List of overnight European trains

[ABB125]

Is there a (freely-available) list of all overnight trains in Europe, along with timings? Specifically I'm interested in non-sleeper overnight trains (eg: overnight ICE services in Germany). I don't really want to pay for a proper timetable book if I can help it!
Thanks

 

[StephenHunter]

Not a single one, but this might help your specific request:

vagonWEB » Řazení vlaků » 2022 » DB ICE

www.vagonweb.cz

With formations too!

 

[DanielB]

Regarding night trains in the Netherlands there appears not to be a really up to date list, but in general there are two real non-sleeper overnight services:

• Every night an IC Rotterdam C. - The Hague HS - Leiden C. - Schiphol Airport - Amsterdam C. - Utrecht C. Timetables are in table Ba/Bb (Rotterdam - Amsterdam) and Da/Db (Amsterdam - Utrecht), look for trains numbered 14xx.
• Every Friday and Saturday night an IC Utrecht C. - Amersfoort C. Timetables are in table 16a/16b, look for trains numbered 24xx.

Amsterdam - Amersfoort - Deventer, Amsterdam - Haarlem, Amsterdam - Alkmaar, Utrecht - Rotterdam, Rotterdam - Utrecht - Amersfoort - Zwolle, Rotterdam - Eindhoven, Utrecht - Eindhoven and Utrecht - Arnhem - Nijmegen have one extra late train at Friday and Saturday night departing around 1.00 hrs. But those are not officially considered as night trains. The entire timetable is available for download here (but be aware that it is likely not up to date for 2022 due to the staff shortages)

 

[30907]

They are relatively rare (assuming you include the SNCF Intercites de Nuit with the sleepers):
Apart from the night-ICEs (basically 618/9 Kiel-Cologne-Munich) Germany has IC94/95 Berlin-Nuremberg-Vienna which are run to get their ex-Westbahn sets to Austria for maintenance.
In CZ-SK, LEO Express run overnight to Presov and Kosice, essentially extending one of their internal CZ day trains.

 

[ABB125]

Thanks for those replies.
I should clarify that I'm also interested in sleepers, but so far these have been a bit easier to find information about...

 

[Seanesheep]

I don't know if this will be of interest but there is https://rail.cc/night-train which seems to have mainly sleeper trains.

 

[zero]

I would also like a list but as I have not found one, I used https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/bhftafel.exe/en and searched for IC/ICE at certain times, for example departures from places like Berlin/Cologne/Basel after 2200 or arrivals before 0800. Also search for trains passing through Frankfurt between 0200 and 0500. Of course this is mainly for Germany and its neighbours (which is what I was looking for).

Quite handy to avoid wasting 4-5 hours during the day plus a hotel night. I've taken about 15 of them during the past 5 years, this year I noticed many now have sleeper cars attached, but the prices are ridiculous. They are always crowded but I've always found a flat "bed" in a compartment, usually nobody else comes in, and it's close enough to a sleeper for €30 or less

 

[dutchflyer]

As such most-if not even nearly all, are indeed ICE-sets from DB IN Germany. Check timings for main airport-stops like FRA for nighttime-as in fact most re aimed to serve that for very early flites and very late arrivals.
New since this yr are the 2 NightJets-with the complete offer, which however also include a 3-4 cars -seat only- labelled as IC, to Basel from AMS and from Hamburg.
For shorter distance: In the Rhein Ruhr area-mostly weekends, are a fair lot of RE-routes that do run 24 hrs and also nearly ev hour nighttime-also a few S-bahne. A bit less on weekdays-and then again mostly aimed to bring pax and workers early to airports (DUS and CGN=Köln/Bonn)
DSB in DK has also the odd IC running nighttime-seats only, like K/obenhvn-Aarhus/Aalborg and/or Esbjerg. A kind of remnant from old times (when it was by ferry they also had couchette).
In summertime the overnight K/obenhavn-Haburg is seat-only, consist of just 2 DSB 2-car sets and needs Reservation-last summer hopelessly overcrowded by INterrailers and Swedes in transit.

 

[Snow1964]

There is a list of routes in Italy at bottom of this link

Night Trains in Italy | ItaliaRail

*Image is for representation purposes only.

www.italiarail.com

Also special offer for connections to southern Italy

Night&AV - Trenitalia

www.trenitalia.com

 

[dutchflyer]

I don't know if this will be of interest but there is https://rail.cc/night-train which seems to have mainly sleeper trains.

the former site rail.cc as such does not exist anymore-has since some 2 yrs been merged with raildude. (which used to be an US-site mostly aimed at helping those with their EUrail adventures and explaining all the idiosyncrasies that EURopean railways tend to have for those from over the ocean.
However, the old stuff, unupdated, from rail still seems to be accessible for now online.
In their new merged forum they link to an apparently new site: euronox, which should be aimed at providing info on night-trains, but I have never seen any other links to it.

 

[30907]

Thanks for those replies.
I should clarify that I'm also interested in sleepers, but so far these have been a bit easier to find information about...

Thanks. AFAIK there are no sleeper/couchette trains that don't have seats as well, though some multi-portion trains don't have every permutation of seats and you would have to change in the small hours (as with the Fort William service).
Those I can think of are all in CZ/SK:
Prague-Linz-Zurich, Prague-Bratislava-Budapest, and the curious Bratislava-Zilina-Kosice car that sits for hours at Zilina (and no longer runs in summer); all of them spend part of the journey attached to a day train complete with restaurant car.

