While the SNCF will be discontinuing the Paris-Berlin/Vienna service launched just over two years ago in mid-December due to the end of the €8m-a-year state subsidy, the Paris-Berlin route will be taken over by European Sleeper from 26 March 2026, a suspension of just over three months. The Belgian-Dutch cooperative plans to open bookings on its website from 16 December, just three days after the closure of NightJet, the current night trains operated by Austrian company ÖBB in partnership with the SNCF, the Deutsche Bahn and the SNCB (for trains departing from Brussels).
3 night trains a week
European Sleeper will maintain its current schedule of three weekly rotations on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings from Paris-Est station, and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings from Berlin. The timetable will be specified at a later date depending on the train paths obtained for the entire route. " European Sleeper is currently working on coordinating timetables with the infrastructure managers in each country, and is confident that a suitable timetable will be confirmed in the coming weeks. "says the airline. Fares are expected to be close to those currently offered by NightJet, i.e. €44.90 one-way in a reclining seat, €169.90 in a 2nde class and €189.90 in 1era class. Tickets will be sold on its website www.europeansleeper.eu and not through SNCF Connect, the SNCF platform which already does not distribute NightJet trains, even though the French company is a partner. In this way, SNCF seems to be clearly favouring high speed and its partnership with Deutsche Bahn in the operation of its daily 8-hour service between the two capitals.
A route via Brussels for greater regularity and optimised load factors
On the other hand, NightJet and European Sleeper will take very different routes. While the former is heading due east towards Saarbrücken and Mannheim, the latter plans to route its night trains via Brussels, enabling it to offer six departures a week to Berlin from the Belgian capital. " This organisation makes the new Paris-Berlin connection both more economically sustainable and beneficial to the existing night train network. For UK travellers, European Sleeper will offer more weekly options to Berlin with improved journey times thanks to an easy connection with Eurostar in Brussels. "says European Sleeper.
A call for funding from individuals, organisations and companies
Operational since May 2023, European Sleeper has already carried some 230,000 passengers on its night trains currently linking Brussels to Prague via Amsterdam, Berlin and Dresden. To finance its development, and in particular the launch of its Paris-Berlin night service, the Belgian-Dutch rail cooperative is offering €1.3 million in new shares plus a further €1 million at the beginning of December, with investors able to invest as little as €140. This new round of funding should enable the company to increase its shareholder base, which currently stands at around 6,000. European Sleeper has other route projects in the pipeline, one linking Amsterdam/Brussels to Switzerland and Milan, and above all its Amsterdam-Barcelona route (with no stopover in France), which is one of 10 cross-border service projects financed by the European Commission.
