Today, ÖBB officialised its plans for the 2023 winter timetable. The new Nightjetnet presented during the pandemic is almost on the tracks. The new night train connection from Brussels has long been eagerly awaited, and it is now coming very soon. From mid-December 2023, it will be possible to travel directly to Berlin three times a week while sleeping with the leader in night trains ÖBB. The train to Berlin will run coupled with the train to Vienna that is already running and will be split off from that train in Mannheim. From autumn 2024, the night train to Berlin and Vienna from Brussels will then run daily.
The other big novelty is the commissioning of the ÖBB's new sleeping and reclining coaches. "Some of the new ÖBB carriages are equipped with a kind of 'mini-cabins', a kind of capsule for a single passenger so that they can sleep in privacy at a democratic price" explains Alexander Gomme, spokesman for Back on Track Belgium, the non-profit organisation that is pushing for more night trains. "Initially, these will run to Hamburg-Innsbruck and Hamburg-Vienna and not yet to Italy as first expected. The homologation of the carriages in Italy is not yet complete. The homologation of the new carriages is necessary to free up other carriages to run more frequently to Belgium, France and Germany, but that will apparently take some time," says Gomme. The new carriages reach 230 kilometres per hour and are a much-needed innovation in a European night train fleet that still has carriages nearly 70 years old.
The ÖBB train will be the second night train from Brussels to Vienna, the other being the European Sleeper. The European Sleeper is normally extended to Prague, but even then it is striking how poorly served Brussels remains. "We need a multitude of trains, also to Scandinavia, France, Italy and Spain," said Gomme.