Europe's night trains are enjoying a remarkable revival as a new generation rediscovers the romance of travelling by sleeper

There was a time when the overnight sleeper train seemed destined to fade quietly into the pages of history, a nostalgic relic of a slower and more romantic age of travel. Yet across Europe today, something rather wonderful is happening, as these very trains enjoy a spectacular revival that is capturing the imagination of a whole new generation of curious travellers.

A network on the rise

The scale of this quiet renaissance is genuinely impressive when you stop for a moment to look at the numbers involved. Recent surveys of the continent's rail map reveal that there are now around two hundred regular sleeper train connections crisscrossing Europe, forming one of the most comprehensive overnight networks that the region has seen in many long years.

This growing web of routes is the combined work of a varied mix of operators, from long established national railways to ambitious new independent companies. Their shared belief is that there is a real and growing appetite among the public for a form of travel that had, until quite recently, been written off by many as hopelessly old fashioned and commercially unviable.

New routes across the continent

Among the many recent developments, a handful of brand new routes have generated particular excitement among travel enthusiasts everywhere. Perhaps the most celebrated of all is the revival of the overnight service linking Paris and Berlin, two great capitals reconnected by rail in a way that many people had long hoped to see return to the timetables at last.

Other exciting connections are also taking shape across the map, including a planned link between Brussels and Milan that will unite the north and south of Europe. Further east, operators are extending their services towards cities such as Prague and Munich, while in the far north a brand new line is set to carry travellers deep into the beautiful Nordic wilderness.

Why travellers are switching

Several powerful forces are converging at once to drive this remarkable shift back towards the rails. The cost of short haul flights has been climbing steadily as airlines trim their budget routes, while the tedious queues and security checks at major airports have left many travellers thoroughly weary of the whole exhausting ordeal of flying for relatively short distances.

At the very same time, a growing philosophy known as slow travel has captured the public mood in a really profound way. A surprising survey found that nearly half of respondents now wish to travel more by train and less by plane in the coming years, drawn by the comfort of a long journey and the simple pleasure of watching the landscape roll gently by.

The green appeal

For a great many of these travellers, the single most compelling argument in favour of the sleeper train is its remarkably gentle impact upon the environment. Choosing to travel overnight by rail rather than taking to the skies can dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of a journey, a fact that weighs increasingly heavily on the conscience of the modern and thoughtful traveller.

This environmental logic has been reinforced by the policies of governments right across the continent, which are keen to encourage a shift away from the most polluting forms of transport. In several countries, short domestic flights have even been restricted where a reasonable rail alternative already exists, giving the humble overnight train a further very welcome boost.

Bumps on the track

Despite all the genuine enthusiasm surrounding the revival, the road ahead for the night train is still far from perfectly smooth. Experts warn that a serious shortage of investment in infrastructure threatens to hold back progress, since running these services profitably requires modern carriages and reliable track that are both expensive to build and to maintain over the years.

The fragility of the situation is underlined by the fact that a number of much cherished routes have quietly vanished even as bright new ones appear. Among the casualties was one of the longest and most spectacular overnight journeys on the entire continent, a loss that serves as a sober reminder that the future of these lines can never be taken entirely for granted.

The romance of the rails

Beyond the practical arguments about cost and carbon, there is something far harder to measure that lies at the very heart of the night train's enduring appeal. To fall asleep in one country and wake up in another, having watched the stars drift past the window, is an experience that no aeroplane could ever really hope to replicate in quite the same magical way.

It is this timeless sense of romance and gentle adventure, as much as any spreadsheet of figures, that seems to be fuelling the sleeper train's steady return to favour. If the necessary investment can be found in time, then the humble overnight train may well be poised to reclaim its rightful place at the very heart of European travel for many years to come.