Fans of overnight trains with sleeping cars can breathe easy (or snore through the night, for some). Austrian Railways has taken up the torch dropped last year when Germany's operator, DB, cancelled all its sleeper runs, saying they were losing money on the routes.
Austria's rail bosses obviously didn't buy the idea that sleepers are dead; they invested €40 million to buy 42 trains from DB, which had operated them under the City Nightline brand, and refurbish them. Rebranded as Nightjet, they are now opening several lines, and looking to expand, and possibly buy new trains if the service proves popular.
Among the new routes is Berlin-Vienna, leaving at 6:40 pm and arriving in Vienna just before 7 am. Other routes include Hamburg to Zurich and Munich to Rome via Salzburg. Other routes under consideration include Berlin-Budapest, and Berlin-Krakow, a route that hasn't had direct service, day or night, since 2012 despite growing demand.
Austrian Railways recognizes that low-cost airlines have changed the picture for sleeper service, but it believes that there is a market of travelers who'd rather not take on the airport and travel to it, and will chalk up the higher price against saving the cost of a hotel room. And there are those who just love the trains.
Austrian Railways thinks it can do well with those markets; spokesperson Bernhard Rieder told TheLocal.de that “It is not our goal to compete with each and every carrier."
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