We’re looking forward to the opening of the new Midnight Trains project – planning to bring back overnight trains across Europe.

They’ll be following in the footsteps of another successful new company who have been showing the appetite for train travel on the continent – Italo.

italo trains

Early innovator of high-speed train travel

The company was created by four Italian industrialists in 2006, and was the one of first businesses in Europe to specialise in high-speed rail travel.

When Italo was founded, the national rail company Trenitalia were no supportive, believing it would undermine their business.

However, in the last 15 years, if anything Italo’s approach has led to shift away from flying to taking the train and increasing the market size.

According to Midnight Trains, who recently celebrated Italo’s success, ‘it wasn’t until 2012, six years after the company was founded, that the first of the company’s new-age services started running between Bologna and Naples’.

Until then, the Italo team had worked on creating a product that aimed to redefine the standards of comfort previously found on Italian trains.

 

Three Classes of travel

Italo offers three classes on their trademark red carriages:

  • Smart (standard)
  • Prima (business)
  • Club (first)

Comfort is a priority with seats designed by Poltrona Frau, free wifi, good quality food and even TVs equipped with a library of films. Club passengers each have their own private room.

Italo appealed immediately to travellers fed up with the budget airlines, especially on domestic flights. The company now runs 56 trips a day, connecting 13 Italian cities – including Rome, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Venice and Milan.

You can follow Midnight Train’s progress as they plan the development of their European overnight network on their website.

midnight trains