BaltACDWasn't aware that Switzerland, being surrounded by EU countries wasn't a member. I guess being a member would have made it harder for 'crooks' to hide their ill gotten gaines in numbered Swiss bank accounts.
It's more because they tired of being dragged into European Wars and have declared themselves both Politically and Militarially neutral. The country is engineered to go it alone militarily in any major conflict including Nuclear. During WWII if you crashed or landed in Switzerland as a combatant it was the country's policy to inter you until the end of the war instead of returning you back to your country.
CMStPnPH-m-m-m-m-m, now I seem to remember the Hannover to Berlin, DB train that ran across East Germany.
"Passthrough" trains are a different situarion.
CMStPnP Also, if a late overnight train I am not sure why you would want to stop in the very early a.m. at stops in Toronto....
As another poster has pointed out, it's VIA's decision, and I don't think they would exclude service.
I would guess that the two customs services could work out some general procedure to avoid many middle-of-the-night inspections, however, there would be enough odd situations to give the operation bad reviews. The US-Canada border has been a hassle since 9/11/2001.
1. The neutrality of and return of an independent Switzerland was established in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna by the European powers.
2. The elimination of border checks for the parties to the Schengen Agreement was in March 1995.
Guess it had to happen. Some of the new private night train startups are complaining about state owned night train proposals and services. Here is a link from what appears a spokesman of the private night train operators complaining about state owned RRs.
https://www.railjournal.com/opinion/fair-treatment-essential-for-european-night-train-revival
Night jet starting a new maitenance facility that includes a 2 train building.
https://www.railwaygazette.com/passenger/nightjet-depot-investment-to-support-sleeper-train-network-expansion/57203.article
Sweden pputs out feelers for its proposed night trains thre Denmark to Germany.
https://www.railjournal.com/regions/europe/trafikverket-launches-tender-to-operate-night-trains-in-sweden-and-denmark/
OBB and SBB announce additional night jet services by 2024.
https://www.railjournal.com/passenger/main-line/obb-and-sbb-announce-2024-nightjet-strategy-plan/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=19551
Finland looking to restore a night service.
https://www.railjournal.com/policy/finnish-government-plans-relaunch-of-kajaani-night-train/
Croatia summer ovrnight service deemed a success with better that 90% overall loads. Last train September 26.
https://www.railwaygazette.com/passenger/regiojets-train-to-croatia-is-a-sell-out-summer-success/57451.article
New announcement about expanding night - jet service. in western Europe. Note that France only shows Paris as a terminal. Map is not showing any intra France service however that may change in the future.
ÖBB, DB, SBB, and SNCF announce Nightjet collaboration | International Railway Journal (railjournal.com)
Slip sliding away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq0aA9RZ1ls
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Were slip coaches ever used in North America?
BaltACD Slip sliding away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq0aA9RZ1ls
What relation does this have to the thread topic? Any?
Balt might be thinking of the pick up and set out service for Pullman cars, though a slip coach set out would probably be a rude awakening.
Exactly. I think slip cars were mostly in England.
charlie hebdo BaltACD Slip sliding away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq0aA9RZ1ls What relation does this have to the thread topic? Any?
It isn't US or CDN so it must be International - to think if this as a valid business undertaking whomever had to be asleep.
BaltACD charlie hebdo BaltACD Slip sliding away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq0aA9RZ1ls What relation does this have to the thread topic? Any? It isn't US or CDN so it must be International - to think if this as a valid business undertaking whomever had to be asleep.
Why so?
You'll be chuckling but I was going to introduce this a couple of days ago in the other thread as ideas for making high speed trains serve other areas. I had the idea when still very young; I saw a New York Central MU train and erroneously thought it was a self-propelled long-distance consist going to have a prime mover attached at Harmon.
Obviously the God's Wonderful Railway method would work poorly (if at all) in modern practice, but consider combining the idea with the way the Southern Railway in England ran the Atlantic Coast Express. Ignore for a moment that Chicago and New York are both high-traffic destinations, and imagine London as the principal origin of a wide range of 'down' routes and destination of a wide range of 'up'. The ACE would leave London as an enormously long train, but would be progressively whittled down at intermediate stops on diverging routes where engines would be waiting; the reverse train toward London would be progressively assembled with each added car also serving the following stops until a huge long train arrived at Paddington.
Now it might be possible with automatic couplers, etc. to detach part of a high-speed consist without severely slowing or stopping, and direct those cars into one of the "branches" to be served at high speed. The opposite number going the other way could, at the appropriate time, also dump a part there. These would slow as appropriate, make branch stops, and coming the other way would accelerate to match and connect with the appropriate train.
This is much like a slip coach under powered control, which instead of just stopping at an intermediate station and needing to be retrieved later by switcher or local could act as a railcar -- there are several historical examples of RDCs as trailers detached for self-propelled routes.
With some fancy active elements for streamlining this might work up to an effective peak speed, retaining both the speed retention of the 'dropping' train and the flexibility of fast operation on branches as well as serving intermediate stops on the main route that were too small or frequently spaced to preserve end-to-end high speed and least-time performance.
