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Style & Culture · Vienna · 24 Jun 2026 · 02:45 GMT+7

Night trains return to the centre of European travel

Once a nostalgia act, sleeper services are now a planning default for a widening group of travellers.
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By Kwame Osei
Style & Culture desk · 24 Jun 2026
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Vienna
On the ground in Vienna
Key takeaways
Europe’s night trains, once a nostalgia act, have become a planning default, with sleeper bookings up 21% and a dozen new routes added across the continent.
The shift rewards operators that invested early.
+21%
sleeper bookings
operator data
12
new routes
rail data

Europe’s night trains, once a nostalgia act, have become a planning default, with sleeper bookings up 21% and a dozen new routes added across the continent. The sleeper is back at the centre of the map.

The shift rewards operators that invested early. The Map charts rail against air share corridor by corridor.

Vienna
On the ground in Vienna
By Kwame Osei · WorldTravelBrief
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Night trains return to the centre of European travel — WorldTravelBrief