Europe to revive international night trains: Zurich, Barcelona

Trains that pass in the night: rolling stock passes through Frankfurt. Photo / Michael Probst, AP

Four European rail companies announced Tuesday they plan to boost the continent's network of night train connections by reviving routes that were dropped several years ago for cost reasons.

German rail company Deutsche Bahn and the main national train operators in France, Switzerland and Austria said the routes from Vienna to Paris, via Munich, and Zurich to Amsterdam, via Cologne, will be re-established starting next December.

Further international connections from Vienna and Berlin to Brussels and Paris will be created in 2023, and a Zurich to Barcelona sleeper will begin rolling in 2024.

The move marks a change of direction for Deutsche Bahn, which successively shut down its night train service in recent years citing unsustainable costs and lack of demand due to cheaper and faster budget flights.

Having dumped budget flights, Europe has fallen back in love with the rails. Photo / Axel Heimken, AP

That decision, which severed key European connections because of Germany's central location in the continent's rail network, was heavily criