In an open letter, several Transport Ministers, concerned Members of the European Parliament and organisations advocating (night) train travel in Europe, demand from the European Union and its institutes a comprehensive strategy for night train travel on the continent. 

The authors of the open letter rue a lack of clear targets and a lack of political will. The letter is addressed to Ursula von der Leyen (Germany), president of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič (Slovakia), Commissioner for Climate Action an Adina-Ioana Vălean (Romania), Commissioner for Transport. 

The open letter, verbatim:

Open letter to EU Commission President Von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President Šefčovič and Commissioner Vălean: Urgent Demand for a European Night Train Strategy

Dear President Von der Leyen, dear Executive Vice-President Šefčovič, dear Commissioner Vălean,

We, the undersigned ministers, members of Parliament, civil society organisations, and industry groups call on you to act upon the recent renaissance of night trains and present a European strategy for developing a comprehensive night train network.

Night trains are experiencing a revival throughout Europe, driven by popular demand for a climate- friendly alternative travel option. People are rediscovering night trains as a comfortable way of travelling throughout Europe, both for business trips and vacations. There is a strong public demand for a European night train network, as seven out of ten Europeans would consider shifting to traveling by night train.

European institutions are increasingly recognizing the potential of night trains, for example in the Parliament’s own-initiative report on the rail action plan as well as the Commission’s ten pilot projects to boost cross-border rail. However, the comeback of night trains is severely hampered by high track access charges, the financial risks of investing in night train rolling stock, technical barriers between Member States, no proper coordination of timetables between Member States, no long-term security of track access in the form of framework agreements, and the lack of comprehensive booking platforms.

We therefore urge you to present a European night train strategy in order to:

• allocate substantial European and national financial resources through CEF and other financial instruments to modernize the existing railway infrastructure and bridge missing links in line with the TEN-T revision, and ensure the roll-out of ERTMS. Cross-border sections should be the focus of investments;
• reduce Track Access Charges for international trains, in particular for night trains, including appropriate compensation by encouraging and enabling cooperation and standardisation between Member States;
• ensure fast and cost-effective EU-type-approval of rail rolling stock, including night trains, for use on the TEN-T rail network that has been upgraded to a common standard;
• enable more attractive loans by the European Investment Bank regardless of the applicants size and ownership structure to de-risk investments into night train rolling stock;
• liberate the exchange of data in the European railway system in accordance with the sector, facilitating the booking of tickets for night trains and connecting trains for passengers and businesses alike;
• strengthen rail passenger rights by supporting and improving existing initiatives such as ‘hop on the next available train’ (HOTNAT) and the Agreement on Journey Continuation (AJC), to also work between rail operators.

In taking these measures, we can bring back night trains in our Union, boost sustainable tourism, generate employment opportunities, strengthen our European rail industry, and provide a climate- friendly alternative travel option. A comprehensive European night train network will achieve substantial benefits for European citizens and will strengthen our European values and unity by bringing Europeans closer together.

We ask the Commission President, the Executive Vice-President of the Green Deal, and the Commissioner of Transport to show leadership in efforts to realise a greener, more interconnected Europe through a comprehensive European night train network.

Kind regards,

• Leonore Gewessler, Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, Austria;
• Georges Gilkinet, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility, Belgium;
• Francois Bausch, Minister for Mobility and Public Works, Luxembourg;
• Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, MEP, Greens/EFA, Member of TRAN Committee;
• Karima Delli, MEP, Greens/EFA, Chair of TRAN Committee;
• Jan-Christoph Oetjen, MEP, Renew, Vice-Chair of TRAN Committee;
• Barbara Thaler, MEP, EPP, Member of TRAN Committee;
• Thomas Rudner, MEP, S&D, Member of TRAN Committee;
• Dominique Riquet, MEP, Renew (Vice-Chair), Member of TRAN Committee;
• Ciaran Cuffe, MEP, Greens/EFA, Member of TRAN Committee;
• Tilly Metz, MEP, Greens/EFA, Member of TRAN Committee;
• Jakop Dalunde, MEP, Greens/EFA, Member of TRAN Committee;
• ALLRAIL (Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants in Europe);
• T&E (European Federation for Transport and Environment);
• BT4Europe (European Network of Business Travel Associations);
• CER (Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies);
• UNIFE (European Rail Supply Industry Association).

Back On Track does not co-sign the letter

Night train advocate Back On Track did not co-sign the open letter. Why not?

“We particularly welcome the fact that the open letter confirms the night trains’ possible role to lower carbon emissions by providing a comfortable alternative to flying on destinations of up to 1,500 kilometres, and possibly even more. We fully agree in emphasising the importance of solving the problem of ticketing by implementing the possibility for hopping on the next available train (HOTNAT) in case of missed connection regardless of the operator, and by exchanging data.” 

“However, the letter concludes with the words: ‘With these measures, we can reintroduce night trains in our Union’. We find this statement unfortunate as it gives the impression that the measures mentioned above are somewhat sufficient. Regrettably, this is not the case.”

Following recent research by Back On Track on the impact of measures such as a reduction of track access charges and VAT, the lobby group found that this could indeed significantly contribute to lower prices by an average 15% for existing night trains and even more on longer routes. A common European rolling stock pool could also help reduce operational costs (although to a much lesser extent than reducing track access charges). 

“But we could also see that all these cost reductions taken together – even when temporarily reducing track access charges to zero – would not be sufficient to match air transport on price.”

Blue Banana

“It would probably be enough to make commercial night trains significantly more attractive when linking destinations in densely populated high-income regions (the so-called ‘blue banana’ region, stretching from Belgium via the Ruhr and Rhine to northern Italy), perhaps also connecting these areas to a few tourist destinations.”

“However, this is not what we would understand by ‘reintroducing night trains’ (as a ubiquitous mode of transport), nor is the ‘blue banana’ our entire Union. As far as we know, in order to ‘reintroduce night trains in our Union’, one would either have to make air travel significantly more expensive or recognise that night trains cannot run without public funding.” 

The Amsterdam-Vienna route must be financed with public funds, the celebrated return of the Paris-Berlin night train was only possible with subsidies from the French government, and the planned Zurich-Barcelona route can only be resumed once the Swiss Federal Council decides to finance night trains.” 

“All of these trains connect densely populated areas with high-income regions where enough people can afford to pay significantly more to travel by night train in order to promote sustainable transport. Operators of these lines could possibly manage without subsidies if all these measures were implemented. But these trains will not take all EU citizens from Lisbon to Tallinn.”

“You only need to look at our night train map to understand that subsidies for cross-border night trains are rare for good reason. The current EU regulation on railway subsidies (whether they are granted directly or through public service obligations) lacks clarity in regulating cross-border subsidies and in defining responsibility for meeting these needs at EU level.”

“Without a regulation of cross-border public service obligations, other well-intentioned measures such as track upgrades could even lead to a decline in night train services in countries where they are currently subsidised as an alternative to slow day trains.” 

“For this reason, we discussed the matter and concluded that we should not sign. The promise made could not be kept. We would like to invite all signatories to discuss these issues with us.”

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