Bistro cars for European Sleeper

The European Sleeper (ES), which runs its night trains from Brussels to Praha from 26 March 2024, has currently expanded its fleet by two second hand bistro cars. Due to its limited resources, ES had to use crowdfunding for these too, which it announced on 24 April 2024: „Exciting progress update on our dining car Initiative! We're thrilled to announce that we have secured over 60 % of the funding for our inaugural European Sleeper Dining Car!⁠ With your continued support, we're moving closer to realizing this exciting addition to our GOOD night train service.⁠ ️The campaign is set to close by the end of May, and If you're as excited as we are about this project, we encourage you to spread the word and help us achieve full funding.⁠“

As a result, European Sleeper was able to obtain financing for the purchase of two cars from DB, namely the Class ARkimmbz 288.5. However, the cars are not owned by the ES anyway, but are leased from their owner, TRI Train Rental from Eckental (northeast of Nürnberg). The cars were taken from the DB „cemetery“ in Mukran to the Nordhorn workshops of Bentheimer Eisenbahn at the beginning of August, to be adapted there for new service. This includes a change of the external colours from the original DB IC livery, i. e. white paint with a red stripe on the sidewalls. 

The first finished car is D-TRAIN 61 80 85-91 513-9, which started its test operation on  3 October 2024, on the ES 452 Praha - Brussel service. The second bistro coach is still in refurbishment. On the sidewalls, the inscription TRI-Bistro can be seen, which is not meant to convey a triple bistro. TRI are the initials of Tobias Richter, owner of the above-mentioned company, which since 2013, in addition to maintaining historic vehicles, has specialised mainly in providing vehicles for replacement of scheduled, usually new, vehicles that are late in delivery (an all-too-common occurrence in Germany in recent years...). TRI Train Rental currently owns 15 line locomotives and over 100 passenger cars.

The ARkimmbz cars with a maximum speed of 200 km/h, which have already undergone a refurbishment in the past, were used by DB on InterRegio trains. Inside, there is a restaurant and a first class area (both open space and compartments), as well as an PRM accessible WC. Given the standard of the interior, these bistro cars represent the best that can be found on ES trains, as they are otherwise sorted from a mix of old sleeper and couchette cars. TRI Train Rental is owner of both bistros coaches and rent them to European Sleeper on a monthly (!) basis.

ES stated that the second dining car will in service from 17 December 2024 to 5 Janaury 2025, and the company will evaluate both operation.