Train companies believe in a boom for holidays on rails this summer.

Snälltåget is expanding its departures between Malmö and Berlin from three times a week to daily, and is hoping for a Greta effect from Germany.

Last summer, Snälltåget, which has operated three departures a week between Malmö and Berlin during the summer season since 2012, chose to have daily departures for two weeks.

The trains were fully booked and therefore the company is operating Malmö–Berlin departures every day this summer.

”The booking situation is 200 percent better than last year,” says Marco Andersson, Marketing Manager at Snälltåget.

Given the impact of climate activist Greta Thunberg in Germany, the company also wants to try to attract Germans to take the train to Sweden.

”"They have vacation and school holidays all of August. For us, it's the most daring period. We've been a little apprehensive about how much we should dare to increase, but now we've received clear confirmation that it was the right decision," says Marco Andersson.

SJ plans to release its tickets for July and August in mid-March. Therefore, the company has no idea yet about the booking situation for the summer. However, given the high demand for train travel to the continent, SJ changed the timetable in December so that changes in Malmö will work better.

In 2020, travelers can board a train in Stockholm at 11pm and arrive in Hamburg at lunchtime the next day.

”"We have already noticed in this Train Vacation group on Facebook that many people appreciate it," says Stephan Ray, press communicator at SJ.

In 2020, SJ will have three daily connections between Stockholm, Copenhagen and Hamburg. In the summer, this will include a night departure between Copenhagen and Hamburg. The timetable for 2020 also means 10,000 more seats per week on the Stockholm–Gothenburg and Stockholm–Malmö routes, which according to SJ may increase further during the summer months.

Source: TT