It feels like shiny new sleeper train routes have been popping up all over Europe over the last couple of years, and one of the most exciting of these was Nightjet’s Berlin to Brussels service, which launched in late 2023.
But despite just over a year in operation, currently with three services each week, the route has sadly been axed. It’ll hit the tracks for the very last time this week before stopping indefinitely at the end of the month on March 28.
The route’s closure was first reported by all-things-rail expert The Man in Seat 61, who wrote that ‘a combination of difficult-to-bypass late-notice trackwork in Germany and (no doubt) the fact that it now runs on the same 3 days of the week as the European Sleeper mean they seem to have given up.’
The Nighjet service takes 14 hours to travel between the two cities and was tipped to be big competition for the European Sleeper when it first launched in late 2023. However, as The Man in Seat 61 mentions, the European Sleeper seems to offer a more efficient service – an impressive feat for a rail start-up that launched a good seven years after Nightjet.
Recommended: I rode the new European Sleeper train to Berlin – here’s what I thought
Much like Nightjet’s route, the service runs between Berlin’s Ostbahnof and Hauptbahnhof stations to Bruxelles Midi on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and last year it was extended to Dresden and Prague.
So, all is not lost. If you’re travelling between Berlin and Brussels from next week and are keen to give a sleeper train a go, European Sleeper’s service has tickets starting at €79.
Did you see that eight European cities with the best public transport have been named by Time Out?
Plus: Finland is named the world’s happiest country for the eighth year running – here’s why.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out Travel newsletter for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world.