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From The Independent (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-sleeper-train-london-rail-eurostar-brussels-uk-a9488751.html)

To be named the Thunberg Express 😉

... or the Thunberg Thunderbolt.  ::)

Tintin Thunderbolt? Getting closer!  :D

If it was direct from London, it would manage to pass through five monarchies in seven countries, quite a feat and probably only possible in northern Europe!

Whatever it's called, sounds like a good idea.

Would beat a trip a number of us did to Stockolm in the early 60s  to use our free passes.

Liverpool Street Harwich Hook of Holland (overnight) Hamburg Copenhagen Malmo (all day) Stockholm (overnight).

3  ferries one the recently closed Puttgarten Rodby trian ferry.

Thursday night to Tuesday morning 1 night in Stockholm.

Sounds a good idea, but better still would a through sleeper between Sweden and London, and perhaps other places in the UK.
Changing trains is disliked, and for good reasons involving missed connections, cancellations, and the second train being overcrowded.

It is often stated that sleeper trains are less needed these days on account of the greater speed of day time trains. This may be partially true if considering only existing or recently closed sleeper routes.
We should however consider the opportunities for NEW sleeper routes, perhaps for journeys previously considered too long for a single night.
Sweden to the UK is a good example.

I'm very much in agreement that longer term the sleeper network to Europe from London could be (re)introduced, though there are significant hurdles. 

Cologne, Munich or Berlin to London maybe.  But I'm not sure Sweden to the UK is a good example.  If you look in more detail at the proposals then you would be leaving Malmo, third largest city in Sweden at the southern tip, with a population smaller than Bristol, at 19:40 to arrive London at 11:57 next day with a change at Cologne.  This is based on timings from a Jan 2020 article in the Independent, from Malmo to Cologne, so two changes, rather than the one Graham quoted today to Brussels with the one change, but I imagine they would be similar in terms of journey time.

If the sleeper runs all the way to London then it would obviously do so at a much slower speed than the Eurostar from Brussels, though no need to wait for connections, perhaps add at an hour?  If you wanted it to start from the larger Swedish cities of Stockholm or Gothenburg then you'd need to add 3-5 hours on top again, meaning a through journey from Stockholm to London would probably be around 20 hours.  I don't think that's viable.

It may indeed not be viable but goodness, would I love to do a Stockholm or Gothenburg return trip on it.  :)

In worst "crayonista" mode ... London to Europe sleeper - train divides (Brussels or Lille?) with portions to Copenhagen, Berlin, Munich and Marseilles.    Perhaps income train from Paris to the division point offering ongoing service to Copenham and Berlin too.  The fun of some old fashioned shunting in the middle of the night.

Original story also in the Railway Gazette (https://www.railwaygazette.com/passenger/trafikverket-proposes-malmö-brussels-overnight-service/56392.article) with more technical data

I'll quote just one section - "Preferred Route" ... other sections are "Market Study", "Practical Hurdles" and "Direct Award"

Could I hazard a guess why Malmo as a terminus?

It's not far from Copenhagen, a very large city (I think greater Copenhagen at over 1,800,000 is the largest Scandinavian urban area) would almost certainly be the last previous stop before a short trip over the Oresund Bridge to Malmo. Malmo itself has a "greater Malmo" population of 700,000, being part of a relatively populous area of SW Sweden, and also better onward rail links to the rest of Sweden. Put that all together and I think it makes sense. I hope to live long enough to book my ticket! 

I'm guessing Malmo is viable with Copenhagen close by - obviously Swedish Railways would be unlikely to run a service only as far as Copenhagen. And as noted, with Stockholm a further 4hrs 40+ by day train, that becomes much less attractive in terms of journey times.

It would be lovely to jump on a sleeper at St Pancras, but I fear it unlikely. If I recall the spec (and thus cost) of the Nightstar vehicles was very high, due to the specific requirements of the tunnel, and I suspect the operating costs would be too.  And given the journey time as far as Brussels or Paris will be considerably slower than Eurostar (particularly if the service doesn't use the LGV across the channel as I think is common with sleepers), then probably quicker to change at Brussels or Paris. 

I felt the article was clickbait - when you look at the details, it's an aspiration to get a sleeper train from Malmo to Brussels via Cologne, with getting the authorisations being seemingly tricky to do.

Personally, if I was in the sleeper train business, I'd be looking for pairs of cities about 8-10 hours apart by sleeper, with heavy expense-account business traffic. Perhaps Milan to Frankfurt, Paris to Madrid, Vienna to Frankfurt. I'd then put on a premium overnight service with decent catering for business travellers, cheaper 'classic' compartments with room-service, and 'capsule' pods to compete with Ryanair/bus. Train leaves at 11, arrives at 6, kick out at 7 to clear the platform for rush-hour, with a lounge at the end so the plebs can shower and shave. Run it as a joint venture, Accor for hotel & catering services, a freight operator for the traction and someone like Hitachi for the rolling stock.

 

Although currently suspended, Vienna to Brussels is already a reality since earlier this year (?), twice a week. Nightjet's original plans were  to go up to daily from December.

Don't forget this is Sweden - "Swedish Railways" don't run trains, they'd have to get a TOC to run them. The Independent's article does say that:

Delighted to find this diagram - "So you want to run a night train across Europe" as part of Rail Action 18 (https://www.railfuture.org.uk/display2309) from RailFuture ... and all the more delighed that it's available for sharing under Creative Commons with very deserved credit to Jonworth

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nighttraindiagram.jpg) (http://www.wellho.net/pix/nighttraindiagram.jpg)
Click on image to see it a bit bigger

From The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/covid-19-reawakens-europe-sleeper-trains)

From that great authority of complete an unbiased news - the Daily Mail (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8606831/Rail-body-calls-sleeper-trains-use-Channel-Tunnel-rise-post-Covid-eco-tourism.html)

 

Behind a firewall at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/call-to-let-sleeper-trains-use-channel-tunnel-mt7sv0bdk, The Times addresses the issue of the economics of running sleepers through the Channel Tunnel


A few years back now, Lisa and I came back from Barcelona overland by train - evening train to Toulouse (I think it was), Sleeper to Paris, Metro across the city, Eurostar to St Pancras, 205 (I suspect - can't recall) to Paddington, HST to Swindon, local train to Melksham, taxi for the final mile.  Would love to be able to cut out some of the awkward Paris and London stuff, though a sleeper service from Barcelona to Weymouth, dropping off at small intermediate stations like the Deerstalker with servicing facilities in Jersey Sidings like they have at Long Rock, sounds far fetched and a hard economic case to make.  Mind you, there might be not only a market for Southern England to Spain for holidays (passengers from the West Country change at Westbury, from Bristol and South Wales change at Swindon), but also for Toulousians and Parisians to visit the wonders of Dorset and the Jurassic Coast for their green holidays.  Start the lowland Caledonian Sleeper in the early evening from Weymouth too ... a mad idea, but then who knows what might happen in the coming decades?

Look to the past. There used to be a Glasgow to Eastbourne sleeper, possibly only seasonal. Noticed this when looking up Eastbourne station on Wikipedia and the details of the Eastbourne rail crash. The composition of the train was interesting;  "Glasgow to Eastbourne car sleeper consisted of 16 vehicles, two coaches, three sleeping cars, ten vans for luggage and motor cars and a guards van at the rear". Do the Channel Tunnel car transporters fit the rest of the uk gauge?

In the not too distant past I have used sleepers to travel between Paris & Venice and Prague & Cologne. I would be absolutely delighted if more services were reinstated.

Would you care to hazard a guess as to why there is no longer a sleeper service from Glasgow to Eastbourne?

I wasn't advocating a sleeper service from Glasgow to Eastbourne. But did the composition of the train, car sleeper, suggest a way of encouraging potential passengers for am international service. I doubt if the return of Motorail in the UK is much more likely than a seasonal Glasgow to Eastbourne car sleeper.

The Glasgow - Eastbourne service was a motorail service so you could only travel on it with a car

The car transporters take a lorry / coach or 2 levels of cars so there is no way they would fit the UK loading gauge.

I still keep reading the subject line as SWINDON set to be in easy reach of London by sleeper train....