The French government is studying night trains to Belgium

On Thursday, for the first time in more than three years, a night train departed again between the French capital Paris and the southern port city of Nice. “This is just the beginning,” French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on Twitter. “My goal is to have about ten night trains by 2030.”

The possible night routes were listed in a report the French government submitted to Parliament. It is about domestic and international communications.

Communications to, through, or via Belgium are also included in French government proposals. The most striking of these is the night train Brussels-Lille-Lyon-Bourg Saint-Maurice, which covers more than 1,100 km. This night train was only running during the winter season.

Other links have already been suggested, such as the Paris-Brussels-Hamburg-Copenhagen-Malmö route, of which Sweden is a pioneer. The Swedes have ambition to track between Malmö and Brussels from August 2022.

The French government also plans to operate night trains to Berlin and Vienna from Brussels and Paris. These are different trains that will be merged along the route and separated later. The cooperation with Austrian company ÖBB seems logical: Nightjet has been operating between Brussels and the Austrian capital Vienna since January 2020.

The French government is also proposing to operate the Paris-Berlin night train via Brussels, and add Prague as a destination from both Brussels and Paris.

Night trains on one Biology Busy. In recent months, various initiatives for night trains to and from Belgium have already been announced, even to destinations the French government wants to explore. For example, connections can be made in the spring of 2022 Brussels – Liège – Berlin (Moonlight Express Initiative) and Ostend – Brussels – Berlin – Prague or Warsaw (European Sleeper). Then there is OVOE (Ostende-Vienne-Orient-Experience), which wants to use the night trains to Austria in the winter and to Switzerland and Italy in the summer.