New night train service between Berlin and Brussels arrives at North station after 10-year hiatus

A night train service between Berlin, Brussels and Paris has resumed after almost a decade, with strong demand predicted for the rail routes, reports RTBF.

The first Deutsche Bahn Nightjet train left the German capital on Monday evening, drawing in to Brussels’ North station on Tuesday morning.

German transport minister Volker Wissing and Deutsche Bahn’s executive director Richard Lutz were on the station platform to greet the inaugural service.

Half of the night trains from Berlin will travel to Brussels, the other half to Paris. The service is scheduled to leave Berlin's largest station on Monday at 20.18, arriving at Brussels' North station at 9.45 and South station at 9.56 on Tuesday, according to the SNCB website.

The service is initially planned to run three times a week, with the aim of moving to an all-night service from October 2024. The carriers involved are SNCB in Belgium, Deutsche Bahn in Germany, ÖBB in Austria and SNCF in France.

“The new night connection is already well booked during the holiday period,” said Deutsche Bahn. Keen passengers will have to wait until the end of the end-of-year holidays to find free places. “As soon as we launch a new night-time connection with rail partners, there is a real boom in reservations,” added the German carrier.

Deutsche Bahn ended its night train service in 2014 due to a drop in demand and obsolete carriages. But interest in rail travel has revived in Europe in recent years, mainly due to public concern about the impact on the climate and high CO2 emissions from the airline sector.

Another night train service has been running between Berlin and Brussels since the end of May, operated by the Dutch-Belgian railway company European Sleeper.

Photo: ©Deutsche Bahn