The co-founder of the crowdfunding platform KissKissBankBank Adrien Aumont announced on Wednesday the launch at the end of 2023 of a new night train company called Midnight Trains, which wants to run “
hotels on rails
” between Paris and major European cities.
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The company wants to link Paris to metropolises located 800 to 1,500 km, beyond the area of relevance of high-speed trains. The map of its advanced relations includes Porto, Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Milan, Venice, Hamburg, Berlin, Copenhagen and Edinburgh. "
In December 2023 we will launch a first line with two trains and departures on each side every day,
" Adrien Aumont told AFP. The destination from Paris "
could be in Spain or Italy
", in areas where the Austrian company ÖBB will not go, according to him.
If "
the design is very advanced
" for the development of its future trains, Midnight Trains is still looking for a supplier for the rolling stock, the idea being to rent it - new, if possible - to a specialized company.
"
The key point of our positioning is to only have private beds
", with rooms where passengers will not sleep with strangers, noted Adrien Aumont, who also promises "
a good table
" and "
a good bar
”on board.
Competitive prices
Midnight Trains does not mean to be a luxury company, however, its prices must be "
competitive with medium-haul flights
" taking into account the "
hidden costs
" of the latter such as luggage, transfer to the airport and a possible hotel night, he noted.
According to Adrien Aumont, the
“
first French railway start-up
” is financed by “
many French entrepreneurs (...) who are able to keep up
”, including the boss of Free Xavier Niel through his Kima Ventures fund, the co-founders of Le Wagon code school and those of KissKissBankBank. "
We made a first round table which allows to develop the project
", he noted, announcing "
another round table
" when it will be necessary to obtain the rolling stock.
International night trains have deserted Parisian stations in recent years with the exception of the Paris-Milan-Venice of Thello (a subsidiary of the Italian public company Trenitalia) and the weekly Paris-Moscow of the Russian railways. These two links have been suspended due to Covid-19. In partnership with the SNCF, the ÖBB are planning to relaunch the Paris-Vienna connections from December 2021 and Paris-Berlin two years later, with modern but more classic night trains.