SBB and ÖBB: SBB expands its night train offering – News

• Instead of taking the plane by train: SBB wants to expand its range of night trains abroad.
• Together with its Austrian partner ÖBB, it will offer the Zurich-Cologne-Amsterdam connection from December 2021.
• In addition, new night trains are planned from Switzerland to Amsterdam, Rome and Barcelona.

With 19 Nightjet lines and eight other partner connections, ÖBB operates the largest night train network in Europe. In cooperation with SBB, the network comprises six lines and one more connection from Switzerland. On this basis, SBB and ÖBB want to jointly expand the range of night trains in Europe. He signed a letter of intent on September 11.

Expansion plans for “Nightjet Network Switzerland 2024” include an expansion of the Nightjet network from Switzerland to a total of ten lines and 25 destinations. As a first step of expansion, the two railways want to start a new daily Nightjet connection Zurich-Basel-Frankfurt-Cologne-Amsterdam from December 2021.

A new line will run from Zurich via Bern-Brig-Domodossola to Rome. A daily connection from Zurich via Bern-Lausanne-Geneva to Barcelona is also planned.

Only with money from climate funds

The planned expansion can only be guaranteed with financial support from the Swiss Climate Fund, writes SBB. In the current autumn session, the parliament is discussing the full revision of the CO2 law. This provides for the support of cross-border rail traffic from the climate fund. Last week, Parliament approved the promotion of international passenger transport, including night trains.

Subject to a final vote and a possible referendum, financial support from SBB’s climate fund would allow it to offset the operating costs of night train connections, the railway company notes.