European Sleeper saves Berlin-Paris night train from being scrapped

European Sleeper has announced that it will take over Nightjet’s Berlin-Paris night train services, which were set to be scrapped this December. The Oui au train de nuit petition group is celebrating a “partial victory”.

European Sleeper to take over Berlin-Paris Nightjet

European Sleeper, a Belgian-Dutch sleeper train company, has announced that it will take over running Nightjet’s night train services between Berlin and Paris. Nightjet’s Berlin-Paris night train was launched in 2023 and is currently run by the Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB) night train service, in partnership with French national railway SNCF and Deutsche Bahn.

The route is highly popular, running with an average occupancy rate of 70 percent and a peak occupancy rate of 90 percent during the summer. Nonetheless, in October, Nightjet announced that the route would be axed from December 14, after the French government said it would withdraw funding.

Now, European Sleeper has announced that it will take over running trains on the route from March 2026. The international company will run three trains per week departing from Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Berlin Ostbahnhof on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and three return services per week departing from Paris Gare du Nord on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings.

“I think Nightjet’s existing market will certainly be interested in travelling on European Sleeper,” Chris Engelsman of European Sleeper told the Guardian. The European Sleeper trains will also have greater capacity. “ÖBB operates 12 coaches from Paris, but it splits to Vienna and then Berlin,” Engelsman explained. “[W]e have 12 to 14 coaches that will run entirely to Berlin, with a capacity of 600 to 700 passengers.”

Oui au train de nuit celebrates “partial victory”

Following the October announcement that the French government would withdraw funding for the Nightjet service, the Oui au train de nuit (Yes to Night Trains) group launched a petition against the decision.

The petition called on SNCF, ÖBB and Deutsche Bahn to deliver previous promises to run a daily night connection between the capitals. It also requested that the French government continue to subsidise the service and that the EU scrap taxes on fuel for international train services, as it does for flights.

The group managed to gather 91.000 signatures from people in favour of keeping the Nightjet service running past December 14. Nicolas Forien, a spokesperson for Oui au train de nuit said the European Sleeper’s announcement was a “partial victory” for petitioners.