A pan-European sleeper train will take Britons to Berlin from May 2023

It hasn't been an easy time to be a rail enthusiast, but the resurgence of the sleeper train on the Continent offers British travelers a tantalizing prospect for 2023.

A new pan-European service from May opens up the possibility of hopping on a Eurostar at St Pancras on a Friday afternoon and waking up in Berlin the next morning, breakfast included.< /p>

Passengers of the European Sleeper service would only have to make a change in Brussels. Fortuitously, the schedule offers just enough time for a quick Belgian beer with cheese and mustard before Berlin calls.

"We thought it would be a good time to start the weekend," said Chris Engelsman, co-founder of the European Sleeper service.

The service's announcement was hailed as a triumph by rail aficionados, who may have suffered an existential crisis during recent strikes and service unrest in Britain.

It also follows a a real new dawn for the sleeper train in Europe. Across the continent, new routes have opened up in recent years, including Brussels to Prague and Graz, Austria, and Hamburg to Stockholm, a trend that is partly a response to rising air fuel costs and a ever-increasing understanding of the environmental damage caused by the aircraft.

The first 10-car sleeper from Berlin to Brussels will depart on May 25, with the Brussels-Berlin route scheduled for the next evening at 7:22 p.m.

There will be three services per week with prices starting at €49 for a seat, €79 for a couchette - a seat that converts into a bed - and €109 for a berth in a more comfortable sleeper compartment.

Mark Smith, who writes the famous blog The Man in Seat 61, said: "High-speed trains are a great way to travel, but for longer distances such as Brussels or Amsterdam to Berlin, a six or seven hour journey takes half the day A couchette allows you to leave after a full day of work or sightseeing, sleep in your own bed and be in Berlin in time for breakfast."

Engelsman said the biggest challenge the European Sleeper initiative has faced is the lack of available sleeping cars on the market.< /p>

"It's not just us who have problems with this. It's the same with other initiatives, even the major railways,” he said. "They have the same problem as the Austrian railways, they run a lot of night trains, of course, across Europe, and they have the same problems.

"It's just that because of all the new initiatives, there are very few cars left and for many years nothing has been invested in rolling stock. retrofitting normal cars in the near future allowing them to offer two-person options.

For now, the service will offer six-person, four-person and three-person compartments , with reservations taken from February 20. The company plans to expand service to Dresden and Prague in December, as originally planned before track works in Germany delayed the initiative.

Given the complications of passport control and logistical techniques, the European Sleeper is perhaps the closest British travelers will come to the vision of three decades ago for a Nightstar Sleeper from London to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Cologne via a new Channel Tunnel.

This plan was officially abandoned in 1999 due to ever-increasing cost and diminishing public interest. Some of the cars were sold to a rail company in Canada where they are still used between Montreal and Halifax.