Night train from the Netherlands to Prague to launch next summer

Plans are pressing forward for a new night train service that will connect Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Roosendaal with Hannover, Berlin, Dresden and Prague. Tickets from Amsterdam should average about 65 euros. It will be the third international night train to launch since last summer, when a service to Vienna started. Another overnight train kicked off a week ago running from Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem to Zurich.

The new night train is expected to launch next summer, "a few months later than originally scheduled," the company said. It will initially operate three days per week, and plans call for it to eventually run nightly, said European Sleeper, the Belgian-Dutch startup operating the service with RegioJet.

The train will depart every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Brussels Midi/Zuid at 7:22 p.m., with stops in Antwerp and Roosendaal before reaching Rotterdam an hour later. It will then pick up passengers in The Hague, and Amsterdam, where it has a 10:34 p.m. departure time. Over the next nine hours, the train will stop in Hannover, Berlin, and Dresden.

It arrives at its destination, Prague, at 10:24 p.m. That makes the entire journey from Brussels 15 hours, and just shy of 12 hours from Amsterdam. The return journey from Prague departs at 6:31 p.m. on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays departs at 6:31 p.m.

The combination of sleeper cars, regular cars, and other details are still being worked out, with the goal of offering "more comfort and good value for money," European Sleeper said. The startup raised seed capital through a crowd financing effort that brought in 500,000 euros from 350 investors.

The joint venture with RegioJet could also lead to another night train route that connects the same Belgian and Dutch cities with Warsaw. European Sleeper wants to launch a new route every year.