On the other hand, who wouldn’t want to take a shower on the train? On the other hand, if your shower cubicle is too small to get up when you drop the soap, it might not be such a great idea.
This year sees a glorious revival of sleeper trains across Europe, including new routes from Brussels to Prague and from Graz in Austria to Warsaw. A particularly important night train (Hamburg to Stockholm) starts running this month. According to rail travel expert Mark Smith, this will be a “game changer.”
However, with the summer in Stockholm, I couldn’t afford to wait until September. So I recreated the trip as best I could to see how it feels now that night train travel seems to be back. I was. From there we boarded a slightly dilapidated sleeper train that rattled north on the same route used by the new Euronight service.
Operated by Sweden’s national railway company SJ, the service “gets you from London to Stockholm in almost 24 hours,” Smith, who founded the Seat61.com website, often refers to. This could be the ‘missing link’ for travelers from the UK to Sweden, taking the train instead of the plane. Start with the Eurostar from St Pancras to Brussels and change to the high speed line to Hamburg. After that, it will be slower but more comfortable.
EuroNight covers 670 miles from Hamburg to Stockholm in 13 hours, departing at 9pm, stopping in Copenhagen and arriving in Stockholm at 10am.
SJ’s existing sleeper service from Malmö soon ended. Six hours of travel and I only got her four hours of sleep. Nevertheless, the creaky bunk bed was a perfect fit, and the gentle rat-a-tat rocking was comforting.
In fact, such journeys are too short for sleeper services, but the Malmö to Stockholm sleeper is the perfect replica for the new service. Despite Denmark’s best efforts to derail me (the train stopped for three hours across Zealand after an electrical fire at an important junction box), I drove from Copenhagen to the Öresund railway bridge. Just in time to catch the night train across the country. That vintage Swedish sleeper.
The new service uses coaches that were stopped by Austrian Railways a few years ago. With the return of demand-driven sleeper services across Europe, SJ is taking them out of retirement and retrofitting them. Janet Andreasson, the train host who oversees my journey, said: [but they are] Not as old as these things. However, I was worried that it might be a little narrower than the existing one.
The renovations may be superficial, but they are definitely better than the vehicles from Malmö to Stockholm. However, narrowness does not bode well. I’m small, but showering in a Swedish carriage, crouching to pick up dropped soap, and struggling to get back up again found it hard even for me to squeeze. rice field. “You have to wash your whole body with soap, and then it becomes so slippery that you can’t move,” he laughed Andreasson.
A private bathroom, albeit a small one, is a luxury on any train, but is only available as a first-class option on the new service. Budget travelers can choose a seat to snooze in, and the next step is his 6-bunk space (the entire service will be couchette-only for the first few weeks).
It’s not yet clear if border guards will wake you up at night – the staff I spoke to on the train thought they might take care of passports during the trip, but the railway company needs other arrangements Suggested maybe – and end up with a travel boxed breakfast.
On the other hand, I ended up at a hotel opposite Stockholm Central Station. Sleeper passengers can request a breakfast buffet of ham and croissants. There, I caught up via Zoom with Maja Rosén, co-founder of the We Stay on the Ground organization, which now coordinates the “Flight Free” movement, which has chapters around the world.
Rosén, who lives on an island three hours north of Stockholm, hasn’t flown since 2008. If she must travel, she says, she should travel by train, ferry, foot, or bicycle. She believes she must stop flying.
“We need to cut our emissions now, but that’s also making a statement. Promising to make flights free is telling people around us that we need to change our lives.” It’s a very effective way to get people to understand that we can’t continue business as usual,” says Rosen. “There are many ways to explore the world without getting on a plane.”
One of the most significant barriers is financial cost, but my journey wasn’t too expensive for the planet. According to ecopassenger.org, traveling to Stockholm by train emits 49kg of carbon dioxide, while flying he emits 380kg of carbon dioxide per person. Not only will fuel be used more efficiently, EuroNight trains will run on renewable energy.
Until recently, Swedes were among the most carefree travelers on the planet. The love of flying is fading fast, as the climate crisis is particularly pronounced in Sweden.
It certainly feels more noble to travel by train than by plane. This feeling even has a Swedish coinage. tag script – “Train bragging” – Or the way some people, myself included, croak about long-distance travel by train while others are flying.
Some might consider this a signal of virtue. Let them. Lying on my back under Egyptian cotton sheets, I drive my gently rocking sleeper through Schleswig-Holstein into the night.
EuroNight Hamburg to Stockholm service starts at 1 September.
