Nuovo treno dormiente in tutta Europa per aprire nel 2026

Sleeper trains are by far the most comfortable means of travelling long distance I have ever used.

I really hope they find widespread adaption throughout europe in the coming years. 

This was first publicised a while ago and the details are a bit mystifying. I’ve some thoughts.

Here is a proposed timetable including all ~50 stops: [https://tripbytrip.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/leo_express_ostend_02.jpg?w=624](https://tripbytrip.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/leo_express_ostend_02.jpg?w=624)

That’s a lot of stops. Why so many stops? Especially going through Germany they’re really limiting their own flexibility to re-route in case of night-time works.

Durations at each station are also interesting. The 15’ in Magdeburg each way is, presumably, to absorb delays? But scheduling 1’ at Prague and two minutes at Bru-Midi and Hbfs in Rhein-Ruhr looks like a recipe for delays.

Three stops in Brussels is a bit much. There are two night trains that start in Belgium: Nightjet and European Sleeper, both starting at B-Midi. In Belgium NJ makes stops at B-Nord and Liège, skipping Central (and Leuven). ES only stops in Antwerpen, skipping both B-Nord and B-Central.

Night trains generally take longer to board than your typical intercity or regional train. People carry much more luggage and also kind of need to board at their reserved car. This is why reducing the number of stops is a good idea and three stops within 4km is not conducive to smooth on-time operation. There’s also greater willingness to take a <1h train to/from a smaller city, let alone cross a large city. Cutting half the stations should be a no-brainer.

I do kind of understand starting/ending at Oostende. It used to see a lot of ferry traffic from the UK and there’s probably spare infrastructure there now (parking for many hours, cleaning) that’s likely relatively inexpensive compared to Brussels. And at least Brugge is a bit of a draw in itself.

Lastly I really don’t understand the exceptionally short turnaround in Bratislava: it looks like a recipe for knock-on delays. There isn’t that much sleeper rolling stock around so there’s no way they’d way to have their train waiting there for over a day, but scheduling 26 minutes for cleaning and turnaround is ridiculously short *even if* the train arrives on time. Leave from Bratislava two hours later, leave from Oostende two hours earlier and you get reasonable turnaround times on both ends — and stop at more cities in both the first third and last third of stations at useful and reasonable times.

Does anyone have any insights? Where am I wrong?

*Stares with insomniac hatred and jealousy.

Nice. Gotta love to ride.