There are a bunch of new sleeper train services launching across Europe this year that we’re excited to try, and France has just announced that a whole load more could be on the cards in the future.
According to RailTech.com, the French government could soon be ordering 180 new sleeper train cars (and 30 locomotives) in what would be the first large-scale investment into the country’s night train network in more than 40 years.
There are seven active domestic sleeper train routes in France right now, all departing from Paris, to Tarbes, Toulouse, Aurillac, Nice, Briançon, Latour-de-Carol, and Rodez. There are also international ones from the capital to Berlin and Vienna (not to mention new high-speed services from Paris to Madrid and Paris to Munich).
Demand for sleeper trains in France has grown significantly over the last couple of years because of a stronger focus on sustainable travel, a renewed push by the EU to restore the services as an alternative to short-haul flights, and because flying domestically has become more expensive. In 2024, the country’s sleeper services carried one million passengers, which is a 23 percent increase from 2023.
So, President Macron pledged the introduction of ‘around 10’ sleeper trains by 2030. However, while the order of 180 carriages might sound like a lot, the Climate Action Network say this new order is only enough to replace France’s aging stock, and not to expand the services.
Transport industry experts say that a minimum of 300 new sleeper cars would be needed to modernise and expand the network, and even that is still only half of the 600 recommended in a report by the Ministry of Transport in 2021.
So, why isn’t more money being put into sleeper trains? Well, it’s simply because they’re not as profitable as high-speed daytime services. Operational costs are higher, and as they can only make one round trip per day, less money is earned from ticket sales.
There’s also the issue that maintenance work on railway lines is usually carried out at night, and that freight trains tend to travel at this time, too – both of these factors push sleeper trains down the list of priorities.
For some context, the Swiss government decided that the planned NightJet sleeper service between Zurich and Barcelona wouldn’t be going ahead after all as the route was deemed too expensive.
And on top of all that, the carriages will likely take between five and eight years to be designed, manufactured and delivered.
While it’s good to learn that steps are being taken towards introducing sleeper train services, we’ll be waiting until at least 2030 for these ones to hit the tracks.
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