Just over one year after it was launched with great fanfare, Austrian railway company ÖBB will put the brakes on its Nightjet night train service between the Belgian and German capital. However, another service between the two cities will continue.
The first Nightjet night train from Berlin arrived in Brussels at the end of 2023. The event was hailed as a historic step in the redevelopment of the night train network linking Brussels to other major European cities. However, some 15 months down the line, the service will be axed.
"From 27 March 2025, Nightjet will no longer serve the Brussels-Berlin route," Belgium's national railway operator SNCB/NMBS confirmed on its website for international train travel.
The final train will leave Brussels-Midi railway station on Wednesday 26 March around 19:00, and will arrive at Berlin Hauptbahnhof just after 08:00 on Thursday morning. After this date, it is no longer possible to book a ticket. Nightjet's service from Brussels to Vienna will continue.
Competing for the line
ÖBB started by running the nocturnal route between the cities three times a week. It departed from Berlin on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and travelled in the other direction on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Along the way, the train stopped in Liège, Aachen, Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz, Mainz and Halle.
The original intention was to increase the frequency to a daily connection from autumn 2024. In October, however, after the connection had been suspended for 11 weeks due to railway works in Germany, it became apparent that this would not happen: there remained only three connections a week, which moreover were given different departure days due to operational reasons.
These were the same as those of the Dutch company European Sleeper, which had been running night trains between the two capitals since May of that year. However, unlike the European Sleeper, the Nightjet continued beyond Brussels to extend its final destination to Paris.
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Passengers can still travel overnight between the city on its Good Night train. The European Sleeper service has a different route through the Netherlands, stopping in Roosendaal, Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Amersfoort and Deventer before reaching Berlin.
In March last year, the route was extended to Prague in the Czech Republic, with a stop in Dresden, among other places.
