In light of the recent news that Transport Scotland has established a working group with the aim of exploring linking Scotland to mainland Europe via Night Train, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the matter. There has already been much discourse on the many blockers that make such a service unlikely to be financially viable as well as practical, so I'm going to explore how I would operate such a service if these constraints weren't an issue.

Firstly, lets decide the origin and destination stations. To me, the European destination is obvious: Paris. Thanks to Eurostar, the border control facilities already exist, along with the necessary dedicated platforms. It is also a major central hub for onwards connectivity with direct trains to Barcelona, Milan, Geneva, Zürich, & Münich and plenty of other major destinations, and it is one of the most popular tourist destinations and business hubs in its own right. For Scotland, Edinburgh is the obvious choice, being the capital, and it has easy access to both core routes to England. One could construct a new border facility in the existing station feeding into platforms 8 & 9. These platforms would be available for normal services during the day time, and in the hour prior to boarding of the new NightStar service they would be closed off to maintain a secure area for international departures.

Where would it stop in England?

I would then have precisely zero passenger calls between Edinburgh and France. This would allow the train to operate via either the East Coast Main Line or the WCML with only minor, or ideally no, affects to passenger timings. This is because both railways are regularly closed overnight to allow for engineering work and routine maintenance. From both of these routes it would then be possible to travel over the North London Line, through Stratford, joining HS1 at Dagenham Jn. This route is fully electrified with 25kV AC, compared to alternatives that would require third-rail or diesel running. This keeps operational complexity to a minimum, and allows for cyclical maintenance to take place domestically in England.

From HS1 and through the Channel Tunnel to Lille Europe where I could see a passenger call for onwards connections to Brussels, Amsterdam, Köln, Frankfurt, & Berlin, before taking the the classic line to Paris. Again, the necessary facilities at both of these stations already exist. For traction, the British Class 92, as is currently used on the Caledonian Sleeper, would suffice from Edinburgh right through to Fréthun, Calais, if the train were to run today. There the train would be re-engined to one of the many classes of electric locos available to SNCF e.g. BB22200. Unlike in Britain, where it makes sense to run via HS1 to maintain overhead electrification, in France, it would not be possible to get a 200km/h path along the LGV Nord in the early hours of the morning or in the evening. Similar to Edinburgh to London, Lille to Paris offers two classic route options: running via Ameins (Longueau) or via St. Quentin. Once again, either route could be taken with little to no impact to customers. As the Class 92s are in their twilight years, a more future proofed solution could be to utilise one of the new Class 93 or 99s in Britain as far as Ripple Lane where traction could be changed to the 92s Chunnel freight loco replacement. Perhaps Vectrons can finally see certification for HS1, seeing as they are well on their way to acceptance by SNCF.

I cannot see such an operationally complex service being commercially viable, but to minimise the subsidy from the Scottish government, it would ideally run with 16 carriages, and with 70% occupancy or more. Whether the demand is there I am skeptical, although perhaps three departures a week could be feasible requiring just one rake of stock.

Train vs Plane: The Environmental Impact

Much of the demand for such travel by night train comes from the want to reduce ones emissions and travel in a more sustainable way. Both from the Scottish Government & the EU, but also from individuals rightly concerned with their carbon footprint. In a world where Europe has just experienced record-breaking heatwaves for what feels like every single week since May, such a service would be ideal for such climate concerned travellers, leisure and business alike.

There has been a lot of fun poked at this working group, and anyone who has taken it seriously. Don't get me wrong, I do not expect such a service to exist in the near future, but I will continue to welcome any work to reduce air travel by improving rail infrastructure and train service offerings.