Starting from mid-December, passengers will only be able to board a night train from Belgium to Berlin three days a week.
The number of night trains to and from Berlin remains unchanged, with both the Austrian railway company ÖBB and Belgian-Dutch operator European Sleeper maintaining three weekly trips.
Currently spread over six days, these services will now operate on the same three days: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, departing from Brussels. This means that within a span of twenty minutes (19:03 for ÖBB’s Nightjet and 19:22 for European Sleeper), two night trains will leave from Brussels-Midi station.
It is ÖBB’s Nightjet trains that will shift their departure days to coincide with European Sleeper’s schedule due to “operational reasons,” according to the Austrian operator.
Elmer van Buuren, co-founder and CEO of European Sleeper, expressed some reservations about the change, stating, “We were obviously not thrilled when we heard the news, but there is enough evidence to believe we can sustain our operations.”
Van Buuren noted that ÖBB’s Nightjet has less capacity as it splits into two parts en route, with one part continuing to Berlin and the other to Vienna. European Sleeper’s route differs, as it picks up passengers in the Netherlands—where ÖBB does not operate—and continues beyond Berlin to Prague.
