Overnight travelling can be very efficient, as it will keep you on the move and save you a night in a hostel. If you plan it well, it will also only cost you one travel day instead of two. Below you will find some information on how to set up your Pass when taking an overnight train service.
As a general rule, you will need to have an active travel day at the time of departure of your train. This means that, if you board a train on Tuesday at 10 PM which arrives the following morning, you will only need to use a travel day for Tuesday. Simply add this train to your Pass, make any necessary seat reservation, and you're ready to go!
However, if you change trains after midnight you will need a new travel day regardless of itinerary. Travel days always last from 00:00-23:59, so if a connecting train is taken after midnight you will need to activate a new travel day.
Travelling home by night train?
If you want to travel home by night train, you might need to pay special attention to the way you set your Pass up. To clarify whether or not this applies to you, we will quickly provide you with an overview of two scenario’s.
- Scenario 1: You take a night train back to your homeland, and this train stops directly at your final destination.
You will use one travel day, and one inbound/outbound journey. You will need to have an activated travel day at the time of boarding, and the QR-code for this ride will be your ticket all the way till your final stop (on the same train). Since a part of your overall journey will be in your country of residence, an inbound/outbound will be deducted.
Please note: the departure day of the night train you're taking, cannot be on the last day of your Pass’ 1-month validity period! The Pass still needs to be valid when you arrive in your homeland.
- Scenario 2: You take a train back to your homeland, and you need to change trains in your homeland to travel the final distance to your destination.
In this case, you will need to use two travel days to get back home. One travel day is used to board the night train, and the other is used to board your connecting train to your final destination the next day. You need to make sure that your inbound/ outbound journey is applied to the second travel day only, to avoid using 2 inbound/outbound travel days. This requires you to set up your Pass in a specific manner, which is as follows:
You need to split up the night train’s overall journey into two separate sections, and create two QR-codes which each cover one of these sections. One will cover the trains you take on the first travel day, and include a section of the night train until a station close to your home country. The second travel day then covers the journey from that station to your final destination.
You can do this as follows:
- Look up the night train you want to take in the DiscoverEU Travel App. When you find it, tap the small arrow right of the departure station. This will show you all the stations the train stops at between your departure and arrival station.
- In this overview, you can select a station outside of your home country where the train makes a stop after midnight. Then, look up the same train in the Planner with the same departure station, and fill out this station as your arrival station. Remember the arrival time at this station, save this train to your Trip, and add it to your Pass.
- Then, make a search enquiry from this arrival station to your home country using the same train. This way, your inbound/outbound will only be used on the second travel day, and you can use the second travel day to get to your final destination.
If you've done this correctly, you will have two QR-codes which each cover a portion of the total journey of the night train. Note that any seat reservation should span the whole journey of the night train, and does not need to be split up in the same way as your Pass. You will thus not have to pay two seat reservations for this train.
Why is this?
When you activate an overnight train, the system will scan the overall train journey to see if it goes through your country of residence. If it does, regardless of whether this occurs on the day of boarding or the day or arrival, an Inbound/Outbound will be deducted. As a result, you would end up using Inbound/outbound travel days for the day you board the night train, and the day you connect to your final destination.