Javaman

After reading a similar thread about this route, I have to ask about it
because a small group (5) of us are going to be doing this in October
and we have never heard of Cityline. I have done night trains in the
past with DB, but never on this route.

Is this Cityline train a better experience? Is it cheaper?
We were planning on using a day of our rail pass, along with a couchette
supplement and a ticket from Amsterdam to the German border (because
we usually only buy German Rail passes), but we can't figure out exactly
how much this would end up costing us.

I checked out the Cityline website and it looks like a pretty nice
experience,
if it is the same price or not much more perhaps we could take that.

We would try to get a 6 person couchette compartment for the 5 of us.

Any comments or suggestions? Anybody done both? Which did you prefer?
I think (from what I could see) that if we took the DB nachtzug, we would
have to change trains at least once, but the Cityline goes straight through
(a big plus).

Thanks in advance!!

Douglas W. Hoyt

    >>>>> Is this Cityline train a better experience? Is it cheaper?

CityNightLine is wholly owned by DB, but is technically a Swiss corporation.
It's really just a fancied way to organize international overnights. Here
is their route system:
http://www.citynightline.ch/fahrplan/streckennetz.cfm

You can get a couchette for as little as 19 Euro, just like on other
overnight trains, and you can even get a 29 Euro ticket that includes both
the couchette AND the railfare. Their website is, I think, only in German
though:
http://www.citynightline.ch/main/index.cfm

Martin Stock

"Javaman" <[email protected]> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:[email protected]...
    > After reading a similar thread about this route, I have to ask about it
    > because a small group (5) of us are going to be doing this in October
    > and we have never heard of Cityline. I have done night trains in the
    > past with DB, but never on this route.
CityNightLine is owned by DB
http://www.citynightline.ch
DB NachtZug or CityNightLine trains are not in competition against each
other.
http://www.nachtzugreise.de

    > Is this Cityline train a better experience?
There are certainly amoung the best night trains. But the rolling stock on
this route is not as good as on the others, as some cars still have no
approval from NS (Dutch Railways).

    > Is it cheaper?
No. As they don't server the same routes you can't compare the "Global
Prices". If it comes to supplements on addition to rail passes etc.
CityNightLine is rather a bit more expensive.
However the cheap SparNight ticket offers are the same for DB NachtZug or
CityNightLine trains (an indication that there is actually not so much
difference).

    > We were planning on using a day of our rail pass, along with a couchette
    > supplement and a ticket from Amsterdam to the German border (because
    > we usually only buy German Rail passes), but we can't figure out exactly
    > how much this would end up costing us.
Amsterdam to Arnhem is EUR 12,80 (1 person 2nd class). To the border it will
be slightly more.
The supplement for a 6-berth couchette on a CityNightLine train is EUR 19,-
(23,- at high season dates).

But you should check if you can't get SparNight tickets for Amsterdam -
Munich. For a 6-berth couchette such a ticket would be EUR 39,- (incl.
journey, accomodation supplement, reservation).

Online booking for CityNightLine trains:
https://www.elca-services.ch/v3b/citynightline/?lng=en

    > I checked out the Cityline website and it looks like a pretty nice
    > experience,
    > if it is the same price or not much more perhaps we could take that.
    > We would try to get a 6 person couchette compartment for the 5 of us.

This will be of course difficult when booking online. You could of course
book 6 SparNight tickets - but I'm not sure if the places would be in on one
compartment.
Best for this would be to call the booking center:
+49 / 1805 / 21 34 21

    > Any comments or suggestions? Anybody done both? Which did you prefer?
    > I think (from what I could see) that if we took the DB nachtzug, we would
    > have to change trains at least once, but the Cityline goes straight
through
    > (a big plus).
Always use the direct night train.