photo: Back-on-Track.eu / CC BY-ND 4.0 / Flickr/Nightjet at Paris Est station
They were billed as a greener way to cross borders while you slept; instead, they’ve run into the hard maths of railway economics. Two marquee Nightjet links from Paris to Vienna and Berlin will end on 14 December 2025, after France pulled the funding that kept them on the rails.
Why The Routes Are Ending
According to Le Monde, operators confirmed the decision after the French government ended an annual subsidy of about EUR 10 million, despite the routes averaging 70% occupancy this year. The services, relaunched in 2021 (Paris–Vienna) and 2023 (Paris–Berlin) amid Europe’s sleeper-train revival, struggled to break even because a berth is sold once per journey, unlike day services where seats turn over multiple times—an imbalance compounded by higher staffing and cross-border locomotive changes, Le Monde reported.
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The Guardian added that Austria’s ÖBB—which leads the Nightjet network—blamed the French funding withdrawal, saying it had been told public service orders for the Paris links would be suspended from 2026. While the shutdown date for operations is 14 December 2025, the policy backdrop runs into the following year. The outlet also noted public backlash: a petition by Oui au train de nuit passed 43,000 signatures, and activists staged a "pyjama party" at Paris’s Gare de l’Est to press for a rethink.
What remains—and wider fallout
Business travel outlet travellingforbusiness.co.uk reported SNCF had formally confirmed the end-date and reiterated the economics: even with roughly 70% occupancy, night trains remain "a huge economic challenge" without state support. The site quoted SNCF’s breakdown—labour and energy costs, multi-country access fees, and cross-border staffing—along with the simple yield reality: "A seat on an airplane can be sold up to five times a day… but a seat on a night train can only be sold once," the operator said.
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Le Monde further reported that France still runs eight domestic overnight lines from Paris (to Nice, Toulouse, Tarbes, and others), but SNCF says those too rely on subsidies. Disruptions haven’t helped: the Paris–Berlin service was paused for over two months in summer 2024 due to track works, Le Monde noted, with daytime high-speed alternatives filling some demand. Even so, ÖBB told The Guardian it would continue to invest in existing overnight routes—keeping Vienna–Brussels thrice weekly and rolling out 24 next-generation Nightjets with added capacity and comfort.
"Night trains can only be operated with the participation of international partners," said ÖBB.
Passenger advocates were divided over causes and commitments. Le Monde cited Oui au train de nuit arguing subsidies were pulled because operators didn’t deliver daily frequencies (running three times a week instead). SNCF countered that daily operations were impossible amid heavy construction on French and German networks. Meanwhile, analysts quoted by travellingforbusiness.co.uk warned that without long-term state backing, flagship cross-border sleepers will continue to face fragile finances—testing the EU’s ambition to shift short-haul trips from air to rail.