I fell in love with night trains while travelling around India in 2010, said Monisha Rajesh in The Guardian. Rail journeys by day were often great, but darkness brought a special kind of magic. I would “find peace in the cool of the open doorway”, chatting to hawkers and ticket inspectors, and seeing the world beyond while other passengers slept. Back in Europe, I was sad to discover that sleeper services were being culled there, owing to the rise of budget airlines and high-speed rail lines. But recently, that trend has been reversed, owing partly to concerns over climate change, as well as the change in perspective brought by the pandemic.
Campaign groups such as Back on Track have helped drive the resurgence, and companies such as the crowdfunded European Sleeper have created new services. The main pioneer, however, has been Austrian Federal Railways, which launched its Nightjet network on 14 routes in 2016, using old rolling stock bought from Deutsche Bahn – and then, “to the delight of train nerds like me”, expanded to 20 routes with a brand new fleet in 2023. Its couchette compartments have “minicabins” for solo travellers that a friend compared to sleeping in a bread bin (though I didn’t find them too claustrophobic, just not all that comfortable). But for a recent journey with my two young daughters from Vienna to Rome, I booked a four-person private compartment, with safety barriers on the upper berths and a large window.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Who were the ‘weekend snipers’ of Sarajevo?Under the Radar Italian authorities launch investigation into allegations far-right gun enthusiasts paid to travel to Bosnian capital and shoot civilians ‘for fun’ during the four-year siege
-
A free speech debate is raging over sign language at the White HouseTalking Points The administration has been accused of excluding deaf Americans from press briefings
-
Glinda vs. Elphaba, Jennifer Lawrence vs. postpartum depression and wilderness vs. progress in November moviesthe week recommends This month’s new releases include ‘Wicked: For Good,’ ‘Die My Love’ and ‘Train Dreams’
-
‘Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America’ and ‘Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary’feature The culture divide in small-town Ohio and how the internet usurped dictionaries
-
A 34-year-old plane is at the center of the UPS crashIn the Spotlight Many air cargo companies use planes that are this old
-
DC tourism has taken a hitUnder the Radar The government shutdown has reduced tourist attractions
-
6 homes with fall foliagefeature An autumnal orange Craftsman, a renovated Greek Revival church and an estate with an orchard
-
Bugonia: ‘deranged, extreme and explosively enjoyable’Talking Point Yorgos Lanthimos’ film stars Emma Stone as a CEO who is kidnapped and accused of being an alien
-
The Revolutionists: a ‘superb and monumental’ bookThe Week Recommends Jason Burke ‘epic’ account of the plane hijackings and kidnappings carried out by extremists in the 1970s
-
Film reviews: ‘Bugonia,’ ‘The Mastermind’ and ‘Nouvelle Vague’feature A kidnapped CEO might only appear to be human, an amateurish art heist goes sideways, and Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ gets a lively homage
-
Book reviews: ‘Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity’ and ‘Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice’feature An examination of humanity in the face of “the Machine” and a posthumous memoir from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who recently died by suicide
