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New night train start-up - Nox

Robski

Robski

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A youtuber, Simply Railway, is starting their own european night train company. According to them they already have coaches "reserved" for this and their photo renders show a very heavy refurbishment which no doubt won't be cheap and that's if they even find the capital for it. Very ambitious route network as well, looks like they want to compete head-on with Nightjet and European Sleeper.

Press release:

Berlin Start-Up Nox to launch night trains with entirely private rooms from 2027​

A new player is entering the European mobility space. Nox, a Berlin-based startup is on a mission to offer a real alternative to short-haul flights. From 2027, Nox plans to operate Europe-wide overnight trains with fully personal rooms for one or two people at the price of a flight.

“Sleeping while a train gets you across Europe is a great concept. But today people have to share their cabins with strangers, beds are tight, and it's often more expensive than air travel. We want to change that and make night trains an essential part of European travel,” says Thibault Constant, Co-Founder of Nox. On YouTube and Instagram, he is known as “Simply Railway”, with over half a million followers and over 400 night train trips worldwide under his belt.

His experience influenced Nox a lot: All three room types will have 2 Meter long beds, separate seats with tables, enough space to stand up and store your luggage. Nox also plans to offer double beds and beds with panoramic window views.

“Our room design allows us to fit more people into our trains than traditional operators can. This, paired with a strict focus on standardisation and operational excellence will allow us to offer affordable fares on over 35 European routes”, says the founder Janek Smalla who has co-launched FlixTrain, and until 2024 led the German ridesharing market for Bolt.

The company has already reserved train coaches, is finalising the approval of its interior design and is now preparing the next large financing round for autumn.

Interested passengers can already explore planned timetables, detailed views of the rooms and prices on noxmobility.com. Users can also join the free Nox “Early Bird Club” to stay updated, enjoy discounted rates, and gain early-access to bookings.
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RailUK Forums

Iskra

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Well it sounds good, and I sincerely wish them all the best as a rail enthusiast and a user of European sleeper trains. However, it’s a very ambitious project to put your (brand) name towards if you don’t have it fully funded already. This could end up like Global Airways of the railways.
 
D

Devonian

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Bletchleyite said:
It sounds like they are having private single bed compartments by alternating upper and lower - something I have long thought a good idea.
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It looks to me like the twin 'vista' rooms (akin to the US roomettes) sit below and across the corridor from either one double 'loft' or two single 'loft' compartments, with the loft beds stretching right across the carriage over the corridor and vista room ceilings. Rather cunning if so. An interesting absence of en-suite facilities and focus on private sleeping rooms, of which I approve.
 
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nwales58

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Is this SleeperSim or Global Sleeperlines?

NOx is something we are trying to reduce, in cities at least.
 
Iskra

Iskra

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I’ve just seen this proposed route map, it is very ambitious. Presumably they will build it up over a number of years.

IMG_0869.jpeg

Personally, I’ll be particularly interested to see where the Reggio Calabria service originates. I’m also a potential customer for the Bari/Lecce route too.
 
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SeanG

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I enjoy his videos but honestly can't see this happening although I wish him all the best
 
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StephenHunter

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Bletchleyite said:
It sounds like they are having private single bed compartments by alternating upper and lower - something I have long thought a good idea.
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CIWL did that with the Type P back in the 1950s. Many were converted into the more conventional AB30 in the 1990s and are still around; European Sleeper has three.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

nwales58 said:
NOx is something we are trying to reduce, in cities at least.
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Well, the Nox did revive SG-1 after they got killed.
 
A

Amalie

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I wish them the best, although I also remain a bit skeptical. I do want to add the following point however. Simply Railway may be “just a YouTuber,” but he’s no stranger to the railway industry. He’s previously worked for Alstom before having committed to being a full-time YouTuber.
 
TheGrew

TheGrew

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His business partner also has quite a lot of transport experience as per the video.
 
doc7austin

doc7austin

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Thibault, I'm really happy for you starting your new business. I wish you all the success. Best, doc7austin !
 
