22 May 2021
17:28
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The French government wants to develop a whole series of domestic and international night train connections in the coming years. Brussels is also mentioned several times in a report on possible lines.
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On Thursday, for the first time in more than three years, a night train ran again between the French capital Paris and the southern seaside city of Nice. “This is just the beginning,” tweeted French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari. ‘My goal is to have about ten night trains by 2030.’
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The possible night routes are listed in a report that the French government submitted to parliament. It concerns both domestic and international connections.
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Connections to, from or through Belgium are also included in the proposals of the French government. The most striking of these is that of a night train Brussels – Lille – Lyon – Bourg-Saint-Maurice, a connection of more than 1,100 kilometers. That night train would only run during the winter.
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Other connections have already been suggested, such as the Paris – Brussels – Hamburg – Copenhagen – Malmö route, of which Sweden is the pioneer. The Swedes have the ambition to trace between Malmö and Brussels from August 2022.
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Nightjet
The French government also has plans to run night trains to Berlin and Vienna from both Brussels and Paris. These are different trains that would be merged along the way and later disconnected. A collaboration with the Austrian company ÖBB seems logical: its ‘Nightjet’ has been running between Brussels and the Austrian capital Vienna since January 2020.
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The French government also suggests the possibility of running the night train Paris – Berlin via Brussels, and adding Prague as a destination from both Brussels and Paris.
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Revival
Night trains are on one revival busy. In recent months, various initiatives have already been announced for night trains to and from Belgium, even to destinations that the French government wants to explore. For example, connections could be made in the spring of 2022 Brussels – Liège – Berlin (initiative of Moonlight Express) and Ostend – Brussels – Berlin – Prague or Warsaw (European Sleeper). And then there is OVOE (Ostende-Vienne-Orient-Experience), which wants to use night trains to Austria in winter and to Switzerland and Italy in summer.
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