A night train service from the Netherlands and Belgium to Barcelona in Spain? Not before 2026. European Sleeper announces a delay and blames SNCF Réseau, the railway infrastructure manager in France. 

European Sleeper expects to be able to operate the Amsterdam-Barcelona night train in 2026, Treinreizeiger.nl reports. Initially, the plan was to start the new connection in 2025, but in the spring it became clear that this plan was being jeopardized by “a stubborn attitude” from the French railway manager SNCF Réseau.

European Sleeper co-founder Chris Engelsman remains positive about the new connection to Barcelona. “Things are improving step by step. We also hear from other parties that it is simply difficult to do business with SNCF Réseau”, according to Treinreiziger.

Midnight Trains, a failed French start-up wanting to run a ‘hotel on rails’ from Edinburgh in Scotland to France and from France to Italy and Spain, also expressed frustration with having to deal with SNCF and SNCF Réseau. 

“Incompetence”

Engelsman calls the French attitude “partly understandable but also partly incompetence” and speaks of a lack of cooperation. According to Engelsman, the French are “very conservative” in planning work on the track at night. “They plan a lot of work in advance that does not always take place. They don’t even have that many contractors. They are playing it very safe, but that doesn’t make a night train possible.”

According to Engelsman, things are improving “step by step”. Last year, the European Commission made the new European Sleeper connection one of ten pilot projects for passenger transport in Europe. 

The projects do not receive financial support, but they do receive political and administrative support to remove barriers that stand in the way of new initiatives.

Optimism

The European support does help, says Engelsman. “It helps to get infrastructure managers together. The perseverance is different.”

Without the support of the European Commission, European Sleeper would struggle much more with the connection to Barcelona. “It is now only a matter of time.”

Rolling stock

The delay of the new connection is not only due to the problems in France. There are also currently no carriages for the new train.  “We need 30 to 35 good carriages. We are working on that now, but they will probably also have to be renovated”, Engelsman says.

The lack of decent, if possible modern and up to contemporary expectations, rolling stock for sleeper trains is a recurrent theme regarding night trains. 

Maybe end of 2025

Engelsman calls 2026 feasible for the new connection. “But it could also be end of 2025. As soon as we can, we will start running. The sooner, the better.” 

The night train to Barcelona is to start in Amsterdam and then run via Brussels and Lille to the final destination Barcelona.

Our take

Honestly, we’re not surprised. Blaming the French is easy and one aspect of the challenge. Rolling stock is another. Momentum for sleeper trains in Europe also looks bigger than it actually is, as Midnight Trains found out. 

European Sleeper will get there, eventually. But perhaps management will have to learn to deal with corporate culture differences. The Dinner Train debacle illustrates crossing borders with an attitude which works in one’s home country, doesn’t necessarily means it will catch on with the neighbours. 

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