Dutch package holiday company Sunweb Group and night train start-up European Sleeper have announced a partnership to offer overnight trains from the Netherlands and Belgium to tourist destinations in France. The companies said their aim is to make ‘sustainable and relaxed’ rail travel more attractive to a wider audience. Services to winter sports destinations in the French Alps are planned for this winter, with trains to the beaches of southern France the following summer.
Sunweb Group says it is aiming to offer alternatives to car and air travel and make holidays by rail accessible to a much larger audience. Its Eliza Was Here brand recently began offering rail holidays from Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem to Bari in Puglia in southern Italy. The next step will be to offer entire trains to France and Italy.
The company said night train travel was more sustainable and ‘an experience in itself’, with many boarding points to be offered and passengers arriving well-rested and having almost eight full days of skiing during a one-week holiday.
Shortage of sleeping cars
European Sleeper said Sunweb Group’s plans were a perfect fit with its own ambitions to build a network of night trains from the Netherlands and Belgium…