Europe's night train comeback: what the data actually shows

Europe's sleeper network was written off a decade ago. Airlines were cheap, high-speed rail was fast, and operators cancelled route after route. Then the direction changed. Artofthetravel.com, citing Back-on-Track, says more than 60 night train routes now run across the continent, roughly double the figure for 2020.

The same source puts the collapse in stark terms. Night trains fell from roughly 200 European routes in the 1990s to fewer than 30 by 2019, according to the European Parliamentary Research Service. That is a fall of about 85% in three decades. What followed is a partial rebuild, not a return to the old map.

Who is actually running the trains

Austria's ÖBB has been the most aggressive operator. Artofthetravel.com reports that ÖBB acquired the former Deutsche Bahn Nightjet brand in 2016, then added over 20 new route segments between 2021 and 2025, pushing from central Europe into Western Europe. Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin all came back onto the overnight map.

Passenger numbers, as reported by that site from an ÖBB press release, show ÖBB Nightjet carried 1.8 million passengers in 2023, up 40% on 2019. Other operators fill in the edges. EveryRail's guide lists ÖBB Nightjet, European Sleeper (Brussels to Berlin and Prague), Swedish SJ services running to Narvik above the Arctic Circle, and Finland's Santa Claus Express from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. Italy has InterCity Notte, France has Intercités de Nuit, and Britain has the Caledonian Sleeper and the Night Riviera, according to Trainline and Interrail.

"All these new trains across Europe are creating a real buzz at Byway. We're now able to pair places in holidays where direct trains didn't exist before," Cat Jones, CEO of flight-free operator Byway Travel, told The Guardian in December 2023.

The December 2023 timetable shift

The Guardian's slow travel expert reported on 14 December 2023 that the 2024 timetables, introduced across much of Europe on 10 December, had created several city pairs with no direct daytime alternative. Warsaw moved closer to Munich, Berlin to Paris, and Aachen to Salzburg. The first direct departure from Bavaria to Poland since 2010 left Munich on the evening of 10 December 2023. Paris and Berlin regained a direct night train, a link severed at the start of the pandemic.

Not everything improved. The Guardian noted that Aarhus lost its twice-daily direct trains to Hamburg, compensated by a connecting service every two hours with a same-platform change at Kolding. Nuremberg lost all five of its daily direct trains to the Czech Republic. In France, where Le Monde had proclaimed the night train finished in 2016, new overnight links appeared from Béziers and Montpellier to Paris, and an Aurillac-Paris service with no competing daytime train. Fares there start at €19 for a seat and €29 for a couchette, the Guardian reported.

What a berth costs, and what it replaces

EveryRail's guide gives broad price bands: reclining seats from about €39 on many routes, couchette berths around €59 to €79, and sleeper compartments from €89 to €150 or more, depending on route and how early you book. Artofthetravel.com is more careful with its figures. It describes a research range of roughly €49 to €99 for a Nightjet couchette on a medium-distance hop, and notes explicitly that it did not book mystery couchettes as a field test. Its advice: confirm the current cabin type, reservation fee and published fare on the operator page, because aggregators often hide berths that still exist on nightjet.com.

The environmental case gets quoted constantly. Artofthetravel.com says a Vienna-to-Paris sleeper emits roughly 90% less CO2 than the equivalent flight, citing the European Environment Agency. On UK domestic routes, the Rail Delivery Group published analysis in February 2024 claiming that on average across the top 100 business travel routes, a petrol or diesel car produced nine times more carbon than the train, a plug-in hybrid four times more, and a battery electric car almost two and a half times more. Edinburgh to London Kings Cross would emit 116kg of CO2 in a diesel car, 31.8kg in a battery car and 12.7kg per person by train, according to the RDG data.

The caveat came from campaigners, not the industry. Michael Solomon Williams of Campaign for Better Transport told The Guardian that rail is greener than driving and getting greener as routes are electrified, but that fares needed addressing. The Guardian noted single fares on LNER's Edinburgh to London route were £183 without pre-booking, against roughly £50 in fuel for a small petrol car over the same 400 miles.

What the booking rules mean in practice

Reservations are compulsory on all European night trains, even with a first class Interrail pass, according to Interrail.com. The pass covers the trip; the berth is a separate fee, and it rises with comfort. Artofthetravel.com frames the decision bluntly: treat the night train as a hotel replacement plus a scarce berth, not a romance product. Skip the sleeper when a daytime hop is under about four hours. Skip a seat on routes over ten hours.

For families, both EveryRail and artofthetravel.com advise booking the whole compartment rather than mixing a 6-berth couchette with children. Women-only couchettes are available on some trains, EveryRail notes, though most services default to mixed-gender compartments.

The network is bigger than it was in 2019. It is still far smaller than it was in the 1990s, and the figures behind the revival come mostly from operators and advocacy groups with an interest in the story.