New 'affordable' night train service to link European cities in 2027
Berlin-based start-up Nox announced in June it would provide rooms onboard for one or two people for "the price of a flight" in an effort, the company claims, to offer an alternative to short-haul air travel.
"Today people have to share their cabins with strangers, beds are tight, and it's often more expensive than air travel. We want to change that and make night trains an essential part of European travel," said Nox co-founder Thibault Constant.
According to Nox, "affordable fares" will be on offer on 35 routes connecting cities including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, Paris, Rome and Warsaw.
The trains are to have three classes of rooms with 2-metre long beds, seats, tables and room enough to stand up and store luggage.
The announcement comes in the wake of an expansion of trans-European train travel and overnight connections, with the legacy operators such as Austria's ÖBB joining new providers such as European Sleeper in providing services.
A group of Finnish businessmen have pitched a high-speed rail link to cut the journey time from Oslo to Stockholm from five hours to 90 minutes.
However, not all rail projects are proceeding smoothly, with French environmentalists trying to stop a proposed high-speed route connecting the rugby-playing hubs of Bordeaux and Toulouse.
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