Before we can really scale up night trains in Europe, someone (other than ÖBB!) has to order some new trains. This is the argument I have been making for some time on my Trains for Europe site.

So it was good to have the FT examine the subject. The piece ‘We are full’: the rebirth of Europe’s sleeper trains (paywalled) covers the determination of European Sleeper to start a first new night train route (quoting Elmer van Buuren, one of the founders of the firm) and then quotes me – with the core message that the companies that could make an order for new trains (DB, SNCF) do not want to, while all the small ones that want to (like European Sleeper) are too weak to do so.

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