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TRAIN TRAVEL

REVEALED: The best night trains running through Germany

From Sylt to Salzburg or Dresden to Stockholm, there are lots of amazing night train trips you can take to and from Germany.

Published: 8 June 2022 17:22 CEST
To women in a couchette on the night train from Sylt to Salzburg.
To women in a couchette on the night train from Sylt to Salzburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/RDC AUTOZUG Sylt GmbH | Lars Franzen

If you’ve caught the train travel bug with the €9 ticket this summer, you may be pleased to find out that you can go even further afield on a variety of night trains (though not with the €9 ticket since that only covers public transport!).

Though Germany’s main train provider, Deutsche Bahn, put their night trains on ice back in 2016, there are plenty of other train providers whose sleeper trains offer a green alternative to flying for European city breaks.

ÖBB Nightjets 

When Deutsche Bahn stopped running night trains back in 2016, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) stepped in to fill the gap with its own Nightjet service.

ÖBB is currently the night train market leader in Germany and operates ten routes through Germany, with stops including Wroclaw, Milan, Rome, Venice, Vienna and Zurich.

A Nightjet train stands on the track at the main station in Vienna in 2021.

A Nightjet train stands on the track at the main station in Vienna in 2021. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/APA | Georg Hochmuth

At the start of 2022, they introduced the Zurich – Cologne – Amsterdam, and Vienna – Munich – Paris routes.

The routes Berlin – Brussels, and Berlin – Paris are planned for the end of 2023, and Zurich – Barcelona is planned for 2024.

READ ALSO: Could rail passengers soon see direct trains from the UK to Germany?

Prices range from the economy fare, for just a seat, from as little as €30 (if you book well in advance) to around €200 for a couchette (a semi-private or private compartment with beds) with a shower and toilet.

Green Citytrip Trains

Dutch newcomer, Green Citytrip, opened new night train lines this year and offers long-distance trains from Cologne to Milan, Bologna, Florence, Bolzano, Verona, Venice, Salzburg, Linz, and Vienna.

From Bad Bentheim, a Green Citytrip train will get you to Copenhagen, Malmö, and Gothenburg, and from Dortmund you can travel directly to Prague.

From the Greencity Trip website: https://greencitytrip.de/de/

It’s currently not possible to book a one-way ticket, and the prices shown on the Citytrip website are for round trips of five days: departing on the first day of travel in the evening and arriving back in Germany on the fifth travel day in the morning. Current prices for a round trip start at €189.

From Sylt overnight to Salzburg

Another privately operated night train with sleeping and couchette cars is the Alpen-Sylt-Nachtxpress.

The train usually runs on Thursdays and Saturdays from Sylt to Salzburg and Constance, and on Fridays and Sundays in the opposite direction. It makes stops in Niebüll, Husum, Hamburg, Hanover, Göttingen, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, and Munich, among other places. Timetables and the complete route network are available on the train line’s website.

An economy price seat booked in advance can get you all the way from Sylt to Salzburg for just €29, while the cheapest sleeping option is €39. Women passengers can reserve their individual couchette in the ladies’ compartment at no extra charge.

READ ALSO: What is Sylt and why is it terrified of Germany’s €9 holidaymakers?

Snälltåget

This Swedish train operator rolls from Berlin and Hamburg via Denmark to Sweden. The night train leaves Berlin in the evening and travels via Hamburg, the Copenhagen region, Öresund and Malmö up to Stockholm. According to the timetable, the journey takes around 19 hours.

Snälltåget train route taken from the Snälltåget website: https://www.snalltaget.se/en/destinations

Starting in 2022, there will also be selected services running from Dresden to Stockholm and vice versa. 

Prices vary depending on the ticket (private compartment, comfort reclining seat, normal seat). The compartment is around €300 each way and normal seats cost at least €50.

Are Deutsche Bahn likely to relaunch their night trains?

