Growing demand
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Midnight Trains hoped to deliver a deluxe “hotel on wheels” experience between Paris and Barcelona starting in 2025.
Longer-term, it planned to serve 10 destinations radiating from Paris, including Milan/Venice, Florence/Rome, Hamburg, Berlin and Copenhagen, plus Paris to Madrid and Porto and Paris-Edinburgh via the Channel Tunnel.
Although it spoke to various suppliers, Midnight Trains did not secure any suitable overnight vehicles, let alone start the process of building or refurbishing them to its proposed specification. It was not alone in this respect – all prospective open-access train operators face a huge task in sourcing appropriate “pre-loved” rolling stock.