Hopping on a sleeper train in Europe is a no-brainer. It’s a comfortable, affordable and environmentally friendly way to zip through dozens of countries, from Spain to Estonia, on the mainland with ease.
It’s a shame, then, for train enthusiasts and European travellers, that a much-loved sleeper service is being permanently rested from mid-December. Earlier this week, Austrian national rail company ÖBB announced that the end of the line is coming for the Vienna-Paris and Berlin-Paris night trains.
It said in a statement that the two Nightjet routes were being cut because of funding withdrawal from the French government, as they can only operate ’with the participation of international partners.’
There are still a few weeks until the sleeper routes grind to a halt from December 14. So if you’re looking to mooch around Paris quarter Ménilmontant, one of ’s coolest neighbourhoods in the world this year, before soaking up history in Vienna’s Museumsquartier or party at legendary Berlin club Berghain and curing your hangover at a Parisian patisserie, book your tickets now.
Are other Nightjet services still running?
ÖBB confirmed that the Vienna-Brussels route will be unaffected by the cuts and will continue to operate three times a week in 2026.
Sadly, it’s not the first time Nightjet has been forced to scale back its routes. In March, it announced that the Berlin to Brussels service, which launched in late 2023, had been axed.
The route’s closure was first reported by all-things-rail expert The Man in Seat 61, who wrote that ‘a combination of difficult-to-bypass late-notice trackwork in Germany and (no doubt) the fact that it now runs on the same 3 days of the week as the European Sleeper mean they seem to have given up.’
Currently, you can board Nightjet trains – where you can catch your Zs in a sleeper, couchette or day coach – in multiple other European hotspots such as Zagreb, Florence and Amsterdam. Long live European sleeper trains.
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