Will the Paris-Berlin night train survive?

DW (English)

For this night train from Paris, it will soon be the end of the line. Though a resurrection is in sight. Budget cuts, no more subsidies… and suddenly a low-carbon alternative to flying just disappears.

Transcript

00:00People are turning up to European train station in pyjamas, but why?

00:04To protest the end of the Berlin-Paris night train.

00:07At Paris-Gardelais train station the night jet to Berlin runs a few times a week.

00:11You leave in the evening and wake up in Berlin the next morning.

00:15It's a low carbon alternative to flying.

00:17But in December this year the service is being scrapped.

00:19This journey was one of the last runs before the night jet disappears from the timetable.

00:24So why do people choose the night train in the first place?

00:27I find it even better than flying, the beds are really comfy.

00:32It's better for the environment, simple as that.

00:34So why is a train being cancelled?

00:37From 2026 the French government is ending roughly 10 million euros a year in subsidies and operators

00:42say the route just isn't economically viable without that support.

00:46The decision sparked a backlash, campaigners in France and Germany held pyjama party protests

00:51and tens of thousands of people signed petitions to save the night trains.

00:56But it might not be the end of the Paris-Berlin night train.

00:59A Dutch-Belgian cooperative called European Sleeper says it will revive the route from

01:04March 2026.

01:06The night train could live on, just under a different name.

01:09Arrival in Berlin's central station.

01:11No security lines, no baggage claim, just straight into the city center.

01:16But on this journey the night jet was cancelled halfway due to track work.

01:21Things continued on a morning ICE and a planned 13-hour sleeper trip turned into a 19-hour

01:26rail journey, which shows how fragile night trains still are, even when everybody says they

01:31want more of them.

01:32Then...

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