Why is SBB burying plans for new night train services?

Swiss media outlets are reporting that the “night train euphoria” is over, after SBB quietly shelved plans to expand its night train network. What exactly is going on? 

SBB shelves plans to expand Switzerland’s night train network

The much-vaunted major European expansion of night trains seems like it might just turn out to be a pipe dream. Instead, SBB is scrapping plans and putting all its eggs in the daytime trains basket, as Watson reports.

Back in 2020, SBB announced ambitious plans to increase the number of night train connections from Switzerland to 10, adding new lines to Rome and Barcelona. Earlier this year, however, the project was put on ice. SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot announced that, instead, he planned to purchase high-speed trains that can run to Rome, Barcelona or London from Switzerland in just a few hours, during the daytime. 

The only night train expansion that is still going ahead - for now - is the Basel - Copenhagen - Malmö service scheduled to start running in 2026. This project benefits from 47 million Swiss francs in funding from the Swiss government until 2030. SBB has said that without this financing, the operation would not be profitable. 

Night train companies facing tricky market

It’s not just SBB that is scaling back its operations. Austrian train company ÖBB, which operates night trains under the Nightjet brand, is also making cuts. It recently scaled back an order for Siemens trains that were intended to expand the network, and is instead ordering more trains for daytime services. 

They’re not the only ones: French startup Midnight Trains was forced to cease operations last year, before it could run a single service, and the Dutch company European Sleeper, which launched in 2021 with huge ambitions, at the moment only offers a single connection between Brussels and Prague. Germany’s FlixTrain abandoned plans for night trains after just a few months in 2021, and experts are unsure if the new startup on the scene, Nox, will ever make it to its first service. 

All of these companies are encountering the same problems: the price of “paths” (taxes imposed on those who use railways) are spiralling; rolling stock is difficult to find; nighttime train construction makes scheduling difficult, and often leads to diversions and cancellations; and night trains as a whole are difficult to make profitable, since each seat for each journey can only be sold once, in contrast to seats on day trains. 

Night trains remain a niche section of market

Night trains can count on a dedicated audience, but it still remains a niche one: in 2024, only around 600.000 of SBB’s 11,6 million international rail passengers used a night train. Even at full capacity, the Malmö train will only carry around 20.000 passengers per year in each direction. 

For now, at least, it seems likely that night trains will remain a fringe phenomenon for nostalgic enthusiasts who are prepared to put up the cost of a ticket.