France24 English’s “Talking Europe” show discussed night trains in Europe this week, with Catherine Nicholson moderating a discussion with MEPs Jakop Dalunde (Greens-EFA, Sweden) and Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania). Given that Jakop is one of the MEPs who already supports Trains for Europe, his comments are very much in line […]
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What’s an appropriate level of ambition for a project about night trains in Europe?
My earlier post about new night train company Midnight Trains has drawn quite some critique – that having ambitious goals is all very well (people even cited Elon Musk), and that even including a Paris-Edinburgh train in the plans is hence fine. All that is needed is a bit of […]
Read MoreMidnight Trains – we wish them well, but where are the carriages needed going to come from?
A new night train company has launched today. Paris-based Midnight Trains has launched with a very slick website, and promises a deluxe night train experience – private compartments with showers. The renderings are all soft furnishings and are akin to a smart hotel. RTL news has a report about the […]
Read MoreRolling stock for a new night train: even SBB and ÖBB have plenty of difficulties
As we reported yesterday, Swiss railways SBB are keen to increase their night train offer. But they, like every other player in this market, have the same rolling stock problems to overcome as anyone else. In this post we are going to look at the new NightJet service due to be launched […]
Read MoreSBB boss Vincent Ducrot talks about the future of night trains to/from Switzerland
Tagesanzeiger Sonntagszeitung features a long interview with boss of Swiss Railways SBB Vincent Ducrot – you can read the whole interview here (free registration required). The headline strikes us as slightly off. “Nachtzüge werden nie profitabel sein” “Night trains will never be profitable” he says. Perhaps he ought to have a […]
Read MoreThe future of night trains in Iberia
Trains for Europe – at least initially – focuses on night trains on standard gauge lines in Europe. That means that for the Iberian peninsula different solutions are needed. In this guest post, João Cunha explains the current situation with cross-border Portugal-Spain night trains, and proposes a way forward. […]
Read MoreBaWü Transport Minister Hermann is right – “rail isn’t always a viable alternative” – not yet anyway
How Germany makes the transition to a carbon neutral economy is becoming a major topic in the election campaign for September’s Bundestag election. The extent to which banning or stopping certain behaviours is legitimate, or whether persuading people to change their behaviour is a better route, is a central issue. […]
Read MoreVon der Leyen promises €85bn for sustainable transport – night train rolling stock would be an ideal use for it!
Speaking in the European Parliament earlier this week, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen set out some details of European Union Member States’ post-COVID national recovery and resilience plans, and gave some details of the scale of the budget for transport: Let me give you some figures. […]
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