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Louise Thomas

Editor

A new twice-weekly night train from Brussels to Venice has been given a launch date of February 2025.

European Sleeper, the private train operator with overnight routes from Brussels to Berlin and Prague, has confirmed that the route will be in operation during the peak winter sports season.

Passing through the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, it will call into ski gateways such as Munich, Innsbruck and Bolzano in northern Italy. The entire journey will take about 21 hours.

A provisional timetable has been drawn up with departures from Brussels station at 5pm and arrivals into Venice at 2pm the following day.

This means that UK travellers starting their journey in London can arrive in Venice within 24 hours if they take a two-hour Eurostar train from Kings Cross to Brussels at 2pm. This would give them enough time to change trains at Brussels Midi station.

Tickets are expected to go on sale on 1 September on the European Sleeper website and their eco-friendly travel partners Green City Trip.

The train will be in operation twice a week until the end of March 2025 and on further dates around the school holidays.

As the Venice Carnival will run from 14 February to 4 March, the idea is to offer a sustainable, convenient travel option between cities and winter sports destinations while there’s high demand for a way to get to these tourist hotspots.

“We are pleased to introduce this new night train connection from the North Sea to the Mediterranean,” commented Chris Engelsman, co-founder of European Sleeper. “Passengers will be able to board our train from Belgium and the Netherlands, and relax in the comfort of the restaurant car, while the train transports them through Germany and Austria, and across the Alps, ending in the historic cities of Verona and Venice the following day.

“This marks a new important milestone for European Sleeper and the convenience of night travel across Europe more sustainably.”

Since May 2023, European Sleeper has been operating a night train service that runs three times a week from Brussels to Prague via Amsterdam and Berlin. It is also working on a new daily connection between Amsterdam and Barcelona.

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