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Overnight sleeper train service between Berlin and Paris resumed on Monday evening after many years, with demand for the route expected to be brisk.
Half of the night train from Berlin will travel to Brussels, while the other half will head to the French capital.
The first departure on Monday was hotly anticipated in Berlin. German Transport Minister Volker Wissing and state-owned railway Deutsche Bahn chief executive Richard Lutz were expected to see it off.
Initially, the train will run three times a week, with plans to increase service to nightly by October 2024. The connection will be operated by Deutsche Bahn, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), the French state railroad SNCF and the Belgian NMBS/SNCB.
The train is part of ÖBB’s Nightjet brand.
“The new night train connections are very well booked over the holidays,” the German railway said. Only after the holidays will there be “sufficient free capacity.”
“Basically, as soon as we launch a new night train connection together with our partner railroads, there is a real boom in bookings,” Deutsche Bahn said.
Deutsche Bahn discontinued its night train service in 2014, with demand dropping and the railway’s sleeper carriages ageing
But interest in night trains has been booming in Europe in the last couple of years, especially as travellers show growing concern about climate change and high emissions from air travel.
Together with several European partner railroads, Deutsche Bahn is once again increasingly offering connections with the goal to connect 13 European cities with over a million inhabitants by night train.
