By Everett Potter

There was a time decades ago when overnight trains crisscrossed the European continent. Those were the glamourous days of rail travel, celebrated in thrillers like Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Graham Greene’s Stamboul Train. Alas, those night trains gradually fell out of favor as low-cost airlines like Ryanair and easyJet proliferated, doing short work of connecting European cities.

Fast forward to 2023, and the good news for those who love rail travel is that sleeper trains have not only returned, thanks to partnerships between national and private rail companies. They’re proliferating, with new trains and routes that have just started or are in the planning stages. Once considered unnecessary and outdated, overnight trains are now seen as intelligent, sensible, and even essential to combat pollution from air travel around the crowded skies of the continent … continue reading