At the end of 2016, Deutsche Bahn withdrew from all night train services with reference to a lack of profitability. With its Nightjets, ÖBB took over some particularly lucrative routes between metropolises, Dresden and Leipzig were left out. Until the end of 2017, the Euronight “Metropol” operated between Berlin and Budapest with through coaches to Vienna via Dresden. However, this train is currently running via Poland to Budapest and Vienna, thus avoiding Dresden.
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The Nightjet trains, which are to connect Dresden and Leipzig with Zurich and Prague again in three years’ time, however, have sleeping, couchette and seated cars in the train. In connection with the climate debate, night trains are currently experiencing a renaissance in Europe. As can be seen from the plans of the SBB, the Swiss want to offer night trains to Amsterdam, Rome or Barcelona – connections that had been in the timetables for decades and all of which had gradually been discontinued.
In the GDR and also in the post-reunification years, Dresden was an important stopping point for night trains, which not only went to Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. Scandinavia with ferry passage across the Baltic Sea, the Netherlands or destinations in the Balkans were on the departure boards every evening. The former Mitropa sleeping cars that took travelers to the Black Sea were downright legendary. Low airfares and increasingly comfortable cars, however, brought these trains to an – apparently only temporary – end.
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