Deutsche Bahn no longer has its own couchettes, but it does offer nighttime IC and ICE connections with seats. Among other destinations, these trains take passengers from Rostock and Waren (Müritz) overnight directly to Vienna. From Kiel, the trains go via Osnabrück to Munich, and from Hamburg there are direct connections to Copenhagen, Basel, and Zurich.

READ ALSO: Five lesser known German summer destinations to visit this year

For now, it seems that Deutsche Bahn doesn’t seem to have plans to relaunch its trains with sleeping facilities, but rather to cooperate with other railway companies such as ÖBB,  Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), France’s SNCF, and Dutch company Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS). 

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TRAVEL NEWS

Germany begins expanded border checks to limit migrant arrivals

Germany from Monday is expanding border controls to the frontiers with all nine of its neighbours to stop irregular migrants in a move that has sparked protests from other EU members.

Published: 16 September 2024 09:07 CEST
Germany begins expanded border checks to limit migrant arrivals

The government announced the sweeping measure following a string of deadly extremist attacks that have stoked public fears and boosted support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Sunday said that the step aimed to limit irregular migration and “put a stop to criminals and identify and stop Islamists at an early stage”.

The border controls will be in place for an initial six months and are expected to include temporary structures at land crossings and spot checks by federal police.

Poland and Austria have voiced concern and the European Commission has warned that members of the 27-nation bloc must only impose such steps in exceptional circumstances.

Germany lies at the heart of Europe and borders nine countries that are part of the visa-free Schengen zone, designed to allow the free movement of people and goods.

Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the crackdown was announced.

These will now be expanded to Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Faeser said the government hoped to minimise the impact on people living and working in border regions, promising “coordination with our neighbouring countries”. She also pointed out that there should be “targeted controls, not blanket controls”.

The interior ministry however noted that travellers should carry identification when crossing the border.

READ ALSO: How Germany’s increased border checks will affect travel from neighbouring countries

‘Islamist attacks’

In recent weeks, a string of extremist attacks have shocked Germany, fuelling rising public anger.

Last month, a man on a knife rampage killed three people and wounded eight more at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

The Syrian suspect, who has alleged links to the Islamic State group, had been intended for deportation but managed to evade authorities.

The enforcement failure set off a bitter debate which marked the run-up to two regional polls in the formerly communist east, where the anti-immigration AfD scored unprecedented results.

With national elections looming next year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has been under intense political pressure to toughen its stance on migrants and asylum seekers.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn 

Scholz was in Uzbekistan on Sunday to sign a migration deal for workers to come to Germany, while simplifying deportation procedures in the opposite direction so that “those that must go back do go back”, the chancellor said.

Closer to home, the German government has presented plans to speed up deportations to European partners.

Under EU rules, asylum requests are meant to be handled by the country of arrival. The system has placed a huge strain on countries on the European periphery, where leaders have demanded more burden-sharing.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Germany tightening its borders means that it would “essentially pass the buck to countries located on the outer borders of Europe”.

Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said his country “will not accept people who are rejected from Germany”, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned Germany’s move as “unacceptable”.

‘Welcome to the club’

Warsaw has also struggled with migration and accused Moscow of smuggling people from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by sending them through Belarus to the Polish border.

Berlin on Friday said that Tusk and Scholz had discussed the issue and agreed to strengthen EU external borders, “especially in view of the cynical instrumentalisation of migrants by Belarus”.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, meanwhile, mocked the German chancellor on social media site X, writing: “Bundeskanzler Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration.”

Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-16, many of them Syrians, and has hosted over a million Ukrainians since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.

The extra burden on municipal authorities and integration services in Germany needed to be “taken into account” when talking about new border controls, Berlin’s interior ministry said.

In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Friday unveiled the country’s strictest migration policy yet, saying it will request an opt-out from EU common policy on asylum next week.

A four-party coalition dominated by far-right firebrand Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party wants to declare an “asylum crisis” to curb the influx of migrants through a tough set of rules including border controls.

By Raphaelle LOGEROT with Celine LE PRIOUX in Berlin

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