European Sleeper, the independent night train operator, is set to launch a service between Milan and Brussels on September 9, 2026. Co-founder and Managing Director Elmer van Buuren shared the update in an interview with Railway Gazette.

The operator, structured as a cooperative, raised €500,000 in 2021 from over 350 small investors and an additional €2 million in 2022 through share sales. It operates purely on a commercial basis without public service contracts.

Currently, European Sleeper runs six trains per week on two routes. The Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin service started in May 2023 and extended to Prague in March 2024. A second route between Paris and Berlin launched on March 26, 2026, after ÖBB discontinued its Nightjet service. That Paris-Berlin train will add a Hamburg stop from July 2026. A seasonal Brussels-Innsbruck-Venice service ran in February and March 2025.

Van Buuren describes the company’s ambitions as ‘almost only ambitious things’. However, expanding the network requires overcoming significant financial and regulatory obstacles.

‘Every expansion of your network produces a financial risk,’ he says. New international routes often operate at a loss initially as demand builds. Without state backing, securing external finance is difficult. ‘If you are a private operator and you have no state ownership, then it is very difficult to get financing.’

One solution is government guarantees. Van Buuren explains that a public guarantee can be invoked only under unexpected circumstances beyond the operator’s control. Governments need to set aside only about 20% of the guarantee amount on their balance sheet. However, such guarantees have been rare in rail because most operators are state-owned.

Revised EU state aid rules issued on March 30, 2026, may help. The Land & Multimodal Transport Guidelines explicitly mention night trains, allowing EU countries to provide operating support for initial losses on routes without night train service for at least three years. ‘It expands the possibilities,’ Van Buuren notes.

Network access remains a formidable barrier. Securing track access and viable paths across multiple countries is ‘incredibly complex’. Germany is particularly challenging: ‘The rules around capacity allocation change constantly with the many engineering works.’ Infrastructure managers frequently adjust schedules, and operators must navigate constant consultations.

Van Buuren also points to resourcing problems among infrastructure managers. ‘They simply have too few people to make the planning systems work well, especially when dealing with outdated systems.’

Cross-border bottlenecks are severe. The main line between Germany and the Czech Republic used by European Sleeper’s Prague-Brussels train is highly congested, with 300 freight trains daily on a single electrified line. ‘It’s a Panama Canal for trains,’ he says. Alternative routes often lack full electrification, requiring costly diesel drags.

Expanding to southern Europe brings new challenges. European Sleeper still aims to reach Barcelona, a goal announced in 2022 and backed symbolically by the European Commission. The target launch is April 2028. ‘It is complicated because the timetabling and access to rolling stock for France is complicated.’

Negotiating with SNCF Réseau involves challenging established practices. ‘In France, you always have to ask yourself the question, are we dealing with a rule that is really important? Or are we dealing more with folklore?’ Van Buuren says. A major issue is the scheduling of track maintenance, with extensive overnight possessions reserved but often underutilised. ‘Much more capacity is allocated for track works than is actually used.’

Despite these hurdles, Van Buuren believes resolving financial risks could create a ‘snowball effect’. ‘If you address that risk, you’ll attract investors. And if you can attract investors, you can also adapt your organisation so that you can expand your network.’

Van Buuren’s career began as a travel agent at Dutch Treinreiswinkel in 2005, then as a guard at Nederlandse Spoorwegen. After over a decade at NS, he became a consultant at Royal Haskoning and Inno-V before co-founding European Sleeper in 2020. Since December 2024, he has been President of the AllRail association of passenger rail new entrants.