In an open letter addressed to European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President, Maroš Šefčovič, and Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, ministers, members of the European Parliament and industry representatives are asking for the urgent implementation of a European strategy for developing a comprehensive night train network.
As more and more travellers are looking for climate-friendly means of transport, night trains are becoming popular once more. In what the letter calls the “renaissance of night trains”, people are rediscovering night trains as a comfortable way of travelling throughout Europe, seven out of ten reportedly considering shifting to travelling by night train.
People are rediscovering night trains as a comfortable way of travelling throughout Europe, both for business trips and vacations.
Open letter to the European Commission
The EU has taken some steps to support the development of train travel across the bloc, declaring 2021 as the European Year of Rail, investing €5.4 billion to double high-speed rail use by 2030 and piloting 10 projects to boost cross-border rail connections.
However, the signatories of the letter highlight that 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.”
Stressing that a comprehensive European night train network would achieve substantial benefits for European citizens and strengthen European values and unity across the bloc by bringing people closer together, the letter puts forward a few measures that need to be taken in order to increase night trains’ appeal and accessibility:
- allocate substantial European and national financial resources through the Connecting Europe Facility fund 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 applicant’s 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.
