Night Trains

You'll find more than enough things to wake you up on a night train, but usually conductors will only check your ticket once. If you pass over a non-Schengen border, you may have your passport checked.

Just for night train freaks, Deutsche Bahn has a promotion called "7-days night" (www.bahn.de/nachtzugreise/view/angebote/7-tage-nacht.shtml). Basically, you start in one city and travel each night to a different city, can spend the day there, then go on to another city the next night. For instance, you can start in Berlin, then go to Brüssel, Hamburg, Paris, München, Kopenhagen, Köln, and back to Berlin. It's almost always those seven cities, but you can change the starting city (in Germany) and the order. Note that they arrange the cities so they get a full night between them; they don't go, for instance, from Brussels to Köln, or from Hamburg to Berlin - too short for a night's travel.

From March 20 to Aug 31, the price per person is €546 in a 2 person compartment w/ breakfast, €350 in a 6 person couchette w/o. You can arrange extra days in a city at the time of booking.

"they stop at a lot of stations, that's why they're slower"

I don't know that I can agree with that statement. I think take longer because they go slower to make the ride more confortable - also because they make a whole night of it.

For instance, City Night Line's night train, Pegasus, makes 9 stops from Köln to Zurich and takes 8:36, while EC 7, during the day, also makes 9 stops but takes only 6:10 for the same trip. An analysis shows that Pegasus takes a few minutes longer between every set of stations.

Pegasus also has only 6 stops between 11 PM and 6 AM, only 2 between midnight and 4:30, and no one gets on after Koblenz at 2:12 AM.

Night trains take longer because after the regular passengers train stop running freight train use the tracks at night. Since they are slower, the night trains have to adjust their speed accordingly.

Michael's reply describes what Amtrak does--in the day time.

To bad such sensible scheduling couldn't occur in the U.S. With U.P. and B.N.S.F. controlling the tracks in the west, I guess we can only dream of saving gas by taking the train. In the mean time we drive because we can do it in half the time of the train, and a night train between cities, what a concept.