European Sleeper announces third night service: Amsterdam/Brussels - Milano
posted on 10th Dec 2025 12:16
European Sleeper (ES) has announced to start a new regular night service on 18 June 2026, connecting Amsterdam and Brussels with Milano three times a week. One part of the train will run from Amsterdam and another from Brussels. They will meet at Köln where both parts will be coupled. From Köln they continue southbound to Milano calling at Bern (via historic Simplon route to), Brig, Domodossola and Stresa at the Lago Maggiore lake. A stop at Basel is not likely as the train arrives too early. A stop at Olten is under consideration due to its connections to Zürich.
It is the third regular night service of the private initiative night train operator European Sleeper, following the Brussels - Amsterdam - Berlin - Praha and Paris - Brussels - Berlin night trains, the latter to start in March 2026.
ES says that the new Amsterdam/Brussels - Milano night train creates an important North-South connection at European level, while creating connections to/from London at Brussel Zuid station. It has not been confirmed yet whether the ES night train can go to and from Milano Centrale. This is strongly preferred among other Milano stations due to connections to long distance trains to other main destinations in Italy, such as offered by incumbent Trenitalia with high speed trains and high speed trains of private Italo.
Departures from Amsterdam Centraal and Brussel Zuid stations will be around 19 h at Monday, Thursday and Saturday evenings, with arrival to Swiss and Italian stations in the morning after. Arrival to Milano will be between 9 and 10 h. From Milano the departures will be around 19 - 20 hours at Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights with arrivals in Amsterdam Centraal and Brussel Zuid between 9 and 10 h. European Sleeper is still working, together with the infrastructure managers involved, on the precise timetable.
For operating the train in Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, European Sleeper will use Netherlands based private company TCS (Train Charter Services), which has status of railway undertaking in these three countries. For operating the train in Switzerland and Italy European Sleeper is negotiating and in the process selecting partners with status of railway undertaking. The new night train will be composed of seating, couchette and sleeper coaches. More details will be known on a later moment.
Quintus Vosman
