City Night Line is the overnight
sleeper train company wholly-owned by German Railways (Deutsche Bahn).
This page explains what you need to know about travelling by City Night Line
overnight train. They
operate on a whole range of routes, many of interest to UK travellers, including:
All aboard!
City Night Line is the German Railways overnight service... This is
the modern 'Comfortline' sleeping-car on the Paris-Munich train, boarding in
Paris...
If your budget allows, a berth in the
sleeping-car is the most civilised,
comfortable & romantic way to travel, and in a deluxe compartment you even
get a
private toilet & shower. To be honest, however, there's not much
difference between the deluxe and standard sleepers other than the en suite
shower and a slightly bigger breakfast, so a standard sleeper is fine,
especially as there's a shower at the end of the corridor for standard sleeper
passengers and there's often a big price difference between a deluxe and a
standard sleeper. Couchettes are the economy option, simple bunks
supplied with sheet, rug and pillow, great for families or groups of friends or
individual travellers on a budget. A berth in a less crowded 4-berth
compartment is well worth the extra over a berth in a 6-berth compartment, the
4-berth couchette compartments are the same size as the 6-berth rooms, just with
fewer passengers per room. Ordinary seats are usually arranged in
6-seat compartments with no lock on the door and no attendant on duty.
Travelling overnight in a basic seat is not very comfortable and the best advice
is to always book a couchette or sleeper for a safe & sound night's
sleep, even if you're on a tight budget.
This is the most comfortable,
civilised & romantic way to travel. The modern 'Comfortline'
sleeping-cars used on these trains have nine standard compartments with
washbasin and three deluxe compartments with private toilet & shower. Each
compartment can be used as either a 1-berth, 2-berth or 3-berth room (with
upper, middle & lower berths).
Deluxe sleeper with private
toilet & shower...
The deluxe rooms are a tiny fraction
larger than the standard rooms, but still compact. The key difference is
that you get a small private toilet & shower, a complimentary aperitif of red
wine or sparkling white on departure and a fuller breakfast next morning, served
on proper china. Soap, towels, mineral water & shower gel are provided.
Deluxe sleeper in
2-berth mode. Each compartment can be used as a 1, 2 or 3-bed room...
The same deluxe compartment in
daytime mode with seats folded out and beds folded away...
Deluxe rooms have
a compact private shower
& toilet...
Breakfast is
served in your compartment next morning. This is the deluxe sleeper
breakfast...
Standard sleeper with
washbasin...
The beds and the decor are exactly
the same as the deluxe rooms, the only difference is that the compartment floor
space is a fraction smaller (though not so you'd notice) and there's a washbasin instead of an en suite
toilet & shower. The fare includes a simple breakfast box (roll,
butter, juice, croissant, jam, paté) and cup of tea
or coffee next morning. Toilets and an excellent hot shower are available
at the end of the corridor - take your plastic ving-card key with you as you may
need it to unlock the door (no more free showers for couchette passengers from
the car next door!). There is shower gel in the shower, but take a towel
from your compartment. Standard sleepers are described as 'economy
sleepers' on the German Railways website, but 'standard sleeper' is
a more appropriate term.
Standard sleeper
compartment set up as a 2-berth, with blind down & washstand open.
Each room can be used with 1, 2 or 3 beds.
The same sleeper with berths folded away
& seats
folded out, blind up, washstand closed. Very similar to a deluxe, but
without the shower & toilet.
Standard sleeper
compartments have a washstand with hot water, fresh towels, drinking water & soap.
Just like a hotel
corridor... The corridor in a Comfortline sleeping-car...
The sleeping-car attendant will greet you at the
door to the sleeper, check your reservation and direct you to your room.
He or she will come round shortly afterwards to take your rail tickets, so you
will not be disturbed by ticket inspections. Your tickets will be handed
back to you at the end of your journey.
Each compartment is compact, just big enough for a
bed and space to stand next to it. There are 12 compartments per 26-metre
car, so please don't expect a hotel-room size compartment taking up half the car
for just 2 people. The photos above were taken from the doorway and
accurately show the size of the compartment. What you see is what you get.
Each bed has fresh clean sheets, a
fluffy pillow, snug duvet, and its own individual reading light.
The sleeper attendant can provide
'room service' of tea, coffee, wine, beer, soft drinks & light snacks, but feel
free to take your own bottle of wine or picnic on board.
Breakfast is included in the fare,
served in your compartment. Passengers in standard rooms get a simple
breakfast box plus tea or coffee (see photo below), passengers in deluxe rooms get a more
extensive breakfast served on proper china (see the photo above).
There's plenty of room for luggage
under the bottom berth, on the racks above the window or in the recess above the door projecting
over the corridor ceiling (see photo below).
All compartments have 220V power sockets
for laptop computers & mobiles (look below the bed near the door).
For the evening & morning parts
of a journey, the attendant can fold the beds away and convert the compartment into a private
sitting room with sofa and small table.
There's CCTV in the corridor for security, and all
compartments
have a hotel-style 'ving-card' lock with plastic card key plus an additional security
deadlock which cannot be opened from outside, even with a staff key, so
you'll be both safe and snug. On trains with a bistro car you can lock
your room while you go to the bistro.
