Night train from Brussels to Berlin via Amsterdam starting mid 2023! 22:30-06:48 is not long enough for a full restful sleep, although continuing on to Prague would be nice. https://www.europeansleeper.eu/nl/coming-soon
@th it is an interesting problem: for the smoothest journey the night trains could take the high-speed lines which have fully soldered rails, soft gradients, etc. but then they would be "too quick" as they could travel at 200kph. On the other hand taking the "slow lines" comes with often rickety rails and bumpy travel.
I used to take the Geneva-Rome night train which was an ideal 9pm - 9am trip which gave you plenty of good sleep but they cancelled it ages ago. They intend to return it into service but only as the Zurich-Rome which would mean a 3hr train journey from Geneva to Zurich to take the night train which makes it less attractive (the old train had two branches: Zurich and Geneva which would "meet" in Brig).
As a huge fan of rail travel I wonder what could be the ideal solution here, perhaps they could return to stopping mid-way to "make sleep" (the Milan-Rome used to do that, I believe).
@cynicalsecurity the ca-chunk-ca-chunk sound of the old night trains is very soothing and puts me right to sleep… years ago I rode the Rome-Paris route and it was the perfect length for diner onboard, a good nights rest, and a morning snack before a proper petit dejeuner.
@th @cynicalsecurity Lovely and cosy on the sleeper from Cologne to Munich. That one does arrive quite early - about 7am if I recall.
@th sadly the twists & turns of the Simplon and the Domodossola-Milan line were rather less conductive to sleep and hit just around midnight which was less-than-ideal.
Plus the huge thunk of the two train segments being joined and the engine change (this was before the new multi-system locomotives and the cross-border authorisations).
There is a lot to be said about the ÖBB NightJet with their standard locomotive which takes them from Zurich to Berlin without change of traction.