You might be tempted to plan your next train adventure around the many new train routes popping up across Europe.
Europe’s geography ‘kind of reshaped’ as Paris-Berlin night train returns
11.12.2023 - 11:09 / theguardian.com
The first night train between Berlin and Paris will depart on Monday evening after a nine-year hiatus, plugging a significant gap in Europe’s increasingly comprehensive overnight rail timetable and giving a boost to travellers looking for a realistic alternative to flying.
Widely viewed as a jewel in the crown of European rail travel, the service was cancelled in 2014 despite angry protests.
Nicky Gardner, the Berlin-based co-author of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide, said the new Nightjet service was an inspiring and vital contribution to European infrastructure and integration.
“It cements the links between two European capitals which have so much business with each other, and it’s also just a lovely way to travel. You can leave Berlin in the evening and be in Paris by around 10am the next morning, then hop on a mid-morning Eurostar service and be in London by lunchtime,” she said.
The fully booked train, equipped with ordinary to deluxe sleeping compartments with individual or shared spaces, some with dedicated showers and toilets, will leave Berlin at 8.18pm on Monday evening and arrive in Paris at 10.24am, stopping along the way in Halle, Erfurt, Mannheim and Strasbourg.
ÖBB, the Austrian national railway operator, will run the service three times a week to begin with. From autumn next year, the service is expected to run daily.
Gardner said the time saved by travelling overnight was one factor that made the rail journey attractive, but in addition, night trains, which have revived in recent years, would also have the effect of opening up mainland Europe.
“It kind of reshapes the geography of Europe because time on the night train is effectively time saved. You can use the train and benefit from the time you’re sleeping, making it really worthwhile to travel across Europe.”
But she said that despite the comeback, the night train would come into its own only in the next two to three years, once orders placed for new rolling stock were fulfilled, allowing operators to obtain a sufficient number of carriages.
“ÖBB has created a very imaginative network of new night trains, with the position of Vienna cleverly exploited at the heart of it, and subject to the supply constraints I really do think that the future of the night train is very bright indeed,” she said.
Demand for tickets is high, with many on the most popular routes selling out minutes after they had gone online.
Gardner said the buzz and the demand was so considerable, that “it’s now as hard to get a place in the compartment of a deluxe sleeping car on the night train from Paris to Berlin as it is to reserve a table at Paris’s best restaurants”.
Under the new service, the western German city of Mannheim will become an ÖBB hub for
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