I have read with interest your updates on this on Twitter - thanks.
Thank you! For context - I used to write travelogues on other forums, and now I simply don't have the time it takes to draft, redraft and edit a long piece of prose. So I turned to Twitter, and create long threads of connected tweets in real time that describe my journey.
You can follow my journey from near Vännäs, Sweden to Prague, Czech Republic
by clicking here. The first tweet will load... which was me, sitting in my car in the woods at 04:45 on Monday morning, then you just scroll down. The whole trip should be threaded from there. I tried using a clever Czech language hashtag to link them, but I screwed up the spelling several times...
Am I right in thinking you booked a whole compartment? From a video I watched about someone who took the whole trip in the other direction, am I right in thinking the cost of the trip is then in the region of EUR 300?
I am keen to do this trip, but consider the prices steep for a "private" compartment that doesn't lock from the outside and no en-suite sink or toilet. Given that until its demise I was able to travel overnight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen in a modern private compartment with toilet, sink and shower and comfy bed, for around EUR 180.
This was a business trip, and yes, my employer paid for train travel Umeå-Stockholm (corporate rate with SJ), Stockholm-Berlin (fully refundable ticket + own compartment on Snälltåget), Berlin-Dresden (DB Sparpreis) and Dresden-Praha (DB Sparpreis Europa).
At the time of booking (June), long distance trains in Sweden were still prevented from the mixing of passengers in compartments, so other than a seat, there was no shared sleeping accommodation option. I think that has now changed - but I would have refused to travel in shared accommodation anyway. The total price of the Snälltåget part of the journey was 3,499kr, about £290 or €340 ...
each way. I'm returning this way next week.
Looking at their website, it seems that since they don't have any sleeping cars and don't allow sharing compartments between strangers(typically mixed gender shared in Europe), you are indeed forced to book a 6 person compartment for yourself if you travel alone and are not satisifed with a "reclining seat with pillow and blanket". This is quite surprising, since Nightjet and other operators have no problem with shared compartments under the current circumstances. I guess we can only hope this rule is rescinded in the next season.
I'm starting to understand now why they've been complaining about poor loadings...
A couple of thoughts about this. Firstly, Snälltåget know their niche, and they target it. They are well known in Sweden and less well known in Germany. I don't even think that they bother advertising in Germany. They have a very good profile selling ski trips to people in southern Sweden, especially climate conscious families with (typical for Sweden) lots of children. So this train makes the most sense and the most value if you are earning a Swedish income, are used to Swedish prices and have lots of sprogs. Fill a six berth compartment with your family (or perhaps with friends) and it's a great value way to take a ski holiday in Jämtland or (from this coming winter) Austria. Travel solo or with one other person, and it's pretty bad value.
Snälltåget have criticised the Swedish Traffic Agency's planned procurement of night trains to/from continental Europe, and have publicly stated they're not interested because they don't want to provide full service cars with sleeping compartments (
sovvagnar as opposed to
liggvagnar). They (think they) know what works for them, and that's a train with only couchettes and seats. That said, I've read in a Swedish source that this summer's loads to/from Hamburg and Berlin have been worse than they expected. Perhaps it is COVID, but I don't believe that. There is a good level of vaccination in Sweden and most people are desparate to travel again. It's too early to tell for sure, but it could be that they have misjudged the market for this train. They have probably underestimated the importance of younger and more budget-concious travellers. There were several groups of foreign (i.e. not Swedish) InterRailers on the platform in Malmö who were approaching the guard with inquiries about a cash upgrade to a couchette... given it took them several weeks to accept anything other than Swish (the Swedish mobile payment system) in the 'Lönnkrog' kiosk, that's probably something that I don't think Snälltåget are able to compute.
From my point of view... it's damned expensive for a dirty and old couchette car. I am unsual in that I like old fashioned trains, so I am minded to forgive them. But it will be really hard to persuade my colleagues and employees to switch from air travel to this.
That said the presence of a restaurant until Malmö is good.
I'd be interested in hearing how it was to sleep/travel in that couchette compartment if you have time to share.
Yes, and it was my first time in Krogen, which translates as "the pub". If you expect it to be like a Swedish pub, you will not be disappointed. It's not a classy restaurant car like České dráhy offer. A single employee microwaves meals, and take-out customers are expected to self-scan and pay for their purchases with Swish or card. However the card machine stopped working on the approach to Malmö and the frazzled host was struggling with lots of French and German tourists who couldn't pay for their meals. As a vegetarian, I was very happy with the one available vegan main course. It's a microwave meal and it carries the name of a Swedish chef and TV personality called Tareq Taylor, but it was very good quality.
Snällåget staff will offer to take your passport from you, and keep it locked in the conductor's compartment. If you have an EU passport, you won't need to be woken in the night. If you are non-EU (or if you decline to let them keep your passport) you will almost certainly be woken up by border police. I handed over my Irish passport and was not disturbed. I slept from just after Høje Taastrup until just before Hamburg Hbf. I cannot emphasise enough how useful the Hamburg stop is... in addition to not enduring the hot, noisy and rough sea crossing in the car deck of the Trelleborg-Sassnitz ferry, this train now has an additional connection opportunity to hundreds of cities across Europe. The 05:30 stop in Hamburg is perfect for breakfast in the excellent food court there, and then onwards to almost anywhere.
