SWEDEN’s state-owned operator SJ will cease operating night trains between Stockholm and Berlin on August 31 next year, one month after the Swedish government subsidies for the service cease. SJ’s main competitor on the route, Snälltåget, intends to fill the void.
“We’re welcoming [SJ’s withdrawal], because we need competition under the same conditions; otherwise, the business isn’t sustainable in the long term for anybody,” Snälltåget’s CEO, Carl Adam Holmberg, tells IRJ.
While popular with passengers, SJ’s service has been dogged by delays, difficulties obtaining the necessary rolling stock approvals, and poor profitability since its launch in 2022, making only a marginal profit even with the subsidies.
“In general, it’s quite a challenge to make night trains profitable,” Christer Litzell, business manager at SJ, tells IRJ. “It’s a long route, and there are relatively few spaces on the trains.”
“One of the big challenges has been to find enough coaches,” he continues. “There’s a shortage in Europe with only older vehicles available to lease.”
Moreover, Denmark tightened its rules governing the use of rolling stock at around the time SJ launched the route. While coaches that had previously operated in Denmark were automatically approved for operation, all individual coaches that have never operated in Denmark had to go through a six-month approval process even if the type of coach was the same.
“Half of the couchette cars were approved and half were not, even though they were exactly the same cars,” Litzell says. “It took us two years before everything was in place.”
Increase service levels
However, none of these issues seem to worry Transdev-owned Snälltåget, which expects to increase its current service levels as SJ withdraws, notably during the November-March low season.
“There are several lines where we’ve stepped in, which state-owned companies didn’t believe in,” Holmberg says. “We’ve been running night trains since 2007, and we’ve never had any subsidies.”
“We believe in partnership with businesses and destinations. We’re more used to thinking in a purely commercial way about what is feasible, which SJ hasn’t had to do with their subsidised trains. You need to listen to and understand what the customers want and how much it might cost them.”
Holmberg adds that customers are generally not prepared to pay the unsubsidised cost of a berth in a sleeper compartment, which is why Snälltåget currently only uses couchette cars - which can accommodate many more passengers - for its night trains between Sweden and Germany.
Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) Germany - currently SJ’s partner in Germany - also plans to continue operating the full Berlin - Hamburg - Stockholm service on its own when SJ withdraws. Snälltåget welcomes the competition “as long as it takes place under the same conditions,” Holmberg says.
SJ, on the other hand, will focus on connecting Stockholm with Oslo and Copenhagen – the latter being the “gateway” to the rest of Europe, Litzell says. He does not foresee the resumption of night trains to Germany anytime soon.
“Not without subsidies,” Litzell says.
