Operator: HZ/Nightjet
Headcode: EN40465
Route: ZRH-ZAG
Class: Sleeper Cabin
Seat: C318 S61
Date: Sunday 7th January 2024
After spending the day eating well, climbing a mountain by train and generally exploring the Swiss city of Zurich (read about that here), I was back at Zurich Hauptbahnhof ready to catch the third and final sleeper train of my trip. So far on Snoozing to Split, I had slept as I travelled from Brussels to Berlin and from Berlin to Zurich and it was now time for me to snooze from Zurich to the Croatian capital, Zagreb.
Having had dinner at Brasserie Federal within the station, I was back on the main concourse a bit early and so was please when my train arrived in from the depot 35 minutes before departure. Even better was the fact it had arrived in on the booked and advertised platform, the first time this had happened so far on my trip, making for a much more relaxing boarding experience. With the majority of the platforms at Zurich Hauptbahnhof being terminus platforms my coach, coach 318, was at the far end of the train, on the rear as it had arrived in.
As I boarded the train, I noticed that there was no locomotive on the rear of the coaches, however by the time I had found my room, dropped off my bag and returned to the platform the first locomotive of the trip had arrived and coupled to the train. The SBB locomotive taking us as far as the border would be an Re420, the most common electric locomotive used by the Swiss Railways with loco 11302 doing the honours.
Whilst this journey was marketed by Nightjet and I’d bought my ticket via the Austrian operator, my sleeper carriage was one belonging to the Croatian operator Hrvatske željeznice (HZ). Departing Zurich, the service is both Euronight train 40465 and Nightjet train 465, with the service splitting into portions for Graz and Zagreb the middle of the night at Innsbruck. With this being a HZ sleeper carriage, the room was more basic than the one the previous night which was actually a Nightjet carriage (read about that here). However, this room got bonus points for having two sockets actually close to the bed and also included the usual lighting and volume controls as well as a sink and a bottle of water. Its worth noting that whilst I could lock this room when I was in it, I wasn’t able to lock it from the outside and so belongings are not locked away if you leave your room.
We departed Zurich at 1942, 2 minutes late and this time I’d actually received an email from Nightjet well before this advising of the two minute delay. Just before we departed, the sleeper attendant came round to take tickets and confirm my choice of drink for breakfast. Just over an hour after leaving Zurich, we arrived at our first stop, Buchs, a town close to the border with Lichenstein.
Whilst our stop at Buchs was advertised as a regular stop, we arrived almost an hour before our departure time and at whilst I’m not sure if a locomotive swap happened here, at the very least our loco had to run round the train as the junction for the line towards Austria was back towards Zurich slightly. During our stop at Buchs the train was also boarded by Swiss Police to undertake passport checks, something that seemed odd given the train was entirely within the Schengen area.
Unfortunately, whilst we were sat in Buchs station, another delay email arrived from Nightjet, advising that because of a ‘rescue operation’ taking place between Buchs and Feldkirch (the first station in Austria) we would be delayed by an unspecified amount of time. We eventually departed Buchs at 2325, an hour and 45 minutes late, and quickly passed through Lichenstein enroute to Feldkirch and Austria. I was asleep by the time we stopped at Feldkirch, but having done some more research after my trip, I suspect the loco swap happens here rather than at Buchs as car transporter wagons are also added to the train here.
After the passport check had been completed, I decided to settle down for the night and await events from the hopeful comfort of the bed. The lower of the three bunks is essentially the compartment’s seats with a sheet added, a comfortable enough setting however the material of seat backs was a bit ‘scratchy’. The main issue I found (and its very much a 1st world problem) was that the sheet was too small to go under the mattress and so the slightest movement meant it came away. At one point in the night I woke up to find the sheet on the floor and me sleeping directly on the seat material. The other thing of note with the room, which others may find an issue, is that the blue ‘nightlight’ remained on throughout with no option to switch this off. I was able to sleep despite this, however I know some people have issues with lights and sleeping.
Whilst I briefly woke at various points during the night, I overall got a good night’s sleep and woke up just before Jesenice, the first station in Slovenia. During the night at various points, carriages and wagons had been added and removed, with the train now consisting of the sleeper and couchette cars from Zurich and various day coaches. The car transporter wagons had been removed at Villach, the last station in Austria, and so seemingly this is something purely offered by OBB. Departing Jesenice we were still running 28 minutes late, although we were further delayed between there and Kranj having been held for a couple of single line sections.
As we approached the Slovenian capital, we were held briefly at Ljubljana Vižmarje station before passing the city’s railway museum. I had been lucky enough to visit this when we had previously visited Ljubljana (read about that trip here and here) and as the train shed and sidings passed by the window, I was able to see some former carriages of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the historical operator of European sleeper trains and the Orient Express.
As we continued through Slovenia, enroute from the capital to our next stop at Zidani Most, snow began to fall with the landscape slowly being covered in a white carpet. Zidani Most, with its unnecessarily large station building, came and went and we continued through a myriad of small towns and villages with stations, not stopping until we reached Sevnica, running around 25-30 minutes late. The penultimate Slovenian station was Krsko, with the stop being uneventful, although I did note that it seemed like a new footbridge had been recently installed. From my travels in Europe, it seems most stations outside the major cities make use of foot crossings to connect platforms and so seeing a footbridge at this fairly small station seemed odd.
The final stop in Slovenia was the border town of Dobova, where a large rail yard full of freight trains and what seemed to be a major railway works with lots of spare wheel sets were located. Dobova was also the location of our final locomotive change of the trip, with the Austrian loco having been removed and a Croatian locomotive attached. I’m not sure on the shunting operation at Innsbruck and whether the locomotive that hauled the train from Feldkirck continued with the Graz portion or ours and so the Croatian loco was either the third or fourth of the journey across Central Europe. Whilst the lights remain on, powered by batter during locomotive swaps, it is clear when the locomotive has been detached as the power sockets and noisy HVAC system both stop working.
Leaving Dobova at 1047, we continued following the Sava, the river we had been following for the last few hours since Bled in western Slovenia. The Slovenia-Croatia border is almost immediately after Dobova and we only had around 30 minutes left of the journey as we crossed the border. Just after the town of Zaprešić we crossed from Zagreb county into Zagreb city itself, a border that’s not marked on the ground but can be found close to the E39 motorway and a tributary of the Sava. Arriving into Zagreb Glavni station at 1120, the final sleeper journey of Snoozing to Split came to an end 41 minutes later than planned.
As I made my way to the front of the train to see the Croatian locomotive be detached ready to make its way to the depot, I was able to reflect on my journey from Zurich to Zagreb. I found the journey comfortable and enjoyable, with the booked timings allowing a couple of hours in the morning to watch the world go by rather than having to alight at an unreasonably early hour. Whilst the room didn’t have all the facilities of a Nightjet room, it was perfectly fine for the journey and really the only negative of the journey was the delayed arrival into Zagreb and even this wasn’t an issue.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 3*
Food 3*
Service 4*
Punctuality 2*
Overall Rating 12/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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