With leaves starting to turn and the option of going out in just a shirt consigned to the now fading summer, it's a nostalgic time of year. I've always been sensitive to the changing seasons and with my birthday soon approaching, the September-October transition is entwined with a sense of aging.
This year has brought an unlikely new sign of my advancing years: I'm becoming a train nerd. This isn't a suppressed childhood passion finding grown-up expression. Model railways and hunting vintage locomotives have never been my hobby. I certainly couldn't list the types of engines or carriages. Ask me next year maybe.
For now my enthusiasm is blossoming from the ambitious rail developments spreading from Brussels and reaching new horizons. Though only in the early stages, these initiatives make my endeavour not to fly less of a struggle and more an adventure. Few journeys have brought such excitement as the night train from Brussels to Berlin, which I will be boarding again tomorrow evening.
My conversations with the companies behind these ventures, as well as on-board staff and fellow passengers, have all shared the thrill of trying something different and the hope that it will succeed. This common interest is catching – the desire for this to work alters practical expectations the more one realises how remarkable the night train concept is. In a context of big-time investors and international mergers (most recently Thalys/Eurostar), it would be great to see start-ups like European Sleeper bring something new to Europe's rail network.
Then again, well-wishing alone won't win the public over. I recognise that I am of the relative minority willing to reconsider the typical standards we apply to transport. With price and travel time taking precedence in most passengers' minds, night trains ask us to think again about what's important when we move.
Those with more flexible climate convictions won't be persuaded by the environmental argument alone. If night trains are going to catch on they have to win big on comfort. Undeniably, there are some improvements that can (and will) be made on this front. But there are also some practical tips to make sure the Good Night Train lives up to its name.
Have you got any advice for night train passengers? Let @Orlando_tbt know.
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1. Brussels-Berlin night train review: Niche nostalgia or rail for the future?
If nostalgia got the wheels of the night train turning, it must now become a well-oiled machine to shift attitudes towards mass travel. Read more.
2. EU Member States put the brakes on tightening car exhaust standards
All 27 EU member states ruled out a further tightening of pollution standards for exhaust gases from passenger cars on Monday, on the grounds that it could dissuade manufacturers from investing in electric vehicles. Read more.
3. Free concert this Friday evening on Brussels' Grand Place
As part of the French-speaking community's celebrations this week (Fête de la Communauté française), a major free concert is being organised on Friday 29 September on the Grand Place in Brussels, the City of Brussels announced on Monday. Read more.
4. Extensive media coverage of sexual abuse sees rise in calls to helpline
Media coverage of a Flemish radio embroiled in a paedophilia scandal and a recent documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have seen a significant rise in calls about abuse and violence to the 1712 helpline. Read more.
5. Last Post ceremony takes place for 33,000th time on Monday
The Last Post ceremony took place for the 33,000th time on Monday evening in Ypres (West Flanders). Read more.
6. Sharp rise in use of 'laughing gas' around Brussels North Station
The sale and use of illegal drugs have long disrupted social order in areas around Brussels North station. However, police are now recording a sharp rise in products that are freely available in Belgian supermarkets. Read more.
7. Hidden Belgium: Pistolet Original
Valérie Leplat opened her first sandwich shop in Brussels in a former pharmacy just off the Sablon. Her aim was to revive the traditional Brussels pistolets – the round white buns that Belgians would pick up at the local bakery on a Sunday morning. Read more.
