I love trains! I love that nostalgic feeling that I get when I sit on a train, headphones on and simply spend the journey looking outside the window. Granted that doesn’t happen anymore once you have kids but I still love trains and that slower pace of travel.
If you are like me, then you will love the latest news coming from Europe and the new network of sleeper trains that will launch between December 2022 and 2024.
I mean there is very little that can be compared to falling asleep in one country and waking up in another and thanks to European countries like Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland, these once popular and now forgotten trains are coming back, with a number of new European routes.
Routes
These hotels on rails as Midnight Trains refers to, not only have all the comforts you can imagine, including private rooms and bathrooms, service table, takeaway and cocktail bar but they are also a more sustainable and greener option. France is actually planning 12 new routes including Edinburgh, Rome, Porto and Copenhagen.
RegioJet is also launching new sleeper trains connecting Prague to Brussel, Berlin and Amsterdam with free services including internet access, breakfast and coffee.
Sweden has also announced a new route that will be connecting the country to Hamburg and Brussels by 2022.
Thanks to Nightjet, by 2024 travelers will be able to catch a sleeper train in Zurich, cross eight countries and wake up in Barcelona. Isn’t that something?
All the journeys will start and finish in popular city centers so that travelers can maximize their time arriving at the new location well rested and ready to explore.
Sustainability
As we have explored in our latest article on slow travel, the approach we take to traveling should change to take into account the most sustainable ways to do so instead of a tick in a box of places we would like to see. Trains are the lowest emitters with only 24 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
So why not take it slower next time, jump on a sleeper train, help reduce transport emissions and discover Europe from a different perspective.
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Slow Travel: Pressing The Reset Button On How We View Vacationing.