European Railroad Discussion > End of the line for CNL 472/473

With arrivals in Amsterdam, Prague and Basel this morning;Copenhagen lost its last overnight service to Central Europe. City Night Line is continuing a slow slide away from old fashioned international services soon to be followed with the end of service to/from Hamburg, Munich and Paris. Last night at Rothskild Danish crews said goodbye to sleeping car service. At least 100 or more protesters sent the last 473 off from Copenhagen on Sunday night.

Unique perhaps to Americans was the long speech made over473's P/A system by a rail activist castigating Deutsche Bahn and the Danish government for ending this service to a t13 car train that was less than1/2 full.

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Unfortunately, the primary fault for the end of the Paris/Hamburg/Munich-Berlin service will lie with SNCF, who refused to participate in it, and just stuck it with ridiculous access and traction charges (it has good loadings and demand)

Copenhagen service's loadings, on the other hand, were highly seasonal.

More from the final weekend of Copenhagen service.

DSB engine hooks up at Padeborg on 1 November for Copenhagen.w
Danish crews greeting passengers at Odense.
Engine change at Padeborg southbound to Germany on 2 November.

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It's a little late to start the protests with the last scheduled train: an earlier start might be considered next time.

I used this service in June 2014, from Copenhagen to Dresden. A few months earlier, the dining car had been cut. We still were provided with complementary Czech sparking wine in our compartment.

It's my second overnight trip in two years where the service is terminated shortly afterwards. In 2013, we travelled Paris-Madrid on the Elipsos hotel train, which was discontinued without apparent protest or fanfare in December 2013. All Elipsos services are now discontinued.

My plan for 2015 is to take the Lisbon-Madrid overnight, which has also seen its dining service downgraded. Hopefully, it will not be discontinued shortly thereafter.

Such a shame. European overnight trains are great. Normally about 8 hours. Just enough time to sleep avoiding an expensive overnight hotel at the end of ones trip. Just turn up at Schipol airport in the morning and head for your flight.