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Traveling to a European city overnight: Traveling by night train is becoming increasingly popular. But poor quality and a lack of sleeping cars cause great annoyance among passengers.
“Sleep once and already at your destination”: This is how the SBB describes a trip on the night train on its website. With the Nightjets in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) or the Euronight trains of other partner railways, passengers should experience a “climate-friendly adventure”.
Legend:
SBB travels to these destinations by night trains.
SBB
The offer is popular with customers. “The night trains have become victims of their own success,” says SBB media spokesman Reto Schärli to SRF. “SBB had 20 percent more passengers in international passenger transport in the first half of the year than before Corona.” That is very gratifying.
Broken wagons and toilets
But the quality of the night trains has declined, says Noam Schaulin. He is a member of the central board of Pro Bahn Switzerland. “You often hear about defects in the cars, non-functioning toilets,” says Schaulin. He himself was in for a nasty surprise. «I booked a sleeping car from Basel to Prague. At 5:45 a.m. I had to get off in Leipzig and change to a seat car, without explanation. »
Legend:
A sleeping compartment of the Nightjet of the Austrian Federal Railways, with which the SBB operates night trains to Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Graz and Amsterdam in cooperation.
KEYSTONE/Christian Beutler
“We are not satisfied with the quality at the moment either,” agrees Reto Schärli. Because the ordered sleeping and couchette cars are late, this is currently causing problems. SBB is working with its partners to improve the quality of night trains as quickly as possible.
Pro Bahn calls for expansion of the routes
In addition to an increase in quality, Pro Bahn demands a simplification of the booking system. “It’s unacceptable that you can’t buy your ticket in time and can’t plan because the trains aren’t unlocked,” says Schaulin. He also calls for an expansion of the routes, especially to Rome and Barcelona.
From the point of view of the SBB, however, financial means are needed for a route expansion. The adoption of the CO₂ law would have provided for the promotion of cross-border rail traffic with the help of a climate fund. However, this was rejected in the summer of 2021.
Reto Schärli also points out that night train traffic is not profitable. “They stand on the parking lot for a day after arrival and are only used again in the evening. That means higher costs overall.” Therefore, further expansion is only possible with support from the public sector.
Less bookable places for autumn holidays
With a view to the coming autumn holidays, passengers will have to reckon with fewer seats, Schärli continues. Due to the delay in the ordered wagons, older wagons have been in operation for longer, but there are problems with the revision due to delivery delays. This sometimes leads to short-term failures.
“For the autumn holidays, we reacted in such a way that we didn’t sell all of the bookable seats so that we were flexible if cars were to fail again at short notice,” explained Schärli. In this way, customers should not experience any nasty surprises.