European Sleeper working on night trains to Barcelona and Milan
European Sleeper is working on two new destinations. The night train service hopes to run trains to Barcelona and Milan, one starting next year and one the year after, the company announced with the launch of its second sharefunding round, asking people to become investors.
The European Sleeper already has the night train to Barcelona on the timetable for 2026. The only thing missing is carriages, Chris Engelsman of the company told Treinreiziger.nl. The company is working with two parties to purchase this rolling stock, Engelsman said.
If things go well, the train to Barcelona could start running in the second half of 2026. The starting point will be Brussels, not Amsterdam, because the timetable would mean a mid-afternoon departure from the Dutch capital, and this is a night train. But the company is trying to figure it out. The goal remains to have the train depart from Amsterdam, Engelsman said.
If things on the Barcelona train don’t go according to plan, European Sleeper will launch the route to Milan in 2026. “We’re working on that as well. So it remains to be seen which one will start first. It’s possible that one will run in 2026 and the other in 2027,” he told the train news site. He stressed that one route won’t cancel the other - European Sleeper will launch both routes in the foreseeable future.
The Milan train doesn’t have a timetable yet, but Engelsman expects this route to be “a bit easier” due to the shorter distance. The train will depart from Amsterdam, enter Germany via Brussels, and then go to Switzerland. “In Switzerland, we still have two options to choose from. We can go via the Simplon Pass along Lake Maggiore, or via the Gotthard Pass along Lake Como.”
European Sleeper plans to run both new trains three times a week.
Earlier this week, the lower house of the Dutch parliament instructed State Secretary Thierry Aartsen (Public Transport) to help European Sleeper make agreements with Belgium and France for a rapid launch of the night train to Barcelona, and to financially facilitate the leasing or purchase of the necessary equipment.
European Sleeper will certainly appreciate the help, Engelsman said. “We’re not looking for subsidies, but we do want to remove barriers. Financing carriages is currently the major bottleneck for new initiatives, especially for night trains.”
European Sleeper was founded in 2021 and launched a night train to Berlin in 2023. It now also runs to Prague and has a winter train to Venice.
