Nightjet also goes to Brussels
The Berlin – Paris night train is back
December 11, 2023, 5:43 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
In 2014, Deutsche Bahn stopped offering night trains – due to low demand. Almost ten years later, sleeping cars are back on the rails. And there is a “real booking boom”.
In the sleeping car from Berlin to Paris – for the first time in many years, the connection, which is popular not only with rail romantics, is back on the Deutsche Bahn timetable. The first train towards Paris and Brussels will leave the federal capital on Monday evening, the railway announced. One half of the train travels overnight to the French capital, the other to the Belgian capital. Railway boss Richard Lutz and Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing are expected to say goodbye to the train.
With the big timetable change on Sunday, the railway has offered the connection again. In the future, the night train will run from Berlin to Brussels and Paris three times a week. From October 2024, the so-called Nightjet will be on the move every day. The connection is operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), the French state railway SNCF and the Belgian NMBS/SNCB.
When asked by Deutsche Bahn, demand is high. “The new night train connections are very well booked over the holidays.” Only then will there be “sufficient free capacity” again. “Basically, as soon as we start a new night train connection together with our partner railways, there is a real booking boom.”
New night trains also from Hamburg
In 2014, the railway stopped offering night trains. Demand was too low back then. With the desired transport transition, i.e. the move away from fossil fuels towards more socially and ecologically sustainable modes of transport, night trains for long distances are once again becoming more important as an alternative to airplanes. Together with several European partner railways, the railway is again increasingly adding connections to its offering. The goal is to connect 13 European cities with millions of inhabitants via night trains. The Swiss Federal Railways is also involved.
A night train with more comfort has been running on the Vienna-Hamburg and Innsbruck-Hamburg routes for the first time since Sunday. As the ÖBB announced, all compartments in the sleeping car now have their own toilets and shower facilities. The sleeping cars have two seats and the couchette cars have four seats. The new train with two seated, two sleeping and three couchette cars offers 254 seats.