First ever direct passenger rail service between Prague and Brussels
Posted: 28 March 2024 | Emily Budgen | No comments yet
The first ever direct passenger rail service between Prague and Brussels, run by ALLRAIL member and operator European Sleeper.
Yesterday evening, the ALLRAIL member operator European Sleeper launched the first ever passenger rail service between Prague and Brussels.
Furthermore, it is a night train, with both sleeper coaches (both couchettes & private compartments) and standard class seating.
Last but not least, it is Open Access 100% commercially driven, meaning that this train operates without PSO taxpayer subsidy.
The Single European Railway Area (SERA) can be a cause of our common prosperity – and introduce new cross-border rail options.
Here we see an example of what could happen across Europe if there were to be a genuine single market, namely:
- Entrepreneurs who start a new cross-border passenger rail service that has never been offered before
ALLRAIL’s Policy Officer Salim Benkirane is a strong proponent of European integration. He is on the first train from Prague, which will arrive in Brussels in just over one hour from now.
He says: “next month, it will be 20 years since the Czech Republic (CZ) entered the EU. Therefore, it is great to be on the first-ever direct rail service between CZ and Belgium, the country that hosts the EU Commission and the European Council.”
ALLRAIL advocates for a faster harmonisation of the fragmented EU Member State railway systems. This is so that a genuine Single European Railway Area can come about and enable more new cross-border services like that of European Sleeper.
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