 

[SHD]

SNCF/Nomad (Normandy region) runs a "five-legged sheep", the overnight Paris (00.32) - Cherbourg (05.25) on Sunday nights - well, technically it runs on a Monday. No sleepers, only seated accomodation. It is cheifly aimed at Navy personnel but is open to the public. It calls at most stations on the line.
(*) as is typical here, the timetable is different on certain days with an earlier Paris departure, probably for engineering reasons.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Thanks. AFAIK there are no sleeper/couchette trains that don't have seats as well, though some multi-portion trains don't have every permutation of seats and you would have to change in the small hours (as with the Fort William service).
Those I can think of are all in CZ/SK:
Prague-Linz-Zurich, Prague-Bratislava-Budapest, and the curious Bratislava-Zilina-Kosice car that sits for hours at Zilina (and no longer runs in summer); all of them spend part of the journey attached to a day train complete with restaurant car.

On the Zurich-Prague sleeper (combined from Zurich with several other destinations) a few years ago, the coach (or two?) for Prague was/were left standing at Linz in the early hours until attached to the first day train from there up to Prague.

 

[rvdborgt]

On the Zurich-Prague sleeper (combined from Zurich with several other destinations) a few years ago, the coach (or two?) for Prague was/were left standing at Linz in the early hours until attached to the first day train from there up to Prague.

It's only 1 through coach, a sleeper coach.

 

[30907]

On the Zurich-Prague sleeper (combined from Zurich with several other destinations) a few years ago, the coach (or two?) for Prague was/were left standing at Linz in the early hours until attached to the first day train from there up to Prague.

Interesting - I was on it in August (when the line reopened after Austrian engineering works, a real bugbear on that service) and wasn't sure whether it remained on the CD set or got "parked" somewhere.
The other two I mentioned spend far longer parked, but I think attached to the day train set.

 

[StephenHunter]

It's only 1 through coach, a sleeper coach.

The southern routing, yes. The new northern "Canopus" train will also have couchettes.

 

[ABB125]

Thanks everyone - very helpful!

 

[jamesontheroad]

Is there a (freely-available) list of all overnight trains in Europe, along with timings? Specifically I'm interested in non-sleeper overnight trains (eg: overnight ICE services in Germany). I don't really want to pay for a proper timetable book if I can help it!
Thanks

There is also the summertime-only DSB IC3 between Copenhagen and Hamburg. I’m not sure of the start and end dates, but it adds useful extra capacity during the busy summer seasons.

IC398 Hamburg Hbf 23.56 - Copenhagen H 06.55
IC399 Copenhagen H 00.01 - Hamburg Hbf 06.26

 

[30907]

The southern routing, yes. The new northern "Canopus" train will also have couchettes.

Will seated passengers change at Leipzig? Prague-Leipzig will be a daytime train.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Will seated passengers change at Leipzig? Prague-Leipzig will be a daytime train.

If it is part of NightJet I imagine it will also convey seated passengers - but I could be wrong!

 

[30907]

If it is part of NightJet I imagine it will also convey seated passengers - but I could be wrong!

Not sure it is - AIUI CD are responsible for the stock, so running as EN.
On the DB site it is also listed as EC, 2nd class only beyond Leipzig, so there will be a through seats coach.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Not sure it is - AIUI CD are responsible for the stock, so running as EN.
On the DB site it is also listed as EC, 2nd class only beyond Leipzig, so there will be a through seats coach.

Thanks for this, full marks to CD for adding to the European Overnight Trains map.

I did see talk of a Zurich to Rome overnight some months ago but this seems to have gone quiet - perhaps waiting for stock availability?

Staying with Zurich, it strikes me Zurich to Brussels might be a worthwhile route, perhaps more cost effective through Germany to combine with the Vienna to Brussels NightJet rather than the traditional route through Strasbourg and Luxembourg although again stock would probably be an issue at the present time.

 

[StephenHunter]

Stock is a big problem; Nightjet are having to hire in and European Sleeper can't even start because of it.

 

[class ep-09]

PKP Intercity ( Polish State Railways long distance operator ) ha quite interesting page , where it is possible to check each city , which PKP Intercity serves for times and trains consists .

Each station has its own PDF chart .

Stations such as Krakow Glowny ( Cracow Central ) page shows number of trains with sleepers / couchettes ( blue carriages on the diagrams ) . These trains are mostly having seating carriages and only couple of sleepers / couchettes and will be a " proper " overnight trains.

Warsaw ( Warszawa Centralna ) may also be interesting as there are few international trains too - " Chopin " to Vienna for example .

Zestawienia pociągów

Na przejrzystych diagramach sprawdzisz, z jakich wagonów są zestawione pociągi PKP Intercity.

www.intercity.pl

 

[30907]

Thanks for this, full marks to CD for adding to the European Overnight Trains map.

CD seem to have a small surplus of fairly modern sleepers, the result of competition from Regiojet on Prague-Kosice.

I did see talk of a Zurich to Rome overnight some months ago but this seems to have gone quiet - perhaps waiting for stock availability?

Think so. Dec 2023 perhaps?

Staying with Zurich, it strikes me Zurich to Brussels might be a worthwhile route, perhaps more cost effective through Germany to combine with the Vienna to Brussels NightJet rather than the traditional route through Strasbourg and Luxembourg although again stock would probably be an issue at the present time.

You would attach it to the new Zurich-Amsterdam and then to the Vienna-Brussels. Except that IIRC OeBB are after running Berlin- and Vienna-Brussels as a combination, so you might exceed permitted loadings!

 

[StephenHunter]

European Sleeper are hoping now to start in spring. They were trying to buy stuff from Russia (probably surplus Ammendorf RIC-style ones) but the war in Ukraine stopped that.