The Paris-Berlin night train line will be reborn before it even stops. This Wednesday, RTL reported that the Belgian-Dutch cooperative will resume operation of the line next March, three months after its closure.
On 29 September, the Austrian railway company ÖBB announced the discontinuation of the Vienna-Paris and Berlin-Paris night trains on 14 December, just two years after the opening of the line between the German and French capitals, after the French government decided to end the financial assistance provided to the line.
“The state, as shareholders, requires us to make a profit, and we can only achieve this through great efforts. The state cannot demand that we operate a loss-making service just for a beautiful symbol, even if it is a beautiful symbol,” an SNCF official said in Le Monde.
User associations strongly criticized this choice. Soon after rumors of the elimination of the night train line began, a demonstration with pajamas and cute toys was organized on September 26 at the Gare de l’Est in Paris.
Participatory campaign
Therefore, European Sleeper, a cooperative based in the Netherlands, famous for its Brussels-Prague night line, will take control of the Paris-Berlin connection, with a line via Brussels to attract more people. The existing line already has a fairly high occupancy rate, namely 70%, with 66,000 people transported, our colleagues said.
On its website, the company announced a “third crowdfunding campaign” to help it “revive the historic night train line between Paris and Berlin by the end of March 2026.” “We are a cooperative financed by our members. Anyone who wants to contribute to the relaunch of night trains in Europe can become a shareholder,” said Anne Dubost, RTL strategy director.
Tickets, priced from 40 euros, will go on sale from December 16.
