Trains for Europe

After yesterday’s news that Basel-Malmö will not happen, today there’s news that a new night train route will open up – European Sleeper is proposing to run from Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Switzerland and Milano from June 2026.

So there will not be a Basel – Malmö night train from the spring of 2026.

In December 2023 the Paris-Berlin night train re-started after a 9 year hiatus.

A few days ago it was announced that Stadler has won the contract to supply new long distance trains to Norway.

From the start of this Trains for Europe campaign I have argued that the absence of enough couchette cars and sleeping cars is the main constraint on the expansion of night train services.

The #CrossBorderRail project that I am running as part of my wider Trains for Europe advocacy work has taken on a life of its own, and hence I am putting the main Trains for Europe site on pause between now and the start of August 2022.

When I launched Trains for Europe close to a year ago, my key demand was that the European Union organises the procurement of a fleet of new night trains.

I listened in to the Back on Track Belgium conference last week, and the founder of a startup night train company said something interesting.