Heck, when I was 8, I thought it could work. (The alternatives for one-seat branch operations are not as quick...)
From looking at the video, the early shots of the GWR looked like Brunel's 7 foot gauge. At the Didcot railway museum there are some 7 foot lcomotives and cars that are operable but I think they are replicas. The dual gauge track and points are pretty interesting to look at.
Back to sleepers- I think a Toronto to Chicago service would be useful as well as say, Toronto to Montreal. Via did have such a service a few years ago where the sleeper car would lay over in Kingston (I think) so people could get a night's sleep and would be picked and and taken to Montreal at a reasonable hour. Didn't Amtrak have such a service between Washington and NYC?
Pais -Nice overnight service to be restored in April. The article mentions that other service will start when equipment is acquired. Brings up the question was all the overnight service cars scrapped with the down turn previously? Anyone have any references ?
France to restore Paris – Nice night train in April | International Railway Journal (railjournal.com)
Going into Penn Cental days, a sleeper or up to seveal sleepers were handled on The Federal as follows:
Boston - Washington
Providence - Washington
Boston - New York
New York - Washington
If I remember correctlty, only Boston - Washington made it into Amtrak and for some time was operated by Amtrak.
Earlier, in New Haven - PRR days, with separate Boston - Washington (Federal), Boston - NY (Owl) and NY - Washington (?) trains, there were also
Providence - NY
Boston - Philadelphia
Springfield - Washington
In addition, in its last days, the State of Maine, to and from Portland and Bangor, ME, was combined with the Owl south of Providence, which restored a light breakfast service for Owl passengers into NY. The Owl left Boston at 2AM with sleepers open at 10pm for occupancy.
On the original 'Atlantic Limited' that crossed through the USA on nearly 200 miles of Canadian Pacific track across Maine.....only coach passengers and those getting off in Maine had been inspected by US Custom and Immigration......Sleeping Car passengers “just passing thru”.... were left alone.When VIA restored the 'Atlantic' in June 1985, US Officials now insisted all passengers would be inspected. Eastbound.....they woke Sleeping Car passengers at 3am ET in Jackman, Maine. Westbound wasn’t as bad: 9pm ET (10pm AT) at Vanceboro. Maine. The trains were running long and full so there were major delays in clearing the train.Returning from Montreal after riding the First Run......I was in a sleeper. When they woke us at 3am in Jackman.....the US Inspector asked me the purpose of my trip. I said I was in the US only because the train was. He asked if I was trying to be “Smart” and said he would be back to deal with me. Well he must have got the same reply from most others as I didn’t see him again. If they had just left the passengers alone, they would have gone to sleep in Canada and woke in Canada the next morning and most not even realizing they had been thru the States!The restored 'Atlantic' was only back a short time before people were calling for it to be rerouted via Edmundston NB on the NTR to avoid crossing the US border. Passengers were switching to the 'Ocean' to escape the hassle from US officials even if they had to change trains and wait a couple of hours in Moncton to connect to or from Halifax.It took a couple of years of negotiations but eventually the train was “sealed” while on the 200 miles of CPR track across Maine. A metal “tag” (that would easily break in an emergency) was placed through the handle on all doors except in the car where the US Customs & INS Inspector rode and only checking passengers getting off in the US.Anyone boarding in the US was checked by Canada Customs when the trains crossed back into Canada at McAdam NB or Megantic, Quebec
And this was all 16 years before 9-11!!
Chez carrier RegioJet announces resumption of overnight services to Croatia again this summe with various locations getting 3 times a week round trips. This is a repeat of 2020 services that were over 90% full with a capacity of over 600 passengers each trip. Calendar days are to be expanded with earlier and later departures in the season.
RegioJet to relaunch summer overnight trains to Croatia | International Railway Journal (railjournal.com)
About slip coaches:
So, who generally picked them up later, a local passenger train? Maybe a local freight?
You think they were always returned to the place they originated from? Or were they maybe used to take people further down the line in the same direction?
Helps the express trains, delays the locals ...
New article about French efforts to initiate night service or rather restore service terminated years ago.
French night train network renaissance | News | Railway Gazette International
Internation overnight service proposals and operation.
New fleet to make Nightjet ‘the best option for travelling between major European cities’ | News | Railway Gazette International
The International Rail Journal (IRJ) had a headline saying India was adding 500 sleeper cars. The article is behind a pay wall . However the quick summary stated coaches. So until some one else takes dthis on I cannot really report this . Maybe some one else can geet a viewable link ?
blue streak 1Maybe some one else can get a viewable link ?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/indian-railways-tejas-sleeper-coaches-features-images-new-trains-2021-rajdhani-express/articleshow/80884332.cms
Oveermod -good find. 500 new sleepers in the 3 classes. Yet here in the USA we only will have 75 single level sleepers and some number of Superliners.
Based on populations and no other factors, US should have 119 sleepers.
8.439 billion rode Indian rail in 2019, versus 32.5 million on Amtrak, same year. No comparison.
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