All aboard the night train: Europe's unmissable rail revival

They were boarding the night-train to the Arctic Circle, embarking on a magical, 12-hour journey through the long winter darkness.

The route skirts deeply frozen lakes and rumbles through seemingly endless birch and pine forests full of dozing reindeer and the odd, rare hibernating bear. It passes tiny hamlets and isolated farms, all but marooned in the vast sea of snow.

It slinks past the famous glass-blowing furnaces in Iittala as they cool down for the night and makes a brief stop in the tech-savvy town of Oulu, which is gearing up for its role as European Capital of Culture in 2026. From there, it cruises along the ice-bound shores of the Gulf of Bothnia before heading inland to Rovaniemi, the gateway to Finland's ski and snow playgrounds.

Officially the train is the IC 273 but everyone knows it as the Santa Claus Express. It is so called because Rovaniemi is - as any Finn will tell you - the official home of Santa Claus. There are Santa Claus hotels, a Santa Claus Golf Course and a Santa Claus Village, which is bang on the Arctic Circle and where it's Christmas every day of the year.

In complete contrast to cuddly St Nick, Rovaniemi is also home to Finnish metal band Lordi who won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest singing Hard Rock Hallelujah while dressed as glam-rock zombies. The town was so proud it named a square after them.

Thankfully the Finnish national rail operator VR did not choose to decorate the IC 273's double-decked carriages with Lordi's ghoulish faces. Instead they are adorned with green and white Arctic snowscapes complete with fir trees, reindeer and bears, leaving passengers in no doubt where the train is heading. Two owls were painted on my carriage, one sleeping, one awake.

As I boarded, I helped a homeward-bound Lapland family lugging numerous bags and two pet-carriers. From the carriers issued the whimpers of a pair of husky puppies; I could just make out their tiny noses. They thanked me - kiitos - and headed to one of the dedicated pet cabins on the lower floor.

My cabin was upstairs and had two bunks and an ensuite shower and toilet; luxury personified. A train steward guided me to it, telling me proudly that the train was 100 per cent full that night and every night for the coming few weeks. I had been lucky to get a cabin.

Finland's Santa Claus Express is by no means the only night-train that's super-popular right now. Across Europe, a night-train renaissance is underway. Whether it's Sweden's Snalltaget, France's Intercités de Nuit or Hungary's Kalman Imre, night-trains across the continent are cool again.

New routes are being launched and many that were closed by Covid or competition from budget airlines and high-speed day-trains are reopening as demand soars.

Rail companies are investing in new rolling stock, more ensuite showers and toilets in cabins, and more privacy, including introducing shared cabins (or "couchettes") divided into capsules not unlike the famous Japanese short-stay hotels.

Also, more train operators now offer gender-specific couchettes, such as French SNCF trains' Espace Dame Seule (solo female space) service.

So, all over Europe this northern summer, budget travellers will be disembarking at Berlin and Bilbao with tousled hair after a night on the rails with only Pringles and Stella Artois for sustenance.

At the luxury end, romantic couples will be snuggling up in double-beds (yes, double beds) in private rooms on the Caledonian Sleeper, click-clacking out of grimy north London at night and waking next morning in the heather-strewn glory of the Scottish Highlands.

Families, meanwhile, will be booking out four- or six-bunk couchettes so their kids can watch the scenery as Upper Bavaria turns majestically into the Austrian Alps.

One such family was next door to me on the Santa Claus Express; a Finnish couple and their two small children. When we met in the corridor, the mother explained that their kids insist they do this trip every January.

"It's a second Christmas for them," she said. "We have no sleep tonight."

At 23.13, right on schedule, the train inched out of Helsinki Central Station. It crawled through the northern suburbs and industrial estates, which were felted by snow and glowed ice-blue in the moonlight. My carriage rocked gently as it crossed the points, finding its track for the long trek north.

A knock on my cabin door re-introduced the steward who was eager to take my order for breakfast. "You need to order before 1am or we cannot bring you coffee and porridge and berries in the morning," he said. "Finland is not Finland without coffee and porridge and berries for breakfast."

"Did you also know," he added, "that by taking the train you are helping the planet? A round-trip from Helsinki to Rovaniemi and back makes 99 per cent fewer carbon dioxide emissions than the aeroplane."

This is because, I later discovered, 95 per cent of VR's trains are electric, with power coming from hydro sources, not fossil fuels.

This undeniably more sustainable way to travel is another reason for the European night-train renaissance. Travellers across the continent are choosing not to fly from, say, Munich to Malmo but take trains instead. On night-trains they can choose a flat-bed bunk and in some private cabins they get an ensuite shower and loo too.

Flight shaming has also had an impact. It's an unofficial movement that began in Sweden to lure travellers off planes. Numerous businesses and organisations took notice, forbidding employees from flying short-haul, while the French government banned domestic flights between cities linked by a train journey of less than 2.5 hours. The flight ban affects three routes - Paris to Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux.

I thanked the steward for his eco info and ordered the coffee and porridge and berries.

I could also have ordered from him two Finnish classics for a late dinner in my cabin - salmon soup and meatballs with mashed potato - but I decided to join the insomniacs in the ravintolavaunu restaurant car for that feast.

The car was not even half-full, probably because all the exhausted parents were trying to calm their kids down elsewhere. I took advantage of the emptiness and sat at a window table, sipped a Karhu IV porter beer and watched the white forest trees flick past like an old black-and-white silent film.