Each compartment can be booked for
single, double or triple occupancy. Berths can also be booked
individually: Passengers
travelling alone do not have to pay the fare for a
single-berth sleeper (which can be expensive), but can pay for
a bed in a
2 or 3-bed sleeper and share with other civilised sleeper passengers of the same sex.
Once snug
in your berth you cannot see the people above or below you, giving you all the
privacy you need.
If there's a small group of you, ask
to book a pair of adjacent sleeper compartments with an inter-connecting door,
which opens to make a suite for 2 to 6 persons, with or without shower & toilet.
The Amsterdam-Cologne-Prague sleeping-car is
Czech rather than German, but these new Czech sleeping-cars have been built
by the same German factory (Siemens, no less) to the same design as the German version.
The sleepers on the Basel-Frankfurt-Prague and Prague-Budapest night trains are also
now of this new Czech type.
Couchettes are basic,
inexpensive but comfortable sleeping accommodation. Couchettes
normally have 6 padded bunks per compartment (upper, middle & lower each side of
the compartment), but you can choose to pay a slightly higher fare to
travel in a less crowded 4-bunk couchette compartment (upper & lower bunks).
The extra space and privacy is well worth the extra few pounds. By day,
a couchette compartment is an ordinary seating compartment,
with two three-a-side bench seats facing each other. At
night, the attendant will convert the compartment into a
sleeping compartment by folding bunks out from the wall.
A pillow, sheet and blanket are supplied, and each berth has
its own reading light. Washrooms and toilets are
available at the end of the corridor.
The
sexes aren't segregated in couchettes, as you don't normally
fully undress to sleep, so men and women share the same
compartments. However, women travelling alone can ask
for a berth in a ladies-only compartment. All couchette compartments have
a normal lock and a security lock on the door which cannot be opened from
outside, even with a staff key, so you'll be both safe and snug. There's
plenty of space for luggage under the bottom bunks, on the racks and in the big
recess above the door which projects out over the corridor ceiling.
A couchette car on the Munich to Paris train, about to
leave Munich...
These night trains also
have ordinary seats, usually in 6-seat compartments, though a few specific
trains have reclining seats
arranged in open-plan saloons (these are available on the Amsterdam/Cologne-Vienna,
Amsterdam-Zurich & Amsterdam-Munich trains). However, travelling overnight
in a seat, with nowhere to lie down, no attendant on duty and no lock on the compartment door, is not
recommended. It's a false economy, always book at least a couchette for a comfortable and safe
journey.
Seats car on the Paris-Munich sleeper train...
6-seater seats compartment on the Munich-Paris train.
On some routes (for example, Paris to Berlin)
there's a bistro-bar car, where sleeper passengers
are served their complimentary light breakfast. Seat & couchette passengers
can also use the bistro but must pay for breakfast separately.
When there is no bistro car, sleeping-car
passengers are served a light breakfast in their compartments, and can order
'room service' of tea, coffee, wine, beer, soft drinks or light snacks from
their sleeper attendant throughout the journey. The sleeping-car
attendant will also sell drinks and snacks (or a breakfast) to passengers
walking through from the adjacent couchette cars or seats.
You're welcome to take your own food and drink on board with you on all
routes, indeed it's a good idea to take some snacks, and a bottle of wine!.
Most City Night Line sleeper trains
have a special bicycle compartment with spaces for several bikes. It's
marked with a cycle logo on the side. Spaces must be reserved in advance,
and a fee of 10-15 euro must be paid per bike per journey. For more
information about taking your bike to Europe by train,
see the Europe page.
Wheelchair-accessible 2-berth
couchette: Most City Night Line trains have one wheelchair accessible
2-berth couchette compartment, located next to a wheelchair-accessible toilet.
The whole side to the compartment and to the toilet slide aside at the touch of
a button. For more information for travellers with disabilities, and
photos of this special accessible couchette compartment,
see the Europe page.
If you book in advance, you can find airline-beating cheap deals on these
trains, from as little as 49 euro including a couchette or 89 euro including a
bed in a 2-bed sleeper. Cheaper than a taxi to the airport!
www.raileurope.co.uk:
If you live in the UK you can buy City Night Line sleeper tickets at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
which can be the cheapest way. However, for some reason
www.raileurope.co.uk
cannot currently book 4-berth couchettes on these trains. Also note that
the child age limits used by
www.raileurope.co.uk
are designed for French trains and are incorrect for
these City Night Line trains. On City Night Line,
children under 6 go free, children under 16 travel at
the child rate (not, as Rail Europe say, under 4'sfree
and under 12 child rate).
www.bahn.de:
You can buy tickets for all City Night Line trains, German domestic trains and
many daytime German international trains online using the journey planner on the
German Railways (DB) website,
www.bahn.de. This can book all accommodation types on City Night
Line trains and shows the correct child age limits for these trains.
However, for some reason it won't offer a berth in a 3-berth sleeper to solo
travellers, whereas raileurope.co.uk will!
The City Night Line website is
www.bahn.de/citynightline, 'English' button top right. It has more
information about City Night Line services, including plans of the sleeping-cars
showing berth numbers, and a timetable brochure in .pdf format.
See the video -
City Night Line sleeping-cars...
It's a PR video, of course, but this short film shows
how good travelling in one of the new City Night Line 'comfortline' sleeping cars can be.
