Ever dream of going to bed in Vienna on a stomach full of Wiener schnitzel, rumbling across the European countryside on a night train, and waking up to a buttery croissant in Paris?
You’d better move fast. That train is leaving the station — perhaps permanently.
Overnight rail routes linking the French capital to Berlin and Vienna will be discontinued because of budget cuts, the railway authorities announced this week, fueling concerns that Europe’s night train renaissance could lose momentum.
The routes were revived with great fanfare in 2023 by officials who promoted them as environmentally friendly alternatives to air travel that would bring European neighbors closer together and cater to growing interest in slow travel.
But France now faces a budget crunch, with a widening deficit and debt. The country’s national railway company, the S.N.C.F, said on Monday that the government had decided to cut state subsidies that were “indispensable” to keep overnight trains running.
The lines, run jointly by several European railway companies, will cease operating on Dec. 14, the S.N.C.F. said in a statement.
That was a bitter disappointment for travelers who had cheered the return of European sleeper trains years after competition from low-cost airlines had largely put them out of business.
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The post Night Trains, Beloved Throwbacks Tying Paris to Berlin and Vienna, Will End appeared first on New York Times.
