The Austrian federal railways (OeBB) is doing really well with night trains after the takeover. They even ordered new trains which should go into service in 2022. Really happy for this because the current rolling stock is just ancient and sleepers are a nice concept.
I'm lucky to live in a city (Hanover, Germany) on the intersection of many night train routes. Back when Deutsche Bahn operated their night trains one could travel to Amsterdam, Brussels, Warsaw, and Prague. Now with ÖBB operating them one can ride to Hamburg, Vienna, Innsbruck, and Zurich.
Some years ago I did Hanover -> Warsaw and Hanover -> Prague. It was very chaotic to board at night and all the confusion which one of the train parts goes to which end station. Clearly other passengers had the same problem. Seems to be part of the adventure. You also have to get used to sleep in those trains. When ÖBB started to operate them I did Hamburg -> Hanover to ride back home (which continues to Vienna) and Munich -> Venice.
Of course your riding experience depends on whether you book seats, beds, cabins, or just the train ride. One time when I woke up I saw the polish worker standing by the window having his first beer. I didn't even notice him enter the cabin in the middle of the night. We talked for hours. Another time I just booked the train ride and when boarding the train spend minutes to cross the compartments full of people to find a nice spot. There were even some sleeping on the floor. I was lucky to reach the Czech part of the train, which had a lot of empty seats. The ride on the tracks next to Elbe and Vltava rivers is very magical.
For the train ride to Venice I reserved a single cabin which was very comfy. And the one departing from Hamburg had a delay of 120 minutes. I entered the train a searched for a cabin and was greeted by someone who smiled at me. So I entered the cabin and had a chat with her. She told me the delay was due to ÖBB having problems with loading all the cars and motorcycles on the train, and added there seems to be a delay between 60 and 120 minutes every day, because the problems don't go away.
France brought back a bunch of national night trains. ÖBB brought back Paris-Vienna, and they have more plans. Sbb brought back Amsterdam-Zürich, also planning train to Barcelona. Sweden wants to get back into Europe (not successful yet). Poland wants to connect west again.
There's a bunch of private endeavors: berlin-Malmo-stockholm is running more often, there's a startup starting a Prag-Berlin-amsterdam-brussels service in spring '22, another older company started Alps-munich-hamburg-coast this year. There's a startup that announced all sorts of impossible routes out of Paris. Another announced brussel-berlin.
The bottom on night trains was 2017. Jon Worth probably has a bunch of opinions about that.
>New sleeper train connections are cropping up across Europe. The Austrian operator ÖBB Nightjet has overnight services to cities like Rome, Milan, Brussels and Amsterdam, and recently initiated a Vienna-Paris overnight link.
They took over the DB lines, incidentally bringing back sleeper trains from/to the Netherlands after a short absence, and I think rolling stock as well. ÖBB is certainly delivering on its promise. We took the sleeper train from Arnhem to Innsbruck and back just this month for a trip to the North of Italy (which is just two hours on the EuroCity from Innsbruck). The rolling stock is ageing a bit, but it's clean and has great service.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the fast, no-fuss refund of 25% when our return trip was delayed for 65 minutes. After alighting, on the next train, I arranged for the €80 to be refunded in just five minutes of entering the relevant details through their chat bot.
ÖBB is leading the pack on the sleeper train front though. Wien, Graz, Innsbruck, all linked up to the rest of Europe on a neat network of NightJet trains. The next generation of rolling stock for the sleeper cars looks amazing too.
The Nightjet network has reconnected to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, and OBB seems to be investing heavily. The Thelo trains from Paris-Italy have disappeared, but that was a recently opened service and frankly not very good when I rode it. When DB pulled out it looked like the end of an era, but European night trains are in better shape now than they have been for a long time, Covid notwithstanding.
The ÖBB night trains can be awesome, but the quality doesn't seem to be consistent enough yet. There were reports of over 10% of all night trains getting cancelled this summer and replaced with regular trains (with seats, no beds).
Looks like Berlin-Paris (or rather, Frankfurt-Paris) is really a missing link here (pun not intended). Good to see ÖBB pick up the slack when DB won't. When the NightJet line opens next year, that sounds like a good opportunity to visit France once again.
German Rail cancelled their night train service a few years ago, and then Austrian Rail took over and offered a proper service. As the article covers, the Germans were neglecting this service, which in turn probably lead to their poorer service and poorer uptake, and they presumably thought "well, it seems nobody likes taking night trains any more, so let's cancel them".
"There are high costs, but a lot is down to attitude, willingness and management focus," says Smith, who praises ÖBB CEO Andreas Matthä, who took over in 2016, for "making night trains wash their faces commercially."
Well that is an understatement. Last time I checked to get a night train to Vienna they started at €200 per person. You can fly there for €30.
It's nice that they're expanding, sure. But at this rate you're not going to convince the masses of going electric on their middle-distance travels.
Good news! The policy of running only "socially necessary" night trains has been reversed, and they are coming back. The Paris - Nice route has already restarted, Paris - Hendaye(for connections to Spain) and Paris to Vienna via Munich will follow in December.
Well it's not an ÖBB Night Train, it's a train operated by MAV-Start (Hungarian State Railways).
It also says when booking that it's a partner train.
Maybe do your research before complaining about the wrong company
Night trains are great! Do you have to transfer in Regensburg? There used to be a direct Prague-Amsterdam night train going through Berlin. I met some weird people on it, great times :)
I cannot understand why they aren't more night trains. For me, it's the perfect way to travel. You have your own room which you can lock and do whatever you want, you have a bed, some storage room, a table, a sink, and if you spend a little more money, you even have a shower. I enjoyed using night trains when I was single, I enjoyed them as a couple, and I enjoy them very much now as a father, as it is basically the most comfortable way to travel with small children. For inner-European travel, it is often cheaper than flying, but much more comfortable. Who cares if takes 12 hours to Kopenhagen if you are sleeping 8 of them, and relaxing on a bed with your laptop, eating breakfast or looking out of the window drinking wine for the remaining 4. You arrive fresh, relaxed, with brushed teeth and shaven and you do not have to worry about getting into town from the airport, because the train station will usually be near the town center.
The problem seems to be that their once glamorous image has been lost. At least in Europe, they have gained a somewhat dubious reputation over the last decades.
Deutsche Bahn stopped their night train services 2 years ago, they sold if off completely to the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), which now run it with a profit. Their idea? Clean up the trains, fix the reputation and attract families. As a passenger, I am happy about that, they are also planning to extend the network. As
a German, I am a bit sad that the Austrians are now running our night trains, but providing train services does not exactly seem to be the main area of expertise of Deutsche Bahn.
reply