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Paul Theroux wrote in

El viejo Expresso de la Patagonia

that "the journey reached perfection when he rode on a train at nightfall, and closed the door of the bunk in a cold and convulsed city, with the certainty that in the morning next I would wake up at a different latitude. "

A forward-moving sleeper is the epitome of romance.

But it has also always been, on a more practical level, a means of getting around with many advantages because those long night journeys allowed the traveler to

take advantage of the day

upon arrival and, incidentally, save on accommodation.

Despite all the advantages, in recent years it seemed that the sleeping car was going to disappear.

In Spain, in fact, Renfe has suspended the services of these routes during the pandemic.

But in Europe we are witnessing a

renaissance of the night train.

One of the most interesting proposals is from the

French

start-up

Midnight Trains.

The night train as a more eco-friendly alternative to the plane.MIDNIGHT TRAINS

The ambition of its founders Adrien Aumont and Romain Payet is to reinvent travel in "mobile bedrooms", as Theroux called them, so that the experience is as close as possible to luxury trains: the usual sleeper, but with style . The idea is to create a whole network of night services

from Paris to ten European destinations

, including Madrid, Barcelona and Porto, all between 800 and 1,500 kilometers away from the French capital.

It will never be like riding the Orient Express.

But travelers to these "hotels on rails" will have their own private room with a bed and bathroom.

Designed for solo travelers, couples, and even families, staterooms will feature high-quality linens and on-demand movies.

Another of his hooks will be the gastronomic one.

The traveler can expect "carefully selected seasonal products, homemade cocktails, wines and craft beers, served at your table, in the bar or in your room."

The convoy dining room.MIDNIGHT TRAINS

Midnight Trains is not the only railway project (with night time) that has been launched in the European Year of the Rail, which began on January 1, 2021 and has set out to create a truly unique European railway area without borders. The French SNCF, the German DB, the Austrian OBB and the Swiss CFF are collaborating to launch in the coming years

four

international

night train lines

that will be known as

Nightjet

and that will link 13 major European cities, including Barcelona.

Like the French initiative, behind the new interest in the sleeping car is the need to offer an

ecological and sustainable alternative

to short-haul flights.

"The experience imposed by commercial airlines is fraught with stress and discomfort. The speed they sell is an illusion: a one-hour flight is actually four hours door-to-door. More importantly, air travel produces

highs. carbon emissions

", explain those responsible for MidnightTrains.

"A train trip from Paris to Rome is equivalent to 23 of them by plane," they say.

Theroux would add: "All flights are the same; all train trips differ."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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