Brussels, the new capital of the night train
It is the kind of announcement every evening traveller dreams of: European Sleeper, the Belgian-Dutch railway company that already connected Brussels to Berlin, Prague and Venice, has confirmed its next major line. From April 2028, a direct night train will leave Brussels for Copenhagen and Malmö, in the heart of Scandinavia.
The principle is as simple as it is poetic: board in the evening, have dinner, sleep in a real berth… and open the curtains in the early morning to the colours of Denmark or Sweden. No airport, no security queue, no connection.
A 100 % Benelux journey before the great Nordic leap
The future service will call at Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam before heading through northern Germany to Scandinavia. In other words: from the heart of the European capital, the entire North Sea coast becomes reachable in one night of sleep.
To deliver the project, European Sleeper has partnered with the German railway operator RDC, a night-train specialist. “We are seeing strong demand,” the company told our colleagues at L’Avenir.
Why this is excellent news for Brussels
- A city as a rail hub: every new European line confirms Brussels as the continent’s railway junction.
- Low-carbon travel: the night train emits a fraction of what an equivalent flight produces.
- Two-way tourism: Copenhagen and Malmö will discover Brussels overnight, and vice versa.
- A growing network: after Berlin, Prague and Venice, Scandinavia is the natural next frontier.
What we know so far
The launch is targeted for April 2028. Tickets are not on sale yet, but European Sleeper has already opened a dedicated page for the Malmö destination on its official website. Regulars know the formula: seats, couchettes and sleeping cars, with the option to bring your bike.
Patience, then: the countdown has begun. Until then, we can already dream of the platforms of Brussels-South on a spring evening in 2028, the little sign reading “Copenhagen – Malmö”, and that magical sentence: we wake up in Sweden.
