Thread by @jonworth

🇮🇹 is the latest country to consider ordering new night train carriages - the @railjournal article talks of 70 carriages 👇

https://twitter.com/railjournal/status/1466013298198032388

But what's happening here? Some European countries are starting to wonder about night train stock

A 🧵

So who - other than 🇮🇹 - is having similar thoughts?

🇫🇷 Government acknowledges new night train carriages are needed to achieve the aims set out in this report 👇
ecologie.gouv.fr/remise-letude-…

🇸🇪 is considering ordering new night train carriages for services to Northern Sweden 👇
regeringen.se/pressmeddeland…

🇳🇴 wants to reintroduce a Oslo-København night train, and acknowledges stock is a problem 👇
jernbanedirektoratet.no/no/aktualitete…

🇪🇸 government has committed funding to re-introducing 5 night train routes, but Renfe does not have enough trains to do this currently 👇
epe.es/es/politica/20…

Also note that - with the exception of 🇪🇸 - what all the others need is *essentially the same thing*

Carriages that are locomotive hauled, vMax 200km/h, and compatible with stock that currently exists

(Norway, Sweden *might* want a larger loading gauge)

So what's going to happen?

If each European country orders its own carriages, the cost per unit will be high, and either the approval process arduous (if these carriages of different designs are to be approved EU-wide) or carriages will only be deployed in 1 country...

If *instead* all these countries made an order for a standardised design (or designs), that will reduce the cost per unit, and this design could be developed to be internationally interoperable from the start

It would make sense *for everyone*

So how about coordinating this, @Transport_EU @AdinaValean ? Isn't this what the EU is supposed to be FOR in #EUYearOfRail ?

And - above all - we have a precedent for this!

The "Voiture standard européenne"
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiture_s…

Ordered in 1973 and 500 of them delivered from 1977 to the railways of 🇧🇪🇦🇹🇩🇪🇮🇹🇨🇭🇫🇷

And that is before we even come to operators like RegioJet or European Sleeper that want to run night trains on an open access basis, but struggle to get carriages

We've got to the stage that there's a widespread acceptance that Europe needs more night trains

Now *please* let's not cock up the order of the trains with too much national silo thinking!

/ends