As everyone on LinkedIn seems to be talking about AI, it might appear that physically tangible legacy industries no longer require as much investment and attention as they used to before. That is obviously not true.

While we can already observe a modest increase in productivity thanks to this new industry, many underlying staples of a highly developed society that make this possible remain crucial. One of those staples is reliable transportation that guarantees efficient mobility of people and goods.

Over the past few years, many people in Europe have themselves faced the deteriorating state of our infrastructure, in particular when it comes to highways and railroads. Constant road closures and repair works that seem to last forever. Steadily increasing delays in train arrivals or straight up cancellations.

This has not yet as much affected the EU states east of the former Iron Curtain, as most of them have only joined the Union around 20 years ago and have since been receiving a lot of funding to build new infrastructure or upgrade existing roads. Finally we can see that states like Germany are paying more attention to the issue as well, now acting to eliminate it.

The return of European night train travel

Against this backdrop arrives a newcomer in the market of night travel. European Sleeper is a Dutch-Belgian start-up that gained its initial funding from the community of train enthusiasts back in 2021. In fact, the company itself is organised as a cooperative, meaning that larger individual investors get to have a say in the direction of travel (no pun intended).

Being a big fan of rail travel myself, I wanted to join the cooperative for some time as well. With the company’s funding round in Nov-Dec 2025 that wish finally came true. I now get to participate in the company’s decision-making process for operating existing routes and launching new ones. Really excited about this opportunity!

There have been several players in the European market working to bring back night train travel across the continent, with Austrian ÖBB and their Nightjet service being one of the most prominent. As the enterprise is state-owned, it has limits in flexibility and funding to keep the service running. This led to closure of the Paris-Berlin line in December of 2025.

That is where European Sleeper steps in.

Keeping Europe connected

European Sleeper will take over the Paris-Berlin route starting March 2026, with rerouting the train via Brussels to make it more profitable. The route will complement the already existing Brussels-Prague route, which also runs through Berlin, thereby increasing the frequency of trips between Berlin and Brussels.

This June, the company will launch the route Brussels/Amsterdam – Milan, which will also be making stops in Cologne and Bern. Keep an eye on the updates for the timetable and ticket sales!

Taking a night train is a more comfortable and sustainable alternative to flights within the continent. Less headache, great views – maybe good company too? For those valuing privacy European Sleeper also offers compartments for individual use, so you don’t have to share with anyone.

What’s in it for me?

As I’m about to enter my 30s, many of my peers have been facing a bit of a crisis as to how to keep their lives meaningful. I am no exception. Having the privilege to act out of conviction rather than survival, it was only natural to go back to something I have been so passionate about in the past.

I have taken a fair share of night train rides throughout my life. In my early 20s I’ve also discovered a good part of Europe by having several Interrail trips, and would generally prefer to take a train instead of a plane.

My university major is Logistics, with the focus on railways. Back when I started my studies in Estonia in 2015, Rail Baltica was this big upcoming project that would finally connect my region with the rest of Europe by train. Since the graduation my career went in a different direction, and contributing to Rail Baltica remained a dream that I couldn’t accomplish.

Now that I’ve been living in Berlin for some years and seeing European Sleeper in action, so has kicked off the construction of Rail Baltica in all Baltic states, with Phase 1 completion by 2030. One of the promises the project was sold to the public with was night train travel from Tallinn to Berlin, so you can probably see where I’m going with this investment.

While this might appear to some as a very old-fashioned investment (after all, the railway stock boom was back in 1840s), especially in comparison to today’s frontier tech, the need for good transportation is not going to fade away until we learn to teleport. And if some governments don’t feel the need to support night trains, private sector has no choice but to step in.

I believe that night trains, while a tricky business (with carriages often delayed due to priority for freight), is still an important part of foundation for robust mobility across Europe – for both tourism and work travel. The demand is there – now we need to keep scaling up.

Looking forward to many future successes on board the Good Night Train!