01Day 2 · 09:15
Gipuzkoa, Basque Country
Mist country
The coast range keeps its cloud until mid-morning. Breakfast is served late enough that you can watch it lift from your berth.
Window side · right
Lisboa → Innsbruck · Sleeper service · Tue, Thu, Sat
The night is the destination.
One train, three times a week. Thirty-seven hours, two nights, fourteen carriages, and nowhere you need to be until Innsbruck.
- Departs
- 18:40
- Arrives
- 07:40+2
- Berths from
- €640
Why we run it slowly
We are not the fastest way across Europe. We are the slowest one that still feels like a decision: a bed that rocks a little, a window that never repeats, and a dinner nobody rushes because nobody can leave.
Chapter I 18:40 · Santa Apolónia
Boarding is the first course.
Platform 4 opens ninety minutes before departure. Your steward already knows your name, your pillow, and which side of the carriage the Tagus will be on when we pull out.
- 1 : 9stewards to berths
- 42berths per departure
- 0announcements after 22:00
Chapter II The first night ends
Somewhere over the Pyrenees, the sky changes its mind.
- The carriage goes quiet in a different way. Fewer lights below, more above.
- A knock, then coffee. Nobody remembers ordering it; everybody did.
- First light above the cloud line. The blinds go up along the corridor, one by one.
Chapter III The window
Four views you will have entirely to yourself.
02Day 2 · 12:50
Massif Central, France
The viaducts at noon
Granite arches, a river far below, and lunch laid in the dining car. We slow to forty here on purpose, and nobody has ever complained.
Window side · left
03Day 2 · 16:40
Haute-Savoie, France
The long climb east
Four hours of rising ground. The observation car fills, the conversation thins, and somebody always says the word "alpenglow".
Observation car
04Day 3 · 06:20
Tirol, Austria
The Inn valley, last bend
Larches on fire in October, the river beside the track, and eighty minutes left. Coffee is on the trolley before you have to ask for it.
Window side · either