“Venice, Florence, Rome… What a joy to board in Paris around 6 pm, to have a romantic dinner taking all your time, then to go to sleep and wake up in Italy”, says Valérie, a great user of night trains “when ‘they existed’. “And what about the arrival in Venice ?, adds Anne-Marie. The station opens directly onto the Grand Canal. A waking dream after spending the night on the train. “
It is not only to Italy that memories of the night train go back up. Paris-Madrid also comes back many times in the testimonies of Internet users who responded to our call for contributions. “The legendary Talgo train-hotel,” Antonio says. “I have extraordinary memories there,” says Jef. From my childhood until the line stopped [en 2013], I traveled for thirty years on this train. “
Trips that are often written in the past
For others, night trains are synonymous with getaways to Berlin, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Lisbon from Hendaye, Strasbourg from Marseille… Not to mention ski destinations. Francis says he regularly took the Bordeaux-Lyon to go skiing in the Alps. “A treat, we arrived well rested and ready to hit the slopes,” he recalls. Catherine, she left Gare de Lyon the night before to arrive in the valley in the early morning.
If these testimonies are written most often in the past, it is good that the night train network has been reduced to the bare minimum in recent years, hit hard by the advent of high-speed trains and flights. low cost. Nicolas Forien, from the “Yes to the night train” collective, only has a handful of lines leaving or going to France. “Paris-Briançon (Hautes-Alpes), Paris-Rodez, Paris-Toulouse with junctions towards Latour de Carol or Port-Bou, and Paris-Nice relaunched in May”, he lists. There was always Paris-Venice until this summer. But the private operator Thello has since put the line to sleep. “This is also the case, still in this context of health crisis, Hendaye-Lisbon, Paris-Moscow or Nice-Moscow”, continues Nicolas Forien, without really knowing if these lines will be restarted.
A Paris-Vienne from this Monday
There is still some good news. As of this Friday, the SNCF is putting a Paris-Tarbes night train back on track via Lourdes. Above all, this Monday marks the launch of the Paris-Vienne, the result of a partnership between the French company and the Austrian ÖBB. The same one who made the bet to relaunch the night train in Central Europe, in particular by resuming, in October 2016, half of the night connections of Deutsche Bahn. With great success. “Before the health crisis, we had reached 1.5 million passengers transported per year on our nightjets,” says 20 minutes Bernhard Rieder, ÖBB spokesperson. With highly successful lines such as Zurich-Hamburg or Munich-Rome. “
Paris-Vienne could be part of it in the future. OBB will offer three connections per week in both directions, with stops in Strasbourg, Munich and Salzburg. Allow fourteen hours for the journey to reach the two capitals. “The first trains are full, and if there are still places left over the Christmas holidays, reservations are going well,” says Bernhard Rieder. David, François, Valérie, Béatrice, Jean-Pierre… Among our Internet users, several plan to get on board quickly. “From this spring”, indicates Béatrice. “Looking forward to Berlin”, slips Valérie.
“Finally” a return of the night train?
The return of the Paris-Berlin, an iconic line, is actually announced for the end of 2023. “As will a Zurich-Barcelona in 2024, which could provide for stops in France,” recalls Nicolas Orien. Above all, the spokesperson for “Yes to the night train” refers to the French government’s last May report on the revival of night trains. “He proposes to create a network of twenty national lines as well as five lines to Europe (Madrid, Florence, Rome, Hamburg, Copenhagen), he recalls. All this while investing nearly 1.5 billion euros in new equipment. “
What resolutely mark the return of the night train to France? ” Finally ! », Say again several of our Internet users. This prospect of abandoning the plane to travel in a more ecological way comes up in a number of testimonies. But there is also this “poetry of the rail” evoked by Emmanuel, in his seventies. The enchantment of “slow travel”, praises Benoît, that is to say “this desire to take the time to travel, to even see the train journey as part of the journey”, explains Céline.
Dust off night trains
But the night train is also seen as a practical and economical option. “With the saving of time and money, compared to the plane, to go from city center to city center”, point out Simon and Anne-Lise. “By avoiding the stress of airports,” confirms Elisabeth. The great interest, above all, is to take advantage of the night to travel. “This saves a night in a hotel”, underline Fabrice and Claude. And, as long as you’ve slept well, start your first day of vacation fresh. Not that “vacation” elsewhere, recalls Fabrice, who traveled from Toulouse to Paris by sleeper train this fall for his work. “We sleep less well than in a bed, but it’s still restful,” he says. I held the next day until 10pm without a problem. “
The demand for comfort comes back with insistence as a condition for re-boarding the night trains. Nicolas Forien expects a lot from OBB’s “nightjet” on this point. “If some lines have been reopened in France, it is for the moment with old wagons barely repainted, he regrets. Nightjets are modern trains that offer the full range of comfort, from the reclining seat (from 29 euros) to the private cabin (from 89.90 euros for the standard cabin), including the sleeper compartments. (from 59.90 euros). »There are showers for each car and even for each private cabin. And breakfast can be part of the formula. A priori enough to meet the expectations of Debora, who requires “hotel service, with connecting cabins for families of four and toilets in the cabins”. The sleeper compartments are single-sex, also specify OBB and SNCF on the Internet. A point that counts for Karine, who will only take night trains “if they offer wagons reserved for women”.
The offer as the first lever to restore
Obviously, the price is also a determining criterion. “The price for a single berth must remain affordable to allow all social classes to benefit from it,” insists Nicole. “Cheaper than the plane if we want this ecological alternative to really be taken,” asks Timo. But first of all, there is another brake to be lifted in order to hope for a real restart of the night trains, and on which Nicolas Forien returns. “That of the offer, quite simply,” he explains. From Vienna you can go almost anywhere in Europe by night train today. In France, we start almost from zero. “
Clearly, what is missing are night trains and stations served. On this point, the Paris-Vienne already has some regrets. Paul and Hayelaar thus deplore that the line does not provide for any stop between Paris and Strasbourg, “when there are seven from Munich to Vienna”, calculates the latter. Several Internet users also urge not to think only of capitals. “There is not only Paris in life”, gets carried away Fanny, who asks that “night trains also leave the big cities of province”. Simon even makes it the priority of the future network: “to connect all the cities (universities especially but not only) instead of connecting the capitals”.
This issue seems to be taken into account in the government’s report last May. The twenty national lines projected were along corridors, including Dijon-Marseille, Bordeaux-Marseille and Tours-Lyon.