Because they would be privatized and maintained by the cheapest ass companies and they would do a shit job of maintaining the cars and there’s no way in hell I’m sleeping in a public bed that is poorly maintained.
Interestingly, the video goes into exactly why there are so many quality sleeper train offerings in Europe compared to North America. In North America, most of the tracks are privately-owned freight rail, and the rest is a patchwork of local monopolies of passenger rail (e.g., Amtrak, Via Rail, regional/commuter rail, etc.), and none of them are being made to cooperate or allow interoperability.
Whereas in Europe, having so many countries in such close proximity, they were forced to make their systems interoperable and standardized and allowing open access (much like roads are open access to drivers or buses), so what you get is many state-run operators and private operators in a competitive market without local monopolies. The result is high competitiveness, high standardization, high interoperability, and thus high quality and availability of service for competitive prices.
Man, I have lived in Europe for the past 11 years and have yet to meet anyone who has used them or commented on them. I know someone who went on vacation to the US and took an overnight Amtrak for fun.
I’m sure they exist but really, people fly on longer voyages. Bullet trains may be changing that. A Madrid->Paris line will open soon that’ll do it in 5 hours. Which gets close to the speed of a plane when airport security and the like is taken into account and should give much more comfort.
I’ve used them multiple times, when I was traveling with my class or alone. I wouldn’t say I love them, but they are OK. In the last 10-15 years flights have become appallingly cheap, so that’s usually easier.
Sleeper trains have lost their popularity when airlines got deregulated and companies like Ryanair took off with super cheap flights. This might be changing soon as EU has deregulated railways a few years ago and there’s a fierce competition to make trains cheaper than flights again.
I live in germany. Every single time I take a longer trip, I look for overnight train options. I have never in my life used a sleeper train because they either don’t exist on that route or are so much more expensive I’d rather do the less comfortable option. I would love to love sleeper trains.
Same here, every time I was driving train at night in germany. I rarely was in a sleeper train and if I was. Only in the normal seating compartments. They are just way to expensive. I sometimes look for fun what a flight would cost. And mostly its more than the half…
And don’t get me started with train driving to other European countries
I sometimes look for fun what a flight would cost. And mostly its more than the half…
Those are rookie numbers https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/20/flying-in-europe-up-to-30-times-cheaper-than-train-says-greenpeace
Because I have so little time off, by the time the train gets there it’s time to go home so I can make it to work on Monday.
If Europeans (in general) love sleeper trains, why are there so little of those? Even in Russia, sleeper trains are still the main and preferred way of transportation between most regional centers (for the majority of travelers I would say it is “default” one), while in the EU most destinations are not even covered by a sleeper. I hope new companies like “European Sleeper” blossom because I personally prefer sleepers very much, but to say “Europeans love those” is untrue, since it is still mostly something exotic.
It’s more of a comeback moment and it takes time to reno all the old trains. I love the Nightjet but let’s be honest, the cars themselves are very funky.
I live 15 minutes walking from a European Sleeper stop and can’t wait to use it.
There were many more of these lines like 20 years ago. But these idiots abandoned these lines because for whatever reason. I’ll never understand why plane is developed and supported like it is and train is completely abandoned. Our politicians are useless shits is my best hypothesis at this point.
My main thing now why I go for cars/planes over train right now, is train is just expensive. For where I’m at most places I’ve checked itd sadly cost more to take the Amtrak then it is for a plane ticket. If trains were cheaper then I wouldn’t mind at all.
Because it makes USAians think of sleeper agents, which are communist, which is anti-capitalist, ergo sleeper trains are made by communists to weaken the capitalist of Americania, which is immoral and deeply unpatriotic. /s
Seriously though, good video. Regulation is very important.
Last time I looked at a sleeper car for my trip on Amtrak it was like $1500. Regular seat was $300.
freedom train, in the land of the fee
I have a hard enough time sleeping anywhere that isn’t my own bed. No way I’d ever get any sleep on one of these.
Downvoting this comment solves the problem how?
Europeans don’t love sleeper trains. A very small subset of us do. The rest of us stay away, because being essentially trapped in a 6 berth room with unknown creeps of any gender, is the opposite of safe travel.
Europeans love travelling by train, but sleepers are used only by a small minority.
Umm, in Finland there are sleeping cabins for 1-3 people and you need to reserve the whole cabin. No randos.
Ok, I guess I should amend it with “… and aren’t prepared to pay 5-10x the flight fare to book a full cabin to avoid randos”.
Unless you’re travelling in a 4-6 person group, the costs are prohibitive. You need to deal with the creeps.
