European Railroad Discussion > Rail operator ÖBB to revive sleeper service across Europ

Rail operator ÖBB to revive sleeper carriage service across Europe
Financial Times
by Ralph Atkins
09OCT2016

> Rattling through the night from city to city, with beds in luxury
> cabins or compartments shared with strangers, Europe’s night
> passenger train services evoke an earlier, more romantic era of
> transport.
>
> The sleeper carriages may soon start picking up speed again,
> however. ÖBB, the Austrian state-owned railway operator, on Friday
> announced a significant expansion and rebranding of its overnight
> passenger services across Germany, Italy and Switzerland, as well as
> its home market.
>
> ÖBB hopes its new “Nightjet” services will prove a viable
> alternative to flying, even if rival operators in other European
> countries have shunted overnight sleepers into the sidings.
>
> “It’s about a particularly quality of travelling — through the night
> comfortably, safely and without traffic congestion; depart in the
> evening, arrive relaxed in the morning,” says Andreas Matthä, ÖBB’s
> chief executive.
>
> Luxury rail sleeper services were immortalised in Agatha Christie’s
> 1934 classic Murder on the Orient Express. To generations of
> wandering European students, they provided cheap and basic
> accommodation on wheels.
>
> “The old sleeper train has not really moved on — there is an
> opportunity to bring them back into relevance,” says Paul Priestman,
> chairman of the London-based PriestmanGoode design agency, which is
> helping ÖBB design a new generation of sleeper trains...

> ...ÖBB said it was pitching its services at a range of customers,
> with some services allowing passengers to load their cars on the
> train. Nightjet trains would offer regular seats, couchettes with
> four or six fold-down beds and compartments with one, two or three
> beds.
>
> Although state-owned, the services would be profitable, taking
> advantage of underused night-time rail network capacity. Fares would
> be pitched to compete with airlines — a single compartment departing
> from Berlin at 11pm and arriving in Zürich at 9am would cost €139
> including breakfast, for instance.

Full story:

https://www.ft.com/content/9795163e-8c6e-11e6-8cb7-e7ada1d123b1

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
(snip)
>
> > ...ÖBB said it was pitching its services at a
> range of customers,
> > with some services allowing passengers to load
> their cars on the
> > train. Nightjet trains would offer regular
> seats, couchettes with
> > four or six fold-down beds and compartments with
> one, two or three
> > beds.
> >

Properly priced, that could be an attractive option

I think what is killing off many European overnight sleeper trains is the very much faster day trains.  The further the origins and destinations are from the core High Speed lines the more relevant these overnight services are.