Over the past few years, much has been made about the renaissance of the European night train. A while back, I gave sleeper trains’ newfound head of steam a shout-out in a broader story on the healthy status of European rail back in early 2020 — right before the travel world was turned upside down by the pandemic.
For those who are just tuning in, overnight train services in Europe — once commonplace and very famous indeed thanks partly to services like the legendary Orient Express — had become all but extinct by the mid-2010s. Then, just when it looked like night trains were down for the count, a remarkable thing happened: a rising desire for greener travel options coincided with plucky Austrian national rail operator OBB’s reinvigoration of its Nightjet line to set the stage for a comeback.
Before the pandemic, seemingly every month brought an announcement from OBB about a new Nightjet service or news about an upstart competitor intending to ride in their tailwinds.
