We have booked the night train from Basel, Switzerland, to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, for a sleeper compartment this August.
We are now learning about trains not having the sleeper compartments available upon arrival tactiek train station (so one will need to in the seating compartment instead (sitting up all night), and/or trains departing with much delay or not at all.
If you have experience with the night train on the Basel/Amsterdam line, please share. Any tips and/or suggestions welcome. Thank you.
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
8050 posts
No experience, but it seems odd they would offer and sell a class of service they have no intent of providing on a regular basis.
I assume you are talking about the Luna Train, offered by OBB Nightjet? Maybe some more info about where you are learning of this.
Posted by
Wengen
2493 posts
The Basel to Amsterdam Night Train was set up at the request of SBB, but is operated by NightJet. Because NightJet had no spare rolling stock the SBB leased some older carriages from a company called RDC to make available to NightJet. RDC is incidentally a US company. They lease out rolling stock, and possess quite a bit of older passenger carriages, from a time when there were a lot more night train around in Europe.
So these carriages are older, and do sometimes break down. When that happens you get the option to either move to a different carriage (and get a partial refund) or get a complete refund and travel by some other mean. And when that happens the people that it happens to write a lot of angry reviews, giving the impression that it happens a lot. Even though it doesn't.
The situation is supposed to improve, as NightJet is receiving new trains, and so more rolling stock is becoming available. You should normally be informed in advance if there is a change in the composition of the train.
Posted by
Green Bay
21142 posts
The train seems to take a long time to get from Basel to Amsterdam, over 13 hours. There is currently track work between Baden-Baden and Karlsruhe, so normal day train service includes a train replacement bus around that section. That would not be very practical for a sleeper train, so instead they make a circuitous route through the Black Forest from Offenburg to Stuttgart before continuing on to the next stop, Bonn.
Your back up plan would be to take an Easyjet flight from Basel to Amsterdam, a 1 1/2 hour flight.