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‘Hotel on rails’ Midnight Trains announce end of project before it actually started operations

https://tripbytrip.org/2024/06/01/hotel-on-rails-midnight-trains-announce-end-of-project-before-it-actually-started-operations/

In their weekly Friday at midnight newsletter, Midnight Trains have announced it their “death”. The French company wanted to start a ‘hotel on rails’ upscale night train ser…

17 comments

realitista

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Real pity. It was an important idea that should have gotten a chance.

geophysicist

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Check out European sleeper, that company is already doing this

hushable

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and NightJet by ÖBB, different routes, but a lot better IMO

sic_1

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As far as I know those services are barely breaking even, using the few remaining old sleeper wagons. Growth of them is not likely because new wagons cost a lot and profitability is low.

Badeendje

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Just put less rows of seats and have them properly recline. Some people will want small rooms, but cheap sleeper seats help as well. People sleep in planes too.

someguy3

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I want to say that sleep is terrible because blood flow isn't as good as when lying down.

Droechai

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There is a reason pressure socks are sometimes recommended on very long flights even for people with no prior heart issues :)

AllNewTypeFace

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The quality of sleep you get in a reclining seat will be well below that of a fully horizontal sleeper bunk. Unless it’s one of those first-class airline pod seats which reclines all the way, though those take up more space than compartments of sleeper bunks, and only exist because of aviation safety requirements which don’t apply on railways.

Badeendje

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Yeah good point. In the transsiberia express they have 1st class, 2 person compartments with beds and also 4 person compartments with bunkbeds as 2nd class and 3rd class is an open wagon filled with 3 story bunkbeds.

KevonLooney

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Why? Sounds like a small expensive hotel and a slow plane ride.

jmcs

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Or a better night train. The slowness is not an issue if you can actually save time by merging the trip and the hotel stay.

AllNewTypeFace

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You’re essentially paying for a hotel that transports you to a different city by next morning, as if by magic. You can have a full day’s work or sightseeing, eat dinner, board your train and get a reasonable night’s sleep, waking up to have another full day at your destination.

KevonLooney

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Your room is smaller, more like a prison cell than a hotel room. And it's noisier (depending on the train). And there's no guarantee you will arrive on time. And the food is worse. And you can't leave.

It's like being in prison. I want to like trains but they need to be fast (high speed rail) or convenient (subways).

elgordino

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This is a great map of the night train services across Europe.

https://back-on-track.eu/night-train-map/

They vary significantly in levels of comfort and price, but there’s a lot to check out. Shame this new service didn’t work out.

geophysicist

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There's already a company doing this, with lines already going. European sleeper! Night trains with private cabins and beds between Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague

MrAlagos

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Right, Midnight Trains was a French company trying to create a European night train network that centred on France, specifically on Paris. I think they found out the hard way that for various reasons, as they detailed in their blog, France might not be the best country in which to organise such a company; it also might have been simply too ambitious of a project for the current market.

poVoq

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Ah, that was on my list of "looking forward to try". The Porto to Hamburg line they had in their promotional material sounded really cool.