Nightjet Night Trains to End Routes from Paris to Vienna and Berlin

Nightjjet night trains will no longer operate between Berlin, Vienna, and Paris when December 2025 rolls around because France ends funding for its international night railways.

This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

Nightjet Night Trains Receiving Less Support from the French Government

Operator SNCF Voyageurs, on behalf of the National Society of French Railways (SNCF), made public the cancellation of Nightjet night train services between Paris–Vienna route and Paris–Berlin route.

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The ruling takes effect on December 14, 2025, when the winter schedule for a new starting time kicks off. This follows after the French Government’s Ministry of Transport ruled out funding for overseas night trains from 2026.

The operator announced this decision together with the partners — ÖBB, Deutsche Bahn, and SNCB.

Once the support from the government ends, Nightjuts services between these cities will stop, yet ÖBB will have a trimmed link: Vienna-Brussels thrice a week.

The 2024 average load factor was 70%, which wasn’t enough for a successful revenue-earnings operation.

Without subsidies offsetting a share of the operational expenses, the service proved financially unsustainable.

SNCF Voyageurs emphasized further that all French domestic night trains are also subsidized from the state budget, therefore international routes cannot exist without equal support.

Nightjet Night Trains and the Future of Nights Travel across Europe

The first Paris–Vienna Nightjet train started plying its route in December 2021, then Paris–Berlin in 2023. These links represented the rebirth of Europe’s nighttime train web and environmentally friendly transport progress, yet without funding from the public, any further advancement became unreality.

At the same time, ÖBB invests further in the Nightjet brand. The firm is acquiring new rolling stock, increasing passenger comfort, and advocating for night travel due to its environmental-friendly nature over air transport.

Night train experts across Europe consider the night train a crucial transport decarbonization solution, but this solution is reliant on governments and operators tightening their belts for coordinated action.

Paris route cancellation proves that the night train’s future depends on steadiness of policy, common investments, and sustainable funding. Without this, a regular schedule of international services, despite averaged passenger demand, is hard to enforce.

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