Europe's night trains in 2027: new routes, lost routes
Paris lost its sleepers and got one back, Brussels to Milan started in September, and a lie-flat startup leaves Hamburg in March. Where you can actually sleep your way across Europe next year, and what it costs.
Night trains are having the strangest year of their revival. A string of routes vanished from the map around December 2025, including both of Paris’s Nightjets and a Basel to Malmö service that had already sold tickets. At the same time a Dutch-Belgian cooperative has launched two new lines in six months, a Berlin startup is selling lie-flat seats for March 2027, and ÖBB has opened bookings a year ahead. If you are planning Europe for 2027 and would rather sleep than fly, this is the map as it stands on 16 October 2026.
What disappeared, and why
ÖBB’s Paris to Vienna and Paris to Berlin Nightjets ran their last trains in mid-December 2025. They were about 70% full. The French government withdrew the roughly €10 million a year that kept SNCF in the partnership, and without a French partner the trains could not run. Germany contributed nothing to routes that spent most of their kilometres on German track.
The pattern repeated in Switzerland. SBB’s Basel to Copenhagen and Malmö EuroNight was due to start on 15 April 2026, three nights a week, with tickets on sale from November. The Swiss Parliament cut the night train subsidy in its winter session and SBB refunded everyone. In Sweden, SJ’s Stockholm to Berlin sleeper ended at the end of August 2026 after its own funding went.
The Vienna and Munich to La Spezia Nightjets are suspended through 2026 for track works, with no word yet on 2027. The lesson is not that night trains don’t work. It is that a seat on a sleeper sells once a night where a plane seat sells five times a day, so the economics lean on public money, and public money moves.
What arrived in 2026
Paris to Berlin, via Brussels. European Sleeper picked up the route ÖBB dropped and started on 26 March 2026, three times a week in each direction, without a subsidy. Fares were advertised from €49 to €59 for a couchette berth. It is not fast. It is the only direct sleeper between the two capitals.
Brussels to Milan. The cooperative’s third route started on 9 September 2026, delayed from June by track works and Swiss certification. It runs three nights a week each way through Cologne, into Switzerland, then down the Gotthard to Lugano, Como and Milano Porta Garibaldi, about 17 hours end to end. From the December timetable change it adds stops at Antwerp, Breda and Eindhoven, and the departure days shift to Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday southbound, Monday, Wednesday and Friday northbound. A shared Classic berth starts at €59.99 and a private compartment at €209.99. Direct Amsterdam coaches are promised for 2027. Barcelona, delayed since 2025, is now listed by the operator as “2027 or 2028”.
Europe’s railways switch to the new year’s timetable on the second Sunday of December. Days of operation, stops and even routings change on that date. If you’re booking for January or later, check the operator’s page after the switch rather than a blog post written before it, including this one.
What’s coming in 2027
Nox, Hamburg to Munich, from 23 March 2027. This is the one people will talk about. Nox Mobility, a Berlin startup co-founded by the railway YouTuber Thibault Constant, unveiled its first carriage at InnoTrans in September and opened sales. The first scheduled service leaves Hamburg on 23 March 2027 around 21:20, calls at Bremen and Augsburg, and reaches Munich a little after 08:00, three nights a week each way at first, with daily running planned later. The launch product is a business-class style suite: a seat that folds into a two-metre lie-flat bed behind a sliding door, 30 to a carriage, from €65 one way. Children under four travel free. There is no dining car. You pre-order meals to your seat. Fully private rooms, from €79 single and €149 double, are planned for 2028, and the company talks about 100 cities on 35 lines by 2035. Treat that last number as ambition.
Berlin to Stockholm, every night between two operators. With SJ gone, RDC Deutschland’s Nachtexpress and Sweden’s Snälltåget share the corridor via Hamburg and Copenhagen. RDC’s EuroNight is bookable for travel from 14 December 2026, three nights a week. Snälltåget runs the other nights in season.
ÖBB Nightjet, booking a year out. ÖBB has opened 2027 bookings 360 days ahead for its own Nightjets, with partner EuroNight services following later in the autumn. From 13 December the Amsterdam to Vienna train returns to its original routing rather than via Salzburg, and the Amsterdam to Zurich train is reported to get the new-generation carriages with mini cabins. The new trains already run Hamburg to Vienna and Innsbruck, Vienna to Rome, Munich to Rome, and Amsterdam to Vienna, Innsbruck and Munich. Entry fares start around €34.90 for a seat and €54.90 for a couchette, with sleepers from about €89.90.
| Route | Operator | Status for 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Paris to Berlin via Brussels | European Sleeper | Running, 3 nights a week each way |
| Brussels to Cologne, Lugano, Como, Milan | European Sleeper | Running since 9 Sep 2026; Dutch stops from December |
| Brussels to Amsterdam to Barcelona | European Sleeper | “2027 or 2028” per the operator |
| Hamburg to Bremen, Augsburg, Munich | Nox | First train 23 Mar 2027; tickets on sale |
| Berlin to Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm | RDC Nachtexpress and Snälltåget | Bookable from 14 Dec 2026 |
| Paris to Vienna | Nightjet | Ended December 2025, no replacement |
| Basel to Copenhagen and Malmö | SBB and RDC | Cancelled before launch |
| Vienna and Munich to La Spezia | Nightjet | Suspended through 2026, 2027 unconfirmed |
Give me the train and I’ll build the day around its arrival. Breakfast near the station, somewhere to leave bags, a shower if the operator doesn’t have one, and the first proper stop at a time you’ll actually be awake for.
How to book one without regret
A night train replaces a hotel night and a flight at once, which is where the value is. It also arrives at 08:00 whether you slept or not, so the next day needs a shape that forgives that.
Add the hotel night you’re not paying and the airport transfers you’re skipping. A €65 Nox seat or a €59.99 European Sleeper berth is cheap by that sum. A €209.99 private compartment often isn’t, unless there are three of you.
For travel after 13 December 2026, wait for the new timetable to load, then book. Nightjet opens 360 days out. European Sleeper’s December pattern differs from its September one.
Couchettes sleep four to six strangers. A Nox suite is a seat that becomes a bed, with a door. Nightjet mini cabins are solo pods. If you can’t sleep with noise, pay for the door.
Arrivals cluster around 08:00 to 11:00. Put the big stop after lunch and keep the morning for coffee, a bag drop and a walk.
Earplugs, a mask, water, something warm. Nox has no dining car, and most couchette cars sell little beyond breakfast.
Night trains are still worse than flying on two counts, and better on none of the lazy ones. They are slower by hours, not minutes, and they are cancellable by a budget vote. Basel to Malmö proved that tickets in hand mean nothing if a parliament changes its mind. European Sleeper’s Barcelona train has been “next year” since 2024. Book refundable where you can, and if the trip hinges on one route, hold a Plan B flight in your head. Airlines, for all their faults, don’t lose a route because a transport minister retired.
The upside is real too. Europe’s new flight rules from October 2027 oblige an airline that cancels on you to consider a train as rerouting, so the sleeper network is about to become the fallback as well as the choice. If one of these routes is pulling you toward a particular city, the 2027 destination lists have several on them.
Is the Paris to Berlin night train running in 2027?
Yes, operated by European Sleeper via Brussels, three nights a week in each direction, since 26 March 2026. ÖBB’s version ended in December 2025 and is not coming back.
Can I book Nox now?
Yes. Sales opened in September 2026 for travel from 23 March 2027, Hamburg to Munich via Bremen and Augsburg, from €65 one way. Private rooms are a 2028 product.
Are night trains cheaper than flying?
Compare like for like. A €59.99 berth replaces a flight and a hotel night, which usually wins. A €209.99 private compartment for one does not. Prices rise as the train fills, so the early fares are the cheap ones.
Do I need a reservation with a rail pass?
Yes, on every sleeper. Passes cover the fare but not the berth, and the berth supplement on Nightjet or European Sleeper is often most of the price. Nox is not a pass operator at all.
- Euronews, why many night train routes are disappearing (7 Jan 2026), checked 16 Oct 2026
- RailTarget, Paris to Berlin and Vienna Nightjets end after French subsidy cut, checked 16 Oct 2026
- The Local, European Sleeper Paris to Berlin via Brussels from 26 March 2026, checked 16 Oct 2026
- VRT News, Brussels to Milan night train starts (9 Sep 2026), checked 16 Oct 2026
- European Sleeper, Milan route page (stops, fares, extra stops from December 2026), checked 16 Oct 2026
- European Sleeper, Barcelona (2027 or 2028), checked 16 Oct 2026
- Afar, Nox Mobility lie-flat sleeper from 23 March 2027, fares from €65 (13 Oct 2026), checked 16 Oct 2026
- Railway News, Nox Hamburg to Munich timetable (23 Sep 2026), checked 16 Oct 2026
- Nightride, Basel to Malmö cancelled after Swiss Parliament cut funding, checked 16 Oct 2026
- RDC Nachtexpress, Berlin to Stockholm EuroNight bookable from 14 December 2026, checked 16 Oct 2026
- Treinreiziger, Nightjet 2027 bookings open, Amsterdam to Vienna reroute and new carriages from 13 December, checked 16 Oct 2026
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