A Review of ÖBB Nightjet: Overnight Train from Munich to Rome

Our holiday trip through Germany, Austria, and Italy included my third-ever overnight train experience. A couple of days after Christmas, Matt and I rolled up to the Munich Hauptbahnhof to catch our overnight train to Rome. Our ticket was hard to read, because it was all in German, but I was 90% sure I’d managed to book us seats that would convert into beds.

I was also at least 90% sure it was going to be my best overnight train experience so far. Operated by ÖBB, which is the Austrian Federal Railway service, I couldn’t imagine things would be anything short of perfect. 

Let’s back up a bit to my two previous overnight train journeys to help explain this assumption. My first time on an overnight train was in 2013 when I studied abroad, and my friends and I took a 15-hour trip from Copenhagen to Amsterdam. But as college students, we couldn’t afford to buy sleeper seats. Our €90 fare was only enough to buy us each a very vertical seat in separate compartments, where we attempted to sleep amongst the constant stops and interruptions by other passengers. Not a great time.

My second overnight train trip was a couple of years ago in Thailand as I traveled between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. I loved my time in the second-class sleeper car. Since Southeast Asia is so inexpensive by Western standards, I even could have afforded a private first-class compartment, but decided against it in search of a more interesting experience. I can’t think of a single thing I would change about that trip. The train was on time, everything was well organized, and the compartments and beds were spacious and comfortable enough.

Can you blame me for thinking that an Austrian company – a culture which prides itself on timeliness and organization – might be able to do it just as well as Thailand?

Okay… let’s get to reviewing.

Logistics

I booked our Nightjet tickets about 2 and a half months in advance. You can book using your favorite train booking site, such as raileurope.com. After completing the booking, I received our tickets via email. It was a single PDF that included both of our tickets, and I didn’t even need to print it. Since everything on the ticket was in German, I was a little worried that I hadn’t managed to book us “beds” for the train, so I attempted to contact customer service. Apparently they only provide real customer service if you’re booking a train based in the UK, so I wasn’t able to get my question answered. Google Translate assuaged my fears – “Liegeplätze” means train bunk in this case.

Our Nightjet train departed from Munich Hauptbanhhof at 8:10 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Rome at Roma-Termini 13 hours later at 9:20 a.m.

Convenience

Munich Hauptbahnhof (HBF) is Munich’s main train station, and it’s very central. Matt and I also departed out of this station when we went to Salzburg for Christmas. Since this is a long-haul international train, your platform should be assigned with plenty of time.

Side note: Munich HBF is amazing for luggage storage. We rented lockers at the train station for the day for about €6. Then, we didn’t have to leave our stuff at an Airbnb, where we’d have to go pick it up later. Instead, we hit the train station in the morning, dropped everything off, and then it was waiting for us before we boarded the train. If we needed to come back to grab something later in the day, the station was central enough that it wasn’t a problem at all.

When you arrive at Roma Termini in the morning, you’re also relatively central to the city. Right outside the train station is a main bus terminal, so just download Citymapper and see how to get where you’re going. Don’t forget to buy a ticket at one of the kiosks (though they can be tricky to find).

Security

There is no security checkpoint at either train station.

Experience

Oooooookay. I’ll acknowledge that the initial problem was my expectations. As Matt likes to remind me, always keep your expectations low and you’ll never be disappointed.

We boarded the Nightjet and found the physical setup to be much different than I expected. There was a narrow hallway with doors to each compartment all located on the same side. We found our compartment, and inside were two long benches facing each other. The other passengers were already there – two German couples, and each couple sat facing each other. There was space on each bench, in the middle, for Matt and I to sit facing each other. We felt incredibly awkward. We felt like we couldn’t talk. Being in the middle was really weird. We were aware that our fellow passengers would be able to understand everything we said, though we couldn’t understand them. What had I gotten us into?!

We sat in awkward silence for about two hours, before we collectively decided it was time to prepare the beds. Unlike in Thailand, no one came to prepare them for us – we had to do it ourselves. The “bench” we’d been sitting on was the bottom bunk, and the “back of the seat” was then folded up to become the middle bunk. The top bunks were extremely high up and came with a net that needed to be stretched across the middle of the compartment… to catch someone if they fell, I suppose? Matt and I were in the middle bunks, which really was fine. (I don’t remember having an opportunity to choose our bunks during booking, so I guess it worked out okay.)

A lot of things happened

By the time we went to sleep, I was starting to feel like maybe the whole thing hadn’t been so bad. It was an interesting experience at least, and soon we’d be in Rome with our friends. I was drifting in and out of sleep around 2:30 a.m. when suddenly the most horrible sound disgraced my ears. It was the fire alarm.

We smelled something like smoke, and looking down the hallway to the end of our train car, we thought we saw it as well. Everyone started grabbing bags and putting on coats, preparing to evacuate the train. But we didn’t move. Train attendants ran up and down the hallway as we all stood, waiting for more instructions. The fire alarms went off for an entire hour. Long after it was determined there was no actual threat – the problem was they couldn’t figure out how to turn the alarms off.

But eventually they did, and we all went back to sleep. Somehow though, when Matt woke me in Florence because our compartment-mates wanted to put the beds back down, we were three hours behind schedule. Since many passengers departed in Florence, Matt and I were able to find an empty compartment to stretch out, nap, and have some time to ourselves for the remainder of the trip.

The train attendants brought us some snacks and juice, I think as an apology for the delay? We arrived at Roma-Termini at 12:30 p.m.

Value

Each of our Nightjet tickets cost about $69. When you consider that this cost covered transportation – really quite a far distance, almost 1,000km – plus lodging for a night, I’d say it was a pretty good value.

Although a flight probably would have taken less than two hours, I still feel good about our decision to take the Nightjet train. Though many parts of it felt unbearable at the time, I got a good story out of it, and it was Matt’s first time on an overnight train. So the novelty of it all was also a factor.

After a bit of investigating, I found out that ÖBB Rail Company offers refunds for delayed and canceled trains, so I decided to start the refund request process and see where it could get me. It took me about 2-3 weeks after my initial contact to hear back from a customer service agent. He requested I mail a copy of my Nightjet ticket along with the refund request form to their office in Vienna, which I did about a month ago, yet I haven’t heard back yet. I will certainly update this post if necessary. 🙂

 

In the end, I would probably give the Nightjet train another chance, as long as the price was the same or cheaper. Or maybe I’d go for one of their “first class” cabins to see how it compares. But I’m really not a fan of 3-hour delays, so I need to find out if that’s the exception or the rule.

Have you ever taken an overnight train? How was the experience? Let me know in the comments!

-Cathy

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Originally Published on February 21, 2020.