Night train services linking Paris, Berlin and Vienna are to end from mid-December because of the French government’s withdrawal of funding, the Austrian national rail operator has said, in a blow to sleeper travel on important European routes.
ÖBB, the largest provider of such trains in Europe, has led a drive to revive a once popular form of low-emission transport as an alternative to flying.
But the French public cash crunch has now deprived the service of a crucial lifeline, meaning it will be suspended before the year is out.
“Due to the discontinuation of government subsidies in France from 2026 onwards, we are unfortunately forced to discontinue the Vienna/Berlin-Paris (night train) connections from 14 December 2025,” ÖBB said in a statement online.
It said its French partner SNCF “was informed by the transport ministry in Paris that the public service orders for the operation of night trains between Vienna and Paris as well as Berlin-Paris will be suspended in 2026”.
“Night trains can only be operated with the participation of international partners,” ÖBB added, saying it regretted the French withdrawal.
The state-owned rail operator said it would maintain its thrice-weekly Nightjet service between Vienna and Brussels next year, as well as on popular routes such as Vienna-Amsterdam and Munich-Rome.
“We will continue to invest in night train service with what will be 24 modern next-generation Nightjets, offering greater capacity and comfort on the existing routes,” it said.
‘Night trains can only be operated with the participation of international partners,’ said ÖBB. Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images
The French daily Le Monde had last week reported the looming demise of the night service between Paris and Vienna and Paris and Berlin, which had resumed in recent years after a long hiatus.
The newspaper cited a decision taken over the summer by the French transport ministry to cut millions in subsidies after it received its 2026 budget guidelines from the government.
“The state as a shareholder requires us to be profitable, and we can only achieve this through considerable effort,” it quoted an unnamed SNCF manager as saying. “It cannot require us to operate connections at a loss simply for the sake of a beautiful symbol, even if it would be a beautiful symbol.”
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France has been rocked by political instability, street demonstrations and mass strikes over unpopular plans for budget cuts to reduce its large public debt.
A petition to save the service by the French pressure group Oui au train de nuit (Yes to the night train), addressed to the SNCF chief executive, Jean-Pierre Farandou, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has gathered more than 43,000 signatures.
The activists said 66,000 travellers had used the service in 2024, despite it only running three times a week, and accused SNCF of failing to promote the Nightjets in its marketing and customer service.
Critics also note disproportionate public subsidies for heavily polluting air travel in the EU compared with those for trains, driving up the relative cost of rail travel.
On Friday evening, demonstrators gathered at Paris’s Gare de l’Est, the starting point for trains to Berlin and Vienna, for a “pyjama party” in favour of maintaining the night trains on the route.