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popeter45

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StephenHunter said:
We already had Midnight Trains come and go without ever running a service.
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Midnight Trains fault was trying to do the most difficult option possible, Orient express level service (they had a blog post discussing if their trains should have 1 or 2 dining cars) while using one of the most complex routes you could think of
Nox seems to be following what European sleeper and flixtrain proved, A to B no frills but also not ryanair
 
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nwales58

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Key things in any transport startup: professional expertise, credible business plan (plausible demand, cost estimates, plan to get as far as operations that is credible to pros, trajectory to break-even etc etc), capital funding.

European Sleeper raised at least Eur 2.5m just to run one route every other day. Nox needs a few times that to start. I wouldn’t be surprised if a posdibly profitable 50-75% of the full network burnt through 100m or more before any chance of breaking even.

Today’s noxmobility web site is only aimed at the customer. I can’t find anything aimed at investors yet. That really really does surprise me.

I see this as a first attempt to get some idea of demand, for ehich they needed the mockup cabins.

After this they need to raise some money to develop business plans, probably in stages, before anyone will invest in this.

European Sleeper (and I genuinely respect their coop approach) have shown the limits of crowdfunding. Nox need far more and the decade of cheap money is behind us.

I look forward to seeing what comes out of them next. Until there are cost and revenue profiles to get your teeth into, or a committed deep-pocketed backer, it’s very premature.
 
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popeter45

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nwales58 said:
Key things in any transport startup: professional expertise, credible business plan (plausible demand, cost estimates, plan to get as far as operations that is credible to pros, trajectory to break-even etc etc), capital funding.

European Sleeper raised at least Eur 2.5m just to run one route every other day. Nox needs a few times that to start. I wouldn’t be surprised if a posdibly profitable 50-75% of the full network burnt through 100m or more before any chance of breaking even.

Today’s noxmobility web site is only aimed at the customer. I can’t find anything aimed at investors yet. That really really does surprise me.

I see this as a first attempt to get some idea of demand, for ehich they needed the mockup cabins.

After this they need to raise some money to develop business plans, probably in stages, before anyone will invest in this.

European Sleeper (and I genuinely respect their coop approach) have shown the limits of crowdfunding. Nox need far more and the decade of cheap money is behind us.

I look forward to seeing what comes out of them next. Until there are cost and revenue profiles to get your teeth into, or a committed deep-pocketed backer, it’s very premature.
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thinking about this and makes me wonder if they are not crowdfunding because they already have investment?, already said they have coaches on order so must have money already

the fact one of the founder is from flixtrain and flixtrain are likely to be wanting rid of coaches in the stated timeframe once their talgo order arrives makes me wonder if flixbus could be bankrolling this?
 
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Gag Halfrunt

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FlixTrain's current rolling stock is leased, so what happens to it when the Talgos arrive will be somebody else's problem.

FlixTrain does not usually own the rolling stock that it operates. Instead, the company decided to lease these assets from other companies. Early FlixTrain rolling stock was sourced from the BahnTouristikExpress [de] (BTE); this business relationship came to an end in early 2020.[4] Another provider of rolling stock to the company has been Talbot Services, based in Aachen. FlixTrain has reportedly arranged for its trains to be powered exclusively by green electricity.[11]

FlixTrain has primarily opted for rakes of refurbished locomotive-hauled UIC-standard passenger coaches hauled by 3rd generation Siemens EuroSprinter and Siemens Vectron locomotives.[29] During 2020, FlixTrain entered into a co-operative agreement with the European railway leasing company Railpool; according to the two companies, all of the leased coaches are equipped with new seats and have amenities such as modernized toilets, power sockets at each seat, Wi-Fi technology, and onboard entertainment systems.[29]
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FlixTrain - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
43096

43096

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Gag Halfrunt said:
FlixTrain's current rolling stock is leased, so what happens to it when the Talgos arrive will be somebody else's problem.



FlixTrain - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Given the age of Flix's stock - notwithstanding the overhauls done - I would bet that by the time it comes off lease from Flix, Railpool will have made their money back and a decent profit. They are not going to be recovering the cost over 15 years or more!
 
D

danchester

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Sounds like they might already have the capital in place to build (at least an initial batch of) the trains, perhaps helped by refurbing old seated coaches to keep costs down. What's definitely unclear is whether they have the capital in place to actually run them.

Is there perhaps a world in which they're fine with not doing so, and instead simply profiting on their concept and renting these out to the likes of European Sleeper? Of course if this drives enough momentum to actually get their own route/network up and running, all the better.
 
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