StephenHunter
Established Member
They remain compatible, but I think Soviet profile won't fit west of the old Iron Curtain.
Indeed, you had two types of Soviet sleepers as a result. Firstly the RIC-types that were cleared for anywhere in Europe and operated to Paris, Ostend, Hook of Holland etc, with just 1st and 2nd class options. Then you had the larger profile three-class Soviet sleepers that ran in the Soviet bloc and to Vienna. Only the former and the Talgo carriages are used by RZD on their sleepers today outside the former USSR, I believe.
They remain compatible, but I think Soviet profile won't fit west of the old Iron Curtain.
I am seeing more and more evidence of people feeling awkward when talking about flying, even when flying is the only practical way to travel long distances. I can see rail capitalising on this.
Driving would too if and when electric cars have the range and charging infrastructure, as even a road trip isn't going to be looked upon favourably if doing so in a big gas guzzler.
It's quite amazing that in such a short space of time, we've gone from disregarding rail as being too slow (and, frankly, too expensive) and now see it as a way of 'doing our bit' to save the planet.
It took a while, but perhaps the low cost airlines have finally got some competition!
I think Easyjet have pulled a blinder by quickly arranging to offset all their carbon emissions from passenger flight operations. Of course you can quibble about how they are offsetting, but any person who feels marginally awkward about flying (in Europe!) may feel slightly less so with team orange. I expect some other airlines to follow suit.
Getting a little off topic here I think gentlemen let's get back to the main discussion point of Sleeper services.
What I’m unclear about from the report is what this means for the Gothenburg portion. At present, the trains are split and recomposed in (?) Sundsvall, and half from Gothenburg goes to Duved and half goes to Luleå. If two different operators are running the two different routes, it won’t exactly incentivise them to coordinate on the Gothenburg portion.
As to sleepers, a re-introduction of the Stockholm to Hamburg route with onward connections sounds sensible.
According to the news yesterday, this would mean the end of the night train to Gothenburg. That resulted in a social media storm, so in todays news Vy mentioned that they will reconsider it.
The Danish government has today decided to cofinance a future night train between Sweden and Germany if it stops in Denmark. That sounds like great news!
Press release from the department of transport: https://www.trm.dk/nyheder/2020/politisk-aftale-skal-forbedre-den-kollektive-trafik/ (in Danish but Google translate will do a decent job.)
on a more broader note, I cannot think of a safer way to travel right now than in my own personal compartment. Maybe sleeper trains will have even greater popularity in the near future...
For that, compartments shared by strangers must disappear.
This is indeed great news. The Swedish transport agency was scheduled to publish the final report on the proposal sometime around the end of April. So we should see a definitive plan very soon.
Assuming the Nightjet has spare capacity - didn't they have to do tests to check if the planned load could manage the banks at Aachen and Liege? It might be operationally easier to run the whole train through.They mentioned a possibility of trains to Belgium; it would not be entirely out of the realms of possibility to have a through carriage to Brussels, detach it at Cologne, then put it onto the Vienna-Brussels service.
Slightly OT but terminating the train at Koeln Hbf won't go down well with DB - it's extremely congested in the peak.
Sorry, I'd missed that. Must remember to keep upThat's why it's proposed to run the train to Aachen and terminate there.
Noted, so while this is drifting a bit from Malmö-Köln, some news about Sweden’s domestic sleepers, via IRJ.
With a kind of cosmic balance, after SJ won a number of operating contracts from Vy in Norway last year, Vy have just won the contract to operate the Norrland sleeper from Stockholm to Luleå and Narvik. SJ will continue to run the Stockholm – Östersund – Duved service.
What I’m unclear about from the report is what this means for the Gothenburg portion. At present, the trains are split and recomposed in (?) Sundsvall, and half from Gothenburg goes to Duved and half goes to Luleå. If two different operators are running the two different routes, it won’t exactly incentivise them to coordinate on the Gothenburg portion.
How does that help? It still stops in Köln.That's why it's proposed to run the train to Aachen and terminate there.