[Chapeltom]

Hi all.

Can anyone tell me what the following sleepers are like? Me and a mate are exploring the idea of inter-railing and already have a draft schedule knocked up for next year. Is there food served on them etc?

Malmo to Berlin - Berlin Night Express
Munich to Vienna - Just 6hr 15, is worth just getting a seat on that?
Ljubljana to Sargans - 12 hours! Leaving Slovenia at 2049!

Cheers

Tom

[WestCoast]

There's a website for the Malmo to Berlin sleeper, www.berlin-night-express.com/en/morning.html. Pictures of the accommodation options and it says that there's food available for purchase during the ferry crossing, with beverages available at other times. It's ran by Veolia apparently, unfortunately I've no experience of their services. I think the coaches are ex-SJ (Swedish rail), but I couldn't tell you more.

Munich to Vienna is an Austrian (ÖBB) EuroNight service heading onto Budapest with ÖBB couchettes/cabins/seated compartments thoughout. http://www.seat61.com/train-from-cologne-to-vienna.htm. Ignore the Cologne bit, it's the same type of train/service. Seat 61 has lots of great info on this one, it may also help you with other aspects of the trip. I'd be tempted to do Munich to Vienna on a daytime RailJet, however I understand that overnighting saves on accommodation costs.

[jonmorris0844]

I was interested in that Malmo/Berlin train until I saw that it's not couchette only, no cabins. Cheap though.

[WestCoast]

The Ljubljana to Sargans sleeper seems complicated. You've got me interested on this one! The whole service is the D 414 / D 15464 / EN 464 (it changes with splitting and joining along the way) - Beograd (Serbia) to Zurich is the whole (very long) trip.

Composition according to VagonWeb.cz of the coaches that go through to Sargens/Zurich from before Ljubljana:

Couchettes - one Croatian (HŽ) - pics
Cabins - one Croatian (HŽ)
Compartment seats - one Croatian (HŽ) - pics
Open seating - one Swiss (SBB) - pics

In general the couchettes have an attendant, no idea what sort of service they have on this train! It doesn't appear to run daily and coaches (and motorrail coaches) are split/joined/picked up/set down multiple times along the way.

European sleepers really are interesting, the way they work is much more like an interlinking network. The Euro rail scene is much more unpredictable than the UK I find, the UK has too many standard pattern services and MUs!

[QJ]

Re the Malmo to Berlin sleeper.

I have travelled on this service in the opposite direction (I also travelled on the day time service as well when the latter ran to and from Sassnitz Haven). I sadly lost my notes in a house move but I suspect the "hot food available for purchase during the ferry crossing" means you getting off the train once it has been secured on the ferry's train deck and legging it up to the ferry's restaurant area.

I found overnight journeys by train much more interesting operating wise than during the day. Unfortunately, with all the splitting and joining, changes of locomotive, the possibility of shunting loco haulage and unusual routes I never managed to get much sleep on them. That probably explains why I found daytime journeys often less interesting. I kept falling asleep on them.

[JonathanP]

Malmo to Berlin:
I travelled on this. A strange service, possibly worth doing for novelty value alone. It spends most of it's time on a ferry, where uniquely you have free access to the car deck during the crossing(unlike services on the shorter train ferry used by Hamburg-Copenhagen services), so you can use facilities on the ferry. It's a private venture(used to be Skandlines, now Veolia) but is still covered by Interrail. I don't think it had any food on board because it was a very short train(by sleeper standards), only three or four coaches.

Munich to Vienna:
Presumably a DB CNL service(?), in which case you should get a simple breakfast included, even in a 2nd class couchette. Not sure if seated passengers get that, probably not.

Ljubljana to Sargans:
As mentioned above sleepers get 'blocked' together. I think there are two 'blocks' in each direction through Ljubljana each night, that it is the early one and I used a coach from the later one to go to Munich last year. It seemed to be almost brand new and was in much better condition than UIC sleeper stock used by other countries.

Good Resources for general information are Seat61, Raildude and the Thomas Cook Rail Timetable and Map, but you probably already know that

[gordonthemoron]

DB don't do breakfasts for couchette passengers, unlike OBB. Malmo to Berlin is indeed odd, only 3 coaches, I think it was 2 couchette cars and 1 sleeper but I could be wrong. No catering unless the attendant had something, full access to the ship to/from Sassnitz (Mukran)

[TCDD]

Travelled Ljublijana - Sargans on the direct overnight train in early June, sharing a two berth sleeper. Used a 2nd class Interrail pass. Supplement, booked at Berlin Zoo ticket office five days earlier, was 47 euro. The sleeper car (can't remember if there were 1 or 2 of them) is a clean modern comfortable Croatian vehicle with two clean loos at one end, but no showers (unlike modern DB stock). It was possible to purchase drinks (well beers at least) off the attendant, but there was nothing offered in the morning - certainly no free breakfast, coffee etc. At Villach all sorts of shunting happens. Shortly before Buchs the train passes through Liechtenstein. No much of interest to see, but another country ticked off...

[burns20]

Has anyone done the Bucharest-Sofia sleeper? Any idea of the price of a 1st class bed and how to book?

[gordonthemoron]

there is no Bucharest-Sofia sleeper anymore, just 2 day coaches attached to a sleeper from Moskow to Sofia which you can't buy tickets for, the seated coaches are ancient DB regio stock

[burns20]

Thats buggered that plan then. Didn't like the idea of the day train that arrives in Sofia just before 2300.

[gordonthemoron]

the seats on the day train are bloody awful too, you could try the sleeper from Bucarest to Kapikule (Turkey) and then hop on the night train from there to Sofia, couchettes only on the second leg, but that's pretty stupid and you might need a turkish visa. Or you could go via Belgrade but not sure which trains are running as the day train from Belgrade to Sofia was cancelled earlier in the year
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
actually, Sofia is not that big and I wouldn't be too concerned about arriving late at night

[burns20]

Have found i believe a comfier and novel way of crossing the border...train from Craiova to Calafat and ferry to Vidin.

See updated Romania thread