We meet the co-founder of European Sleeper, a railway company reviving night trains and connecting great cities across the continent. And to ensure we’re travelling in style, we’ll hear from the founder of Tom Àdam, a Berlin-based loungewear brand revered for its PJs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello and welcome to the Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio.
The show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business.
Today's program is all about enhancing comfort and delivering the perfect night's sleep wherever your travels take you.
First we'll head to Utrecht to meet the co founder of a railway company putting night trains back on the European map.
Even the last night trains that they cancelled, they were profitable.
People are really fond of night trains.
I mean they love it to travel like this and it's a different market, so there's a demand.
And to ensure we're traveling in the correct style, we'll hear from the founder of a Berlin based loungewear brand revered for its PJs.
Running a business is like a design process.
You can design your own business and run it however you want to do it.
And I think that's something that I find actually really inspiring in the process.
This is the entrepreneurs with me.
Tom Edwards, you're listening to the entrepreneurs.
Chris Engelsman is the founder of European Sleeper, a private initiative to revive and expand the night train network in Europe with services connecting some of the continent's great cities.
Having launched its inaugural overnight journey from Brussels to Berlin, the company's expanded its services to include stops in Prague, a seasonal route to Venice, and has plans for a longer term project to connect Amsterdam and Barcelona.
Chris caught up with Monaco's own Andrew Muller and he began by telling Andrew about the start of the journey.
Yeah, it was about five years ago when the European night train was sort of back in on track, but we really felt it needed a push.
It had been neglected for decades by the National Railways, which we found very frustrating because we like the night train ourselves and it's such a logical project for sustainable travel.
So it was sort of out of frustration, but also of course out of the love for this lovely way of traveling.
So once you've decided you're going to do this, how do you even start?