Just finished reading the report from the big European train meet-up in Hamburg.

So much good news and lots of real developments in improving Europe’s day and night train networks.

The report mentions the new night train designs being built by Siemens for Austrian Railways (ÖBB) with a 2021 delivery date.

The design work for these was done by PriestmanGoode in London.

Even as a fan of night trains myself, I get that one of the turnoffs is the unknown of what the other 3 (or 5) people you are going to be sharing an enclosed compartment with will be like. Will there be a weirdo? Will someone snore like a madman or smell like poo?

If you recognize yourself in such worries, Austrian railways has come up with the option of pretty cool sleeping pods à la Japanese, shown in the picture below.

You have a sliding door that provides total privacy. Brilliant.

There are also the typical 4 bed couchettes which can be booked by individual travellers or families:

And, bringing up the rear, fancy-looking 2-bed first class cabins with their own bathrooms:

As a reminder, the Austrians are the ones currently driving the newly-expanding night train network in Europe. They bought out Deutsche Bahn’s rolling stock a few years ago and are totally kicking it. Here’s their current night train network:

They’re expanding the network to Brussels in January 2020, and intend to get to Amsterdam in December 2020.

With the drive to properly tax short-haul plane flights in Europe underway (it will be messy), the Austrians are very well placed to take up some of the the slack, and—better still—are continuing to push forward with new ideas.

Good on them.