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[Travel] Hotels on Rails
- Thread starter Raleigh Chopper
- Start date
marcos3263
Well-known member
marcos3263
Well-known member
Privacy you say!
Worried Man Blues
Well-known member
Knotty
Well-known member
Pinkie Brown
I'll look after the skirt
Had a chat with a friend recently on this topic who comes from a rail engineering background and well versed in the technicalities of cross border and European train travel in general. (I know jack all about the subject)
His opinion on sleeper trains through the tunnel - not happening. Aside apparent logistical issues with the rolling stock for the tunnel, there is the issue of UK border control. Imagine turfing a train load of passengers out their beds at Calais or Lille in the early hours. When I responded with "why not carry out border controls in London" his response was; "have you seen who the home secretary is." He has a point there.
His opinion on sleeper trains through the tunnel - not happening. Aside apparent logistical issues with the rolling stock for the tunnel, there is the issue of UK border control. Imagine turfing a train load of passengers out their beds at Calais or Lille in the early hours. When I responded with "why not carry out border controls in London" his response was; "have you seen who the home secretary is." He has a point there.
Sid in the Sharknado
New member
I don't see any fundamental reason a sleeper train couldn't run through the tunnel, my understanding is that the loading gauge is larger than most of the GB network, but there might be some channel tunnel specific safety requirements that push the cost of rolling stock beyond what can be justified.
Don't they already have border controls at one or another end of the tunnel? I've never tried it but I thought I'd heard of people being outraged when it turned out they need their passports checked when they hadn't realised it was needed.
It was interesting when I crossed the Turkey/Bulgaria border, that on the Turkish side they dragged everybody off the train to have their passports checked, while on the Bulgarian side they just went along the train and checked it while we were still in bed.
The main issue I would see with it would be the journey from Paris to London being to short to justify a sleeper service.
Cian
Well-known member
This was the one with the awful onboad service I experienced. Hopefully they sort that out as its basically a B&B on rails until then.
BrightonCottager
Well-known member
Check out the man in Seat 61 website for tips. That's a company called Railbookers that specialises in this kind of thing.
Uter
Well-known member
As you suggest, technical issues aside, border control is a big reason why sleeper services through the tunnel are unlikely to happen any time soon. UK Govt insists these are done prior to entry and this position is unlikely to change soon, if ever.
Doing them at Lille would be a massive disincentive for passengers, so that's not a realistic option.
So this means they have to happen at the point of boarding, which means large investments to create the facilities to do so that would make a major dent in the business case. It also means that any such trains would be very limited as to where they could stop en-route.
I'd never say never though.
Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Milan are the right sort of distance and big enough cities to imagine there could be a market for this. Running mainly on high speed lines on bespoke stock should ensure a smooth ride.
I've never been on a sleeper train, but it's always had a draw for me. I'd love to see this happen. There's a growing market for people who want to travel by more sustainable means. I'd include myself in that bracket.
GT49er
Well-known member
The Lost Prophets - yes I know. Got to be the unluckiest band around (well three quarters of them). The best band I've ever heard not of my generation (yes, I'm an oldie), only for them to find out that their mate, the lead singer, was a nonce of the worst possible kind and that now their band name was toxic and their career as a band was dead in the water.