrived at around 7AM in Hamburg (from a midnight pickup in Frankfurt).
Around five years ago, the Deutsche Bahn company did the math and decided that profits weren't that great with the night-train business (with cabins) and dumped the program.
Interestingly enough....Austria and it's bahn program did the math and found ways they could still survive with this. So came this long-haul operation.....from Berlin to Vienna.
So today, I picked up N-TV's piece which talked about the next venture for the Austrians and night travel.
Last year, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) went from 1.4 million night-travelers to 1.6 million. No one is saying the precise reason for growth, or if special advertising in Berlin and Vienna has appealed to folks.
Expansion talk is going on. There's thirteen new trains now on order. A route from Vienna into Switzerland is planned, with three routes from Italy to Vienna charted out. Hamburg and Dusseldorf? Yes, they apparently are being discussed as well.
The curious thing is that the Austrians went and made some deal for the forty-two sleeping cars that the Deutsche Bahn operated prior to 2016 (when they ended their operation), and putting them through a renovation phase. Within three years....those train cars will all be in operation as well.
My take? There are certain people who just can't stand traveling on trains for six to eight hours. They would rather go out to the airport, go through a five-hour routine of waiting, security and flight....to arrive at their destination. But there's something about a night-train. You step onboard....go to the pub-car and sip through a wine and a light snack. Then you go and sleep in the car with the rocking motion, and quietly arrive at sun-up at your destination. It's like some mini-adventure, with a simple beginning and end.
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