How was the debut Milano-Bruxelles night connection by European Sleeper? Giovanni Antoniazzi, Back-on-Track Europe board member, was on board. Here’s his fresh review:
“On 9 September European Sleeper ran its first night train from Milano to Bruxelles, and I was on board.
The day started with a press event in Milano, where the figures were read out: 200,000 passengers carried so far, €25 million in revenue, 7,000 shareholders, and still not one euro of subsidy. Then we all walked over to Milano Garibaldi for photographs and the 16:45 departure. I nearly didn’t make it. A mudslide had closed the Brenner the night before and stranded my Nightjet in Innsbruck. I reached Milan by a 5am Flixbus and a Frecciarossa. A night train campaigner rescued by a bus.
The atmosphere on board was jovial and easy, and the staff were kind and helpful throughout.
The coaches are old, and I mean that as a compliment. They are comfortable, full of character, and there are not many trains left in Europe where you can pull the window down and watch the journey go past with the wind in your face. I spent the Italian evening doing exactly that, talking night trains with the people around me while Lake Lugano opened out on both sides of us in the sunset.
I paid €110, with breakfast added on. I had a berth in a three-person Comfort compartment, with a socket and a personal reading light. The toilets were clean the whole way. My phone hotspot held up for the entire journey.
I slept like a baby, which I needed after that morning. I woke up in Aachen around nine, had a good breakfast, and worked from the train the rest of the way into Brussels.
Nineteen hours from Milano to Bruxelles sounds slow. None of it felt lost. There is an old phrase for that. Aldo Manuzio, printing in Venice five centuries ago, took as his emblem a dolphin coiled around an anchor: festina lente. Make haste slowly. Speed and steadiness together, which is a night train, exactly.
Progress is not moving faster. It is moving better.”
Plus, Giovanni got to chat with Rob Gelissen, European Sleeper’s COO.