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I finally dragged myself to bed around 2.30am as the train was having its own 50-minute nap in Tampere. I slept like a log, so deeply that it seemed just minutes later that my faithful steward was knocking on my door once more, this time to deliver the promised coffee and porridge and berries.

It was already 9am. We had recently crossed into Finland's most northerly region, Lapland, and were now on the home straight to Rovaniemi.

As the first slivers of daylight appeared in the Arctic sky I saw that everything was waist-deep in snow. Summer cabins were buried up to their haunches. Lakes and rivers were invisible beneath their thick winter blanket. Fir trees were bent over with the weight of months of snow and ice.

I had never seen a landscape so totally white and I wondered how it could ever recover in spring and become a lush, emerald carpet of conifers once more.

It was tempting to lock the cabin door and stay in there for the return daylight journey to Helsinki but I had a date with a snowmobile at the Santa Claus Village. So I showered, re-packed and disembarked along with the hundreds of junior skiers who were even more excited than they had been the night before.

I crunched down onto the snowy platform, breathed the icy clean air and spotted a digital sign flashing "-15C"; quite mild for the time of year, apparently.

The family with the pet carriers stepped down just after me and I could hear the husky puppies going crazy. They were home.

If you go to only one website to research your European night-train adventure, make it the award-winning, UK-based seat61.com. It's a brilliant one-stop-shop for rail travel in Europe and beyond.

Hit the rails in Europe with six of the best night-train experiences. All prices are approximate; check relevant rail operators for latest prices and availability.

Get cosy in your cabin for a northbound adventure to the Arctic Circle.

Journey: Helsinki to Rovaniemi (direct, 11 hours and 50 minutes).

Highlights: The whole Santa Claus vibe plus - if you're lucky - northern lights and herds of reindeer. The train runs year-round. There's no snow from May-October but in midsummer at the northern end of the route, passengers will witness 24-hour daylight.

Price: For travel in December 2023 an upstairs cabin (ensuite shower and toilet) from 181 euros ($290) total northbound and 63 euros total southbound, so 244 euros all up (or 122 euros a person).

Explore more: vr.fi/en/santa-claus-express

Take a new route from Austrian Railways (BB) that goes from Stuttgart through the Austrian Alps to Venice.

Journey: Stuttgart to Venice (direct, 12 hours and five minutes).

Highlights: Grab some Schupfnudeln in Stuttgart, say gute nacht in Munich and wake to see the sun kissing the Austrian Alps as you cross into Italy. The train continues to Rijeka, Croatia, in summer and on major holidays.

Price: Upright seat in six-seat compartment from 186 euros a person; bunk in shared six-bunk ladies-only couchette from 197 euros a person; private six-bunk couchette (maximum three adults, good for families) from 250 euros total; private three-bed sleeper cabin from 348 euros total.

Explore more: nightjet.com/en

France cut the classic Paris-Nice sleeper in 2017. Sacre bleu! Now, it's back.

Journey: Paris to Nice (direct, 12 hours and 34 minutes).

Highlights: Arrive at the glistening Mediterranean around 7am, then dunk croissants in your coffee as you coast along the stunning Cote d'Azur to Nice.

Price: Upright seat from 19 euros a person; bunk in second-class six-bunk couchette from 29 euros; bunk in first-class four-bunk couchette from 39 euros. You can book out a couchette for your own private use. If there are two passengers, buy two first-class couchette tickets and pay a 50 euro espace privatif supplement et, voila, the cabin is yours.

Explore more: sncf.com/en; seat61.com

Go totally green on this Swedish sleeper fuelled entirely by renewable energy.

Journey: Berlin to Stockholm via Hamburg and Copenhagen (direct, 15 hours and 18 minutes).

Highlights: Tuck into a shrimp sandwich (very Swedish) and spend the evening watching the German countryside glide by, then wake to the verdant wonders of southern Sweden. Runs Berlin-Stockholm from April to September and Hamburg-Stockholm year-round.

Price: SEK1692pp ($237) for bunk in shared six-bunk couchette; SEK5401 total for second-class private compartment for two people; SEK7828 total for first-class private compartment for three people (ensuite shower and toilet, access to SJ Lounge).

Explore more: sj.se/en

The UK's Caledonian Sleeper is a great ride... and has double beds. Plus, with pets welcome to travel, you might bump into some pooches.

Journey: London to Inverness (direct, 11 hours and 27 minutes).

Highlights: Leave the grit of London and luxuriate in a double bed as the Caledonian Sleeper whisks you north to wake among the heather and the glens of the Scottish Highlands.

Price: For travel in August 2023, Caledonian Double Room (double bed plus ensuite shower and toilet) £480 ($871) total; Club Room with two bunks (ensuite shower and toilet) £350 total. Both rooms offer priority access to the Club (dining) Car.

Explore more: sleeper.scot

Tick off no fewer than five countries on this trans-Alpine gem, including tiny Liechtenstein.

Journey: Budapest to Zurich (direct, 11 hours and 40 minutes).

Highlights: Going west in summer you should see the Alps at dawn from Landeck-Zams onwards and can have breakfast while zipping through Liechtenstein.

Price: For travel in August 2023, 331 euros total for two-bunk sleeper cabin for two adults; 218 euros total for three-bunk sleeper cabin for two adults and one child; 160 euros a person for bunk in a six-bunk couchette.

Explore more: nightjet.com/en