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Hello and welcome back to Turkey, where tonight we’ll be taking a special sleeper train to Sofia, Bulgaria!
This is one of the very few trains to cross an EU external border, and in my opinion, one of the best sleeper coaches out there! Come along and join me on a trip that didn’t exactly go to plan, but was still great fun!
Date of Filming: 4 to 5/9/23
Camera: GoPro Hero 10 Black
Operator: Turkish Railways
Departure: Istanbul Halkali, Turkey
Arrival: Sofia, Bulgaria
Cost: Solo occupancy of a 2-bed compartment:
1,985 Turkish Lira (£54.72, €63.00, $68.75)
2-bed sleeper costs: 1,055 Turkish Lira (£29.09, €33.50, $36.56)
4-bed couchette costs: 900 Turkish Lira (£24.75, €28.50, $31.10)
Check out my review of the Turkish high-speed train from Istanbul to Ankara here: https://youtu.be/QTSp9P8lspY
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38 Comments
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Being from the US, I have plenty of experience with delays. The most delayed train I was ever supposed to be on was an Amtrak Empire Builder running 21 hours late. It was initially delayed due to a disabled freight train on its westbound trip to Seattle/Portland, then it was delayed going back east by more freight train interference, then the crew timed out and they had to drive a new crew out hundreds of miles from the nearest crew change point, then there was more freight train interference, etc.
In the end, I wound up being put on a bus since I was only doing an 8 hour daytime trip between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago (a trip I do frequently) and the replacement bus wound up being faster than the train was scheduled to be, despite breaking down halfway and having to wait almost 2 hours for a replacement bus.
Most of the time when I take the Empire Builder between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago, it's 1 to 3 hours late, but occasionally it's on time and occasionally it's VERY delayed like the 21 hour delay. Thankfully, there's enough demand that Amtrak will charter a bus for passengers just going between these city pairs, and there is a second daily train getting added next year (it was supposed to start this year but it got pushed back due to staff and equipment shortages and funding delays).
For some reason this videos title and description are in tagalog (according to google translate) even though I am from Finland. If same is happening to other users as well, that might affect the viewership numbers quite a lot as people have no idea what the title of the video is. Just wanted to let you know😁
The Turkish car quality is way outclassed the Bulgarian, and it seems like along the way they come into the part of Bulgarian rail that's not welded yet
A couple of years ago I went from Munich to Hamburg (both in Germany) by train late evening. All was fine until – in Gottingen there was an alarming light in the driver's cabin. Nobody knew why, but we all had to get out and take the follow-up train one hour later. With tis train we made it till Hannover, where the train was about to be separated. One part to Bremen and one part to Hamburg. But they couldn't be separated. So – next follow-up train one hour later, which really made it to Hamburg. I started the trip at 6 pm and arrived at 4 am. Normally the trip takes 6 hrs and 30 minutes…
Nice 😊Yikes 4 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES DELAY.We were delayed for 50 minutes on the ICE between Aachen HBF🇩🇪 to Liège.🇧🇪😊 There was a Thalys to Essen HBF that was delayed for 5 HOURS😊
Finally Bulgaria. Lets gooo. Also yeah in Bulgaria they are on time more. We have some trouble coordinating with the Turks about the trains
Thank you for the video! Looking at the landscapes of Bulgaria I think about the paradoxes of history and ingratitude. When I first visited Plovdiv, it was a shock for me to see a memorial to Russian soldiers who came to liberate Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke. Hundreds of graves on the memorial mountain – officers, soldiers. In the temple, the entire basement is covered in the skulls of Russian soldiers. And now, Bulgaria is opposing Russia. Monstrous ingratitude! It seems to me that Russia under the Tsar should not have liberated Bulgaria from Turkish oppression. Why such sacrifices of the Russian people for the sake of an ungrateful nation. Have you seen this memorial, graves and church on the mountain in Plovdiv?
Thanks for a very interesting video. However, I would N£VER travel on a train where there is a frontier check in the middle of the night. And I was astounded that you had to GET OFF the train at the Turkish frontier station.
Regarding heavily delayed trains, it seems to be the case that overnight trains are particularly prone to long delays, often of several hours.
A few years ago German Railways(DB) gave up on night trains. French Railways (SNCF) came close to doing the same. Austrian Railways (OBB) with their 'Nightjets' kept faith in 'sleepers', buying some of the surplus German sleeping cars. OBB is bringing new sleeping cars into service on December 10th. There are also now some 'open access' sleeper trains. The end result has been a revival of overnight trains. And it seems that these trains are popular, despite the punctuality problem.
Hi There, i am.from Germany. Is it possible to accompany you on your future trips? I am big fan of your work
Thank you for all the hardwork you put in to make such high quality videos. It's really addictive.
Well done 👍
South West Trains just short of Clapham for more than an hour 🙄
There's an international ticket office at Sirkeci Station which is handy if you're staying in central Istanbul and you want to buy tickets in advance without having to go out to Halkalı just to do that.
Please cover some more Indian trains.🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
That livery reminds me of the North Korean flag. Not good.
We were on a sleeper train from Hamburg to Stockholm in June this year which should have arrived in the latter city at 09:10. We finally arrived at 16:40, so 7 1/2 hours late! There was almost no food, although they did give us breakfast of a sort, and then later, when my husband went to enquire, gave us a much better breakfast which we suspected was what the customers in the couchette and seated cars normally had to pay for. We were very unimpressed, especially as our 30 hours or so in Stockholm were reduced to about 24.
Direct car… Istanbul Sikerci- Beograd. Stranded all day in Sofia. We was arrived at Bg next noon, correctly at evening previous day.
Please try the vande bharat train of India ❤. The train is the indias first semi high speed train and is domestically manufactured in india🇮🇳 . Ppease try the Saffron vamde bharat train of India . Hope it will be worthful for you 😊
this mega-delay makes trenitalia look extremely on-time
You cannot book a sleeping car with an interrail pass
The stepfree coaches look pretty stepfull
Maybe you don`t have the information, but the tracks between Elin Pelin and Kostenets in Bulgaria, are in a reconstruction and renovation, also like Sofia and Plovdiv main stations and railway passes through the cities. Most of the new line between Sofia and Plovdiv will be on a completly new track, with 14 tunnels and more than 30 bridges, with significantly lower gradient, allowing speeds up to160 km/h and more. Delays are big right now, because of the construction. But, when it`s finished, the travel time between Istanbul and and Sofia will be decreased with a big amount of time.
Significant delays? Twice on the VLine Melbourne – Albury service (Australia). Train leaves Melbourne at 6:00 PM and should get to my stop about 8:20 PM. A locomotive fault the first time and a tresspasser on the tracks the second time caused me to get home after midnight. And I had work in the morning too! 😪
I love that kitty !! Looking sleepy & adorable !! 😍 I'd love to visit Turkey !!👍👍💜🥁🐉🎤🎶✈️🇹🇷🚈💕💞
Nice train, price seems good also a trip like that on the Amtrak in the US is costing 4 times as much
Nice Communist loco that picked up the train at the border
I just chatted with a very nice ,beautiful Turkish lady ( she lives here ,my neighbour ) & her gorgeous niece ( about 4 years old ? ) a few days ago ! I really want to visit Turkey 🇹🇷 someday soon !!! They drink lots of tea like me !! Lol. Turkey is No.1Tea consumption country !! Lots of nice cafes in Istanbul !! The beginning scenery was beautiful 😍 💕
Wow ! Yes, a spacious room !! 👍
One thing that I didn't like about Turkish sleeper trains is that there was a lot of noise coming up the sink. Seemed like they had failed to install a u-bend (or trap) in the sink. Did you experience the same?
I once took that train when the line between Halkalı and Kapıkule was under construction. Our through-car missed the connecting train in Dimitrovgrad. Hence we made it to Plovdiv even later than you did, and I had to take a bus to reach Sofia to get my connecting train. But I experienced even worse delays elsewhere – one instance of cable theft and one instance of train derailment…
Are you travelling superlab
Excellent video! 1. My biggest delay was over 8 hours by RegioJet between Vienna and Budapest due to severe weather conditions and damaged tracks. 2. I think these Turkish sleepers might have been manufactured and / or designed in Hungary cos quite a few features are very familiar and we do produce similar looking carriages for Egypt. But this is just guessing around. Thank you for the great vid!
the longest delay in my experience I think was around 70 something hours, but that was on a very long journey… (Tbilisi to Samarqand via a cross-Caspian ferry), so this was not so much percentage wise,
as a percentage, probably a little over 850% of the journey time was the longest delay I faced…. that being in the very very far north. (was on technically a local train)
nice trip, but camera quality is kinda poor…
This train looks so dirty !
Amtrak, 6 hour delays.
Great trip, wait no compensation for this big delays? I think the scanner use for detecting suspicious thing hiding on the train.
A great movie! I hope you like it in Bulgaria! The delay is mainly due to the modernization of the route from Sofia to Plovdiv!