After working as the manager of London Bridge station and for the UK’s department for Transport and Office of the Rail Regulator, Mark Smith founded the rail travel website The Man in Seat 61 (seat61.com). Here are his five favourite scheduled sleepers in Europe.
Cologne to Vienna by Nightjet
Austrian Railways (ÖBB) has achieved what others thought impossible: they’ve made sleeper trains profitable. Their Nightjet trains are arguably the best overnight trains in mainland Europe, linking major cities such as Vienna and Rome or Zurich and Berlin. My favourite? Dinner in Cologne (the Brauhaus Sion a convenient 10 minutes from the station) then a single-bed deluxe compartment with toilet and shower on the 21:21 Nightjet to Vienna.