Europe’s Night Train Revolution: What Really Happened🚆

[Makomo]

The ambitious Midnight Trains project, aimed at creating luxury night trains across Europe, has been halted due to insurmountable challenges in securing financing and navigating the complex European rail market, which heavily favors state-owned operators. Despite a growing demand for sustainable overnight travel as an alternative to short-haul flights, new entrants face significant obstacles, including securing rolling stock and dealing with bureaucratic hurdles. While there are some success stories like European Sleeper, the broader revolution in European night trains is struggling to take off without stronger support and reforms from the EU .

 

[Tanjiro.Kamado]

The ambitious Midnight Trains project, aimed at creating luxury night trains across Europe, has been halted due to insurmountable challenges in securing financing and navigating the complex European rail market, which heavily favors state-owned operators. Despite a growing demand for sustainable overnight travel as an alternative to short-haul flights, new entrants face significant obstacles, including securing rolling stock and dealing with bureaucratic hurdles. While there are some success stories like European Sleeper, the broader revolution in European night trains is struggling to take off without stronger support and reforms from the EU .

Totally feel you on this! It's such a bummer that projects like Midnight Trains get stuck in the mud when there's such a buzz around sustainable travel —makes me wish the EU would step up their game and help these ideas take off!