18-hour sleeper train from Bucharest to Vienna

I took once (about 10 years ago) a night train from Frankfurt, Germany to Firenze via Milano, Italy with a sleeping coach. The reason behind was a business meeting and I didn't want to get up early in the morning to take the flight to Firenze. I decided to take the "more convenient" night train, where I can sleep (I thought).
It was a nightmare as well. First we stood more then 2h somewhere in Germany around midnight, due to…I heard later on, maybe someone jumped in front of the train. Then…in the very early morning hours we passed Switzerland. As soon as we came to the Italian border, some Suiss border patrols with Shepard dogs went very noisy trough the train, only talking Italian and not very gentle rather rough. It tooke me a while to understand that tehy want me to take down my luggage so the dog can have a sniff (checking if I carry drugs?) – So it was finally a very unsleepy night and due to the delay I missed my booked train in Milano to Firenze as well as my paid seat. I could manage to jump on a later train but my booked seat where gone and it was absolutly not clear in the train if a seat was pre booked or not, so I tooke some places and sometimes people appeared and told me in Italien that they have a reservation on this seat. Finally and after all I reached my business meeting just 10min before in Firenze and after all I thought how much convenience I passed when I took the train instead of the flight. Not to mention the rough border crossing….with a flight I just fly over unfriendly Switzerland within 1,5h.
Happy to say that I took a flight back but the was alreaady my plan in advance.

7:10 Romania and Bulgaria join schengen this year

I love how totally clueless UK and American citizens are on this side of the world. The train is cancelled at Budapest due to MAV, not CFR. The printed ticket has the second class on it because sleeper cars are AB – 1 and 2 class in the same time and that software is so old and badly coded that it doesn't understand the fact that there can be multiple classes. In your cabin, if two people stay there, it's a second class, if it's just you, it's a first class. This is valid for sleeper cars all over the world tho, and sleeper trains do make a strong comeback. Here in EU, aside Nightjet which is brand new and has new train journeys with each passing year, we decided to keep all our night trains, we even revived some lost ones so no, night travel by train is definitely not dying out and it's here to stay.

I live in Canada and one of the biggest thing I miss being born in Hungary is the European transit way and free border access

So interesting to see how your nighttime experience compared to my daytime one in the opposite direction. It's a lot easier in daylight and quite interesting to watch them shunt the train, look under every seat with mirrors and the dogs outside!

Twice I did ride "Auto Trains" from Malmö in Sweden and to Luleå and Umeå. They had rented the trains in Germany and for some years it was a possibility. We had 1. class tickets and sometimes people from the lower grades came to look at our fine conditions! It was special to see the growth become lower as we came close to the Polar Circle! Sadly not enough wanted to go back again on trains, so it only lasted few years.

As an English Germophile, I bloody love your videos.

Tom, after the journey, have you received a refund?

Mr. Never Again, try the Bucharest – Chisinau train. It is a former Soviet train operated by the railways of the Republic of Moldova. An unforgettable experience for someone who has high expectations like you.

Good job on the video! I took the train trip a few years back and it was a horrible experience, although my sleeper wasn't as nice as yours. Both Hungarians and Romanians have intensified their border checks as Austria is accusing them of allowing illegal immigrants to pass and thus all the additional wasted time, not to mention that the communist mentality is hard to root out. As far as being stranded in Budapest, that might not the be Romanian railway's fault. As far as I know, at the border, a Hungarian crew takes over the train, and is their responsibility to complete the trip as promised. Keep up the great work!

Always the hunGAYrians. What nothing good ever comes out of that small little country?

I did that ride and it was alright. Not really any big issues.

I did a first class sleeper from Istanbul Sirkeci to Bucharest once in 2004, and man the border crossings were terrible.

Made exactly the same mistake as you with passport control on the sleeper from Berlin to Stockholm. We were warned there would be checks just after midnight at the Danish border. Midnight came and went and I went to sleep. In the end, there was some bustle around 2 am, but I don't know why because my compartment never got our passports checked. Still better than the return journey, which was 6 and a half hours late haha.

Tom. I really hope, that you only make content about the bad times, and not about ALL of the rides you take. Because in that case people will probably start never leaving home again ^^

It is Romania, run by gypsies and thieves, how else do you think things are, you travel in cesspits then you expect shit.

The train attendant did not steal your paper ticket. At most railway companies that provide sleeping and couchette car services, it is standard procedure for the attendant to collect your ticket and reservation before you go to sleep, and return it to you upon waking up or before you leave the train.

There are a few reasons for this practice. Firstly, the conductor requests all passengers' tickets from the train attendant in the sleeping car to ensure a peaceful and uninterrupted sleep for everyone onboard. This helps guarantee a comfortable journey.

Secondly, the conductor's responsibility is limited to the service area of the railway company they work for. In the case of long international trains that traverse multiple countries, the conductor may change at the border station. For your journey, the conductors and railway companies were CFR (1st conductor), MÁV-START (2nd conductor), and intended to be ÖBB (3rd conductor).

Another reason for collecting tickets is that the train attendant needs to handle paperwork associated with each ticket. They are required to copy certain information from the ticket as part of their administrative duties.

I hope this explanation clarifies the situation. Greetings from a former Hungarian train attendant.

I use to love taking train rides in the 80's and 90's from Bucharest to Cluj or Budapest

As a romanian all I can say is… I'm appalled. I kind of expected the shower not to work, but the sudden abort without explanation in Budapest. Wow.
I'm used to utter crap transportation in the eastern part of Romania (well, it's acceptable in some isolated cases), but wasn't expecting a new low from CFR (Romanian Railways), just wow.
2023 and they still operate like 1990's after Ceausescu. In the winter of 1988 I remember getting stuck due to heavy snow with my mother and my brother. 4 hours in -5 deg Celsius, no heating on the train (of course). At some point you just give and buy a car (sorry climate change).

Cool video! 🙂 The timings of the border checks aren't random. Just look in the timetable. Romanian border check is from 1:44 to 2:10 (Romanian time) and Hungarian border check from 1:20 to 2:03 (Central European time). And while on the train you could – beside the timetable – just use Google Maps to see how far you are from the border. Being sensitive about sleep I actually don't take this train if I have the choice. There are 2 more night trains from Bucharest to Budapest (and Vienna is just a short jump from there) having better schedules and border check times.

I took this train a couple days ago From Arad to Budapest in a Seeting Carrige, The Bodercrossing From Hungary into Romania was everything Else than smooth we gathered about 70 minutes Deley in Lőkösháza. On the way back everything Went smothly the train Pulled 10 Minuten late into Arad And we arrived on time in Budapest. Eventough i had just a Seating Carrige i could sleep verry Well, the Hungarian And Romanian borderguards Just woke me Up i gave them my pass they ceckt It And then they we're Off and i could sleep again

Hi Guy! Welcome in Eastern Europe! 🤣

You got put on Rail Jet from Keleti to Wien HBF so everything was lovely and so nice. $175 for this was nothing when in UK it's zillions for just 2 hours from London to Crewe. But you got to Vienna and heart of Europe for just so cheap, private cabin, everything yet still crying and complaining and like this. So don't give others a fairy tale of lies about Romania.
Another? Romania is the best country in Europe and everything is very good. When personages arrive to Dover they must show a passport, yes? So same with the Romanian border. And you got the exit stamp in 2 seconds. So nothing any problem from Romania in any way.

The subtitles slam bang in the middle of the screen are a pain in the butt. Imagine you had a white stripe painted in the middle of your glasses!