No more night trains between Brussels and Berlin
© Belga
The Nightjet night trains of the Austrian railway company ÖBB will no longer connect with the German capital Berlin from the end of this month. On March 27 the offer will disappear, according to the website for international train journeys of the NMBS.
ÖBB launched the night train between Brussels and Berlin in December 2023 with three outs and backs per week. The Austrians thus competed with the Dutch-Belgian railway company European Sleeper, who has been putting night trains between the two capitals since May that year.
Initially, it was intended to boost the frequency of the nightjet from the fall of 2024 into a daily connection. In October – after the connection was suspended by Spoorwerken in Germany for eleven weeks – however, it turned out that it would not come to that: it remained the same with three connections per week, which also received other departure days, the same as that of European Sleeper.
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The competition seems to be settled, now that ÖBB is throwing in the towel. The Nightjet between Brussels and the Austrian capital Vienna, a connection that has been around since the beginning of 2020, continues to ride for the sake of clarity.
The Nightjet to Berlin leaves on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and drives in the other direction on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Along the way the train still has stops in Liège, Aachen, Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz, Mainz and Halle.
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The European Sleeper has a different route via the Netherlands. The train currently stops in Antwerp, Roosendaal, Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Amersfoort and Deventer before he reaches Berlin after departure in Brussels. In March last year, the route was extended to the Czech Prague, including a stop in Dresden.
© EPAFE
