Why Europe's Night Trains Keep Multiplying Despite the Delays

Every December, rail operators across Europe roll out new schedules. The 2024 edition took effect on 10 December and created a web of overnight links where none existed before, according to The Guardian.

Warsaw moved closer to Munich. Berlin nudged towards Paris. Aachen slipped nearer to Salzburg. None of these city pairs has direct daytime trains today, so the overnight option is the only direct service. The Warsaw-bound train that left Munich on the evening of 10 December was the first direct departure from Bavaria to Poland since 2010.

That is the pattern. Night trains rarely compete with fast daytime services on the same route. They fill gaps.

What actually changed

The new Munich-Warsaw night train also opened a Salzburg to Kraków link, which takes almost 10 hours. Paris and Berlin got a direct night train back. That reinstates a link severed at the start of the pandemic, when the Russian Railways service from Paris to Berlin and Moscow ran for the last time. A Nightjet now leaves Aachen just after 9pm and arrives 10 hours later in Halle.

Elsewhere the additions are more modest. Travellers can now sleep from Dresden to Budapest, Vienna and Graz, three cities that already had daytime trains from Dresden. In France, Béziers and Montpellier gained a direct link with Paris on some nights, even though the fastest TGVs cover Montpellier to Paris in a little more than three hours. The Aurillac-Paris overnight has no competing daytime train. French night trains offer no sleeping cars, only reclining seats or couchettes, with fares from €19 for seats and €29 for couchettes, The Guardian reported.

Cat Jones, CEO of flight-free operator Byway Travel, told The Guardian: “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.”

The carbon argument, and its catch

Night trains also carry a green pitch. The Rail Delivery Group said in February 2024 that on average across the top 100 British business travel routes, a diesel or petrol car produced nine times more carbon than going by train. A battery electric car was almost two-and-a-half times more polluting. Edinburgh to London Kings Cross emits 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.

Campaigners pointed out the awkward part: fares on some of the greenest routes are not cheaper than driving. A single LNER fare on Edinburgh to London Kings Cross was £183 without pre-booking, though advance tickets cost much less. Average fuel for a small petrol car over the 400 miles was roughly £50. Rail fares in England were due to rise by 4.9%.

Michael Solomon Williams of Campaign for Better Transport said: “Travelling by train is always greener than driving, and it's getting even greener as more rail routes are electrified.” He added that the priority now is making it cheaper.

The night train revival is real, but it is not a single story. Some routes are new, some are restored, some are simply extra options on corridors that already had daytime service. The green case is stronger than the price case.