Draft:Night trains of Scandinavia
Scandinavia in northern Europe has been historically served by overnight trains with couchette car and sleeping car rolling stock.
The routes are frequently run as a public service obligation with rail subsidies to allow operation all year around.
Various Baltic Sea cruiseferries allow travel between Sweden and Finland, and to Germany.
Current routes
[edit]As of 2025[update]:
Denmark
[edit]Since July 2021, Snälltåget trains transiting between Sweden and Germany/Austria have served Denmark with a stop at Høje Taastrup south-west of Copenhagen.[1]
Since September 2022 SJ Euronight trans transiting between Sweden and Germany have served Denmark with a stop at Copenhagen Airport south-east of Copenhagen.[2] For four months during the summer, the SJ Euronight runs on a commercial basis between 15 May and 14 September, and is subsided at other times of the year.[2]
Finland
[edit]As of 2025[update] all night trains travel over a north‒south core route between Tampere and Oulu, with southern extensions to Helsinki Central and Turku Central/Turku Harbour, and northern extensions to Kolari, Rovaniemi/Kemijärvi.
Motorail transport for vehicles is possible.
Previous
[edit]International
[edit]Until 2013, the City Night Line Aurora service connected Copenhagen via Germany to Basel SBB in Switzerland. Additional carriages connected Copenhagen and Amsterdam Centraal.
Until 2020, the Leo Tolstoy night train connected Helsinki with St. Petersburgh and Moscow.[3]
Between 2000‒2020 the Berlin-Night-Express [de; dk; no; se] night trains between Sweden and Germany used the Trelleborg–Sassnitz [de; dk; se] train ferry across the Baltic Sea.
References
[edit]- ^ Redohl, Sarah (2021-07-01). "What you need to know about the new night train from Copenhagen to Germany". Travel News. The Local. Denmark. Retrieved 2025-05-26.
- ^ a b Orange, Richard (2022-09-02). "Everything you need to know about the new Stockholm to Hamburg night trains". Travel News. The Local. Denmark. Retrieved 2025-05-26.
The train stops in Norrköping, Linköping, Alvesta, Hässleholm, Lund, Malmö, Copenhagen Airport, and Odense. … Unfortunately, a complex bureaucratic hurdle has meant that the Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority (Trafikstyrelsen) is unable to approve the sleeping carriages (sovvagn) and seated carriages (sittvagn), meaning the trains ran on Thursday night with only couchette carriages. … the subsidy will continue until 15 May 2023, after which SJ intends to continue running the service for at least another four years. "We have said that we will run the service every day, year around, from 15 May to 14 September [each summer] on our own commercial terms. We think there is enough demand to make it profitable," [Peter Krameus] said.
- ^ "Finland cuts one of the last trains between Russia and the EU". CNN. Reuters. 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2025-05-26.
Russia canceled its passenger train routes to EU countries in 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions, including the Leo Tolstoy, a Russian train which used to go from Moscow to Helsinki via St. Petersburg.
Further reading
[edit]- Steer Davies Gleave; TRASPOL - Politecnico di Milano (2017). Passenger night trains in Europe: the end of the line? (PDF). Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies (Report). Research for TRAN Committee. Brussels: European Parliament. doi:10.2861/414087. ISBN 978-92-846-0020-5. IP/B/TRAN/IC/2016-103.