The Documentary Podcast · BBC World Service

Europe's night train renaissance: Still on track?

·27 min·2 clips

Jack Butcher reveals that 10% of Europe's night trains couldn't operate in 2024, threatening the revival before it even starts.

Jack Butcher begins the episode already on the train, describing the creaking groaning of the carriage as he settles into cabin 262 of Euronight service EN 40457 from Berlin to Budapest, a 12-hour journey through the Czech Republic via Prague, Slovakia via Bratislava, and into Budapest's Nyugati station. The background to the journey is that European night trains were widely declared finished a decade ago, with Deutsche Bahn and other national operators cancelling routes and the network contracting severely. Then came a reversal. New operators including Austria's OBB Nightjet expanded routes, new cross-border routes were opened, and demand dramatically exceeded supply to the point where tickets often sell out immediately upon release. Jack asks whether this revival is real and whether it can survive. John Wirth, an independent railway consultant and pro-night train campaigner, explains the fundamental economics of a successful sleeper service. A journey of 6 to 12 hours is ideal because passengers are unlikely to make a 6-hour day trip willingly, but making it overnight converts lost time into a hotel night saved, changing the value proposition entirely. The cabin innovation discussed includes pods, private mini-cabins, and redesigned family compartments that make overnight train travel more comfortable and private than the traditional couchette. The challenges described include the fragmentation of Europe's rail infrastructure across national systems with different gauges, signaling technologies, and border inspection requirements, which create delays and operational complexity that day trains avoid. Jack describes a midnight knock on his cabin door in which an apologetic Canadian tourist was inserted as a second occupant, illustrating the social dynamics of shared overnight compartments that not everyone finds appealing. The statistic that 10% of European night trains in 2024 were unable to run at all, and that key historic routes including some in France and Germany have been cancelled despite the revival rhetoric, is presented as a cautionary note against treating the renaissance as secured.

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