Berlin Night Express
The Berlin-Night-Express has been an annually recurring and privately operated seasonal night train connection between Sweden and Germany since 2000 . The night train runs daily in the summer months and on long weekends in spring between Berlin Central Station and Malmö (sometimes further to Stockholm) and in the opposite direction. The night train was operated jointly by the German Georg Verkehrsorganization and Transdev (formerly Veolia Transport ) under the brand name Snallenåget . Transdev has been the sole EVU since 2019 .
General
Bookings for the entire route are usually made online via the website of the Swedish operator, which allows bookings in English and Swedish. Swedish couchette cars are used as rolling stock, normal seats are not offered. It is not possible to take bicycles with you.
The trains run without stopping between Berlin and Sassnitz-Mukran ferry port and between Trelleborg and Malmö. Scheduled operation stops there in Mukran and Trelleborg.
history
After the DB had discontinued the pair of express trains 318/319 "Nils Holgersson", the former Saßnitz-Express , on September 23, 2000 , GVG - as the first private company - took over a DB long-distance train. From September 24, 2000, it operated this only direct passenger train between Sweden and Germany together with Swedish railway companies (until the end of 2011 this was SJ AB - the Swedish State Railways).
The sleeper and couchette train traveled overnight from Malmö Central to Berlin Hauptbahnhof and had the following train numbers: EN 301 Berlin-Night-Express (southwards: Malmö - Berlin) and EN 300 Scandinavia-Night-Express (northwards: Berlin - Malmö). Across the Baltic Sea, the trains use the railway ferry on the so-called king line between Trelleborg and Sassnitz, which was operated by the Stena Line shipping company and served by the ships FS Sassnitz (2019) and FS Trelleborg (until 2014).
In 2003, the connection was thinned out somewhat, since then the two trains have only run daily in the summer months, from March to April and from September to early November, however, only three times a week, and between November and March only on a few selected days. At the beginning of 2004, operations were temporarily suspended. The company announced that it would offer the train three times a week from March 7th to November 7th, 2004. A largely daily operation was planned between the beginning of April and mid-August. Traffic was finally resumed in April 2004.
Since the opening of the new Berlin Central Station in the summer of 2006, trains have started and ended there. Before that, the Berlin Ostbahnhof station was the starting and ending point. The trains will be hauled by class 109 electric locomotives on the German section of the route, and by Rc class SJ locomotives on the Swedish section until the winter break at the end of 2011. Swedish couchette cars are used as the rolling stock, sleeping and sitting cars are not used. It is also not possible to take bicycles that have not been dismantled or packed.
At the 2011/2012 timetable change, the SJ had given up operating the train in Sweden for reasons of profitability. As the new operator, the Swedish subsidiary of Veolia Transport has taken over the transport under the brand name Snallenåget . The new operator used couchette cars from DSB in scheduled service from the 2012 to 2017 season.
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BC2K couchettes have been used again since the 2018 season. Another new feature of the season was that for the first time there was a direct train between Berlin and Stockholm. This special train ticket was only offered on a few days at noon from Berlin and was transported to Trelleborg by the Sassnitz ferry in the afternoon. However, there were only a few through cars that were coupled in Malmö by the D 300 to a night train to Stockholm . In the opposite direction, the train started in Stockholm shortly after noon and reached the ferry port Sassnitz-Mukran late in the evening (via Malmö and Trelleborg) .
The final station Berlin Hbf (deep) was reached in the morning. Despite the discontinuation of rail planning on the royal line for freight trains, the night train runs via Sassnitz ferry port in the summer months and occasionally in spring.
The first two trips on April 18 and 21, 2019 were carried out on the German side with a class 109 locomotive. With the death of GVG managing director Rolf Georg, the special permits for the operation of the Swedish wagons on the German part of the route lapsed. In order to still be able to guarantee the journey, Wedler & Franz Lokomotivdienstleistungen (WFL) put together a replacement train for the journeys on May 30th and June 2nd. This train consisted of a DR baggage car, two Bn seat cars and a class 250 locomotive and, unlike the Berlin Stadtbahn, was only run to Sassnitz ferry port. There, at the passenger platform, there was a transfer to the Swedish couchette cars provided. An electric locomotive of the class 143 (No. 250) was rented from DB Regio for the summer season .
Due to construction work, the trains had to be routed from June 26th to July 7th via the eastern part of the Berlin outer ring and via the Berlin Northern Railway (Oranienburg, Neustrelitz, Neubrandenburg and Stralsund). During this time, the starting and ending point was the Berlin-Lichtenberg train station . With the completion of the construction work, the journeys were made again on the scheduled route (Eberswalde, Greifswald and Stralsund).
Due to increasing demand, two or three additional departures in each direction were offered in two weeks in July 2019. These additional trains also consisted of six cars (BC2K couchette cars and Bc-t couchette cars from DSB stocks that were used on this line until 2017). Special trips from Stockholm via Malmö and Mukran to Berlin and back were offered on the following days: South on September 26th, November 7th and December 5th and northbound on September 30th, November 11th and December 9th. During the journeys in September, Bmpz seat cars were also used for the first time. In Malmö these were coupled to the 305 night train coming from Stockholm. The departure from Malmö already took place in the morning and Berlin was reached in the late afternoon.
For summer 2020, Snelltåget initially announced that it would significantly increase capacities and offer a connection in both directions every night in the high season. For this purpose, ten couchette cars were bought and refurbished by Deutsche Bahn . At the beginning of April, Stena Line announced that it would discontinue the ferry connection between Sassnitz and Trelleborg ( called the Königslinie ). In mid-April, Snelltåget first assured that the sleeper connection between Sweden and Germany will continue to operate in the 2020 season, but reversed this at the beginning of the summer in view of the ongoing travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic . In 2021, the night train connection via Denmark and the bridges over the Great Belt and the Øresund are to be resumed without trajectory.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Provisional timetable 2015. Snelltåget, 2014, accessed on January 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Sweden: SJ delivers Berlin Night Express to Veolia. (No longer available online.) Eurailpress.de, November 8, 2011, archived from the original on January 18, 2015 ; Retrieved August 26, 2012 .
- ^ LOK Report - Berlin Lichtenberg. Retrieved December 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Tre gånger fler väljer nattåget Malmö - Berlin. Retrieved April 11, 2020 (Swedish).
- ↑ Berlin - Malmö night train to continue despite the closure of the ferry route. Railway Gazette International , April 14, 2020, accessed April 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Increased cross-border night train services between Sweden and Germany in 2021 - but summer 2020 is canceled. snalltaget.se, June 16, 2020, accessed on June 20, 2020 (English).