Regiojet to expand international services
CZECH open access operator Regiojet has ambitious expansion plans across Europe for the next few years, expanding its own network as well as operating new services with new partners.
Regiojet will be the train operator for new Dutch startup overnight train operator ‘European Sleeper’ which will start a new service, initially three times a week, from Brussels to Prague (via Amsterdam and Berlin) due to begin in April 2022.
Later in 2022, the company plans to begin running daily overnight trains from Ostend to Warsaw via Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin.
Regiojet is also planning to expand into Poland on its own and has already obtained paths for an overnight service from Prague to the Polish cities of Kraków and Przemyśl, on the border with Ukraine. Regiojet hopes to offer up to nine train pairs daily from 2023 on the routes from Warsaw to Kraków, Wrocław and Gdynia, as well as international routes from Warsaw to Vienna and Prague but has to obtain permission from the Polish rail regulator UTK first.
Expansion into Germany is also planned with trains connecting Prague with Berlin and Munich among those envisaged.
Regiojet has expanded its loco fleet and has acquired large numbers of second-hand coaches in advance of the planned expansion. In October Regiojet received the last seven of a batch of 15 Class 388.2 Traxx locos from Alstom, built at the former Bombardier plant in Kassel.