Una noche en la litera de arriba (A night in the top bunk)
MCER B2360 palabras
I'm writing this from the top bunk of a train somewhere between Vienna and Milan, which is my way of admitting that I've become one of those people. You know the ones. We corner you at parties and explain, unprompted, that flying is fine but that a plane has no corridor you can stand in at three in the morning with a cup of tea.
For a decade it looked as if night trains in Europe were finished. Deutsche Bahn dropped its City Night Line service in December 2016 and everybody wrote its obituary. Then the Austrians did something unexpected: ÖBB picked up several of the routes, painted the carriages blue, called the whole idea Nightjet and carried on. Others followed: a cooperative called European Sleeper ran its first train between Brussels and Berlin in May 2023. Not everything has survived, mind you. The Nightjet trains to Paris were withdrawn in December 2025, after the French government stopped funding them.
I should be honest, though, because the photographs lie. A couchette is roughly the width of an ironing board. The person below you will turn over at four and you'll feel every millimetre of it. There's a ladder designed by somebody who has clearly never owned knees. And at some point the train stops, for reasons nobody ever explains, in a siding where the only sound is someone walking along outside, tapping the wheels.
And yet. You get on in one country in your ordinary clothes, you read for an hour, you fall asleep somewhere flat and grey, and you wake up with the blind half up and mountains going past at the speed of a bicycle. Nobody has asked to see your shoes. You haven't stood in a queue since yesterday.
So no, it's not a postcard. Booking a sleeper across three different operators can still feel like homework, and a bed costs far more than a cheap flight to the same city. But I've stopped counting that as a defeat: one ticket pays for the journey and the bed, and I do the travelling while asleep, which is the only kind of multitasking I've ever been good at.
Palabras que quizá no conozcas
- bunklitera
- couchettelitera de tren (compartimento)
- unpromptedsin que nadie lo pida
- obituaryesquela, nota necrológica
- sleepercoche cama, tren nocturno
- ironing boardtabla de planchar
- sidingvía muerta, apartadero
- to withdraw a servicesuprimir un servicio
- blindpersiana, estor
- queuecola, fila
- to carry onseguir adelante
Preguntas
Se contestan con el texto delante. No es memoria: es entender.
Where is the writer writing from?
The top bunk of a train between Vienna and Milan — La primera frase lo dice: from the top bunk of a train somewhere between Vienna and Milan. El texto está escrito desde dentro del viaje, y por eso suena a diario y no a reportaje.
According to the text, what did ÖBB do after Deutsche Bahn dropped its night trains?
It took over several routes and created the Nightjet brand — Picked up several of the routes… called the whole idea Nightjet and carried on. Las otras dos opciones suenan verosímiles, pero el texto no las dice en ninguna parte, y esa es la trampa.
The Nightjet trains to Paris were withdrawn in December ___.
2025 — 2025. Ojo con las tres fechas del párrafo: 2016 es cuando Deutsche Bahn se retiró, mayo de 2023 es el primer tren de European Sleeper, y diciembre de 2025 es cuando cayeron los Nightjet a París.
The night on board is described as more comfortable than the photographs suggest.
False — Falso, y es justo al revés: «the photographs lie». La litera es estrecha como una tabla de planchar, la escalerilla es incómoda y el tren se para de noche en una vía muerta. Ojo: decir que las fotos mienten no es decir que el viaje no merezca la pena; eso llega en el párrafo siguiente.
The writer counts the absence of airport queues and checks as one of the pleasures of the night train.
True — Verdadero, aunque no lo dice con esas palabras: hay que deducirlo de «Nobody has asked to see your shoes» y de «You haven't stood in a queue since yesterday». Ese es el argumento real del párrafo, más que el paisaje.
How does the last paragraph answer the objection that a sleeper costs more than a cheap flight?
By pointing out that the same ticket also pays for the night's accommodation — «One ticket pays for the journey and the bed»: el billete es a la vez transporte y hotel, y por eso el precio deja de ser una derrota. No dice que sea más barato que volar, ni que el precio dé igual: admite que es más caro y explica qué se lleva a cambio.