‘Lengthy, challenging but doable’: Mobility developer Nox rethinks what sleeper trains could bring to the future of corporate travel
With its elegant overnight trains, the German start-up by co-founders Thibault Constant, Janek Smalla and Artur Hasselbach aims to reinvent overnight services and lure business travellers off planes.
On an industrial site outside Berlin, Thibault Constant, the chief marketing officer and co-founder of Nox, is putting the finishing touches to a key element of his passion project: the reinvention of the sleeper train. He shows Monocle the first mocked-up carriage, a refitted former Deutsche Bahn coach. With lots of wood, warm colours and comfortable seats, it’s a world away from the plain Nightjet trains of Austria’s ÖBB – the biggest night-train operator in Germany. “We want to make overnight trains attractive enough that normal travellers will ditch flights,” says Constant.
A 30-year-old railway blogger, Constant has spent more than 400 nights on the rails. After speaking to fellow travellers, he learnt that many see night trains as uncomfortable, expensive and unpunctual. This frustrated Constant so much that he decided to co-found Nox with Janek Smalla, a former project manager at Flixtrain, and Artur Hasselbach, now the company’s chief financial officer. The company has raised €2m in pre-seed funding, led by IBB Ventures. This pays for a team of 10 and the first carriage refit. Nox will be the brand that passengers see but TRI Train Rental will supply the locomotive, drivers and safety staff.
Sleeper trains have long been a niche category with a focus on leisure travellers. Many routes depend on state subsidies. Constant says that the fault lies with a “lack of investment because night trains were never seen as the future of transportation.” However, he believes that they can compete for the business crowd at distances between 500km and 1,500km. This demographic of travellers, he argues, would appreciate catching a 21.00 train so that they can “finish their day, go to the gym, have an evening with their family, then step on board”. They would arrive in time for a first meeting well rested after a full night’s sleep.
Nox’s show coach displays two layouts. The open-plan Nox Suites, set to launch next year, have seats that fold out into two-metre-long beds. Nox Rooms will follow in 2028 at the earliest and feature 24 closed, two-level cabins. Inside, a traveller will be able to sit and work on the lower level, then climb a ladder to sleep on the bed above. “I can close my door, finish my work, have a glass of wine and sleep for eight hours,” says Constant.
From March, the start-up will be testing its concept on a single route. The train will leave Hamburg at 21.22 and reach Munich at 08.14. Nox will launch with just five coaches; if there’s sufficient demand, hubs will follow in cities such as Berlin, Copenhagen, Zürich and Milan. By 2035, the start-up wants to serve 100 cities.
Rolling out the network will require far more than the €2m raised so far. “It’s hard to give a precise figure regarding the next financing round,” says Constant. “We will gauge the interest of investors and prepare for any scenario.” Starting a new operator in Europe, he adds, will be “lengthy, challenging but doable”.
