Sleeper train service from Brussels to Prague to launch next summer

The new sleeper train service from Brussels to Prague, by way of Amsterdam and Berlin, will launch next summer. The service is the first to be launched by the new Belgian-Dutch co-operative European Sleeper.

The company announced earlier this year that a service between Brussels and Prague would be launched in April 2022, but the timing has been delayed slightly. While the precise timing is still not clear, the company promises the service by “the summer” with tickets going on sale in “the spring”.

“The right carriage is essential for the creation of a good night train,” said the company in a statement. “That is why we are starting operation a few months later than originally scheduled. We are still working on optimising the composition of the train, to offer more comfort and good value for money.”

The company says it will announce service levels and ticket prices of the Brussels-Prague route in early 2022. “We will be introducing attractive fares for private compartments, which have become even more important due to the pandemic,” according to the company, which also says it will be possible to transport bicycles on the night train.

Three nights a week in both directions

The schedule, however, has been finalised, with trains leaving Brussels South Station three evenings a week at 19.22. The train will arrive in Amsterdam at 22.34, also stopping in Antwerp, Roosendaal, Rotterdam and Den Haag.

It will then head to Berlin, arriving at 5.52, with stops in Bad Bentheim and Hannover. It will stop three times more in Germany – at two Dresden stations and in Bad Schandau – before entering the Czech Republic. It stops in Děčín and Ústí nad Labem before pulling into Prague’s suburban Holešovice station at 10.14 and into the city’s main train station at 10.24.

The return journey is on an alternate three-day schedule. The train does not stop in Den Haag on the Prague-Brussels route.

While this is European Sleeper’s first service, it may not be its only one: The company is already in talks with Polish authorities about introducing a night train to Warsaw, which it hopes to launch in 2023. And it hopes to introduce a new night train from Belgium or the Netherlands to other major European cities every year thereafter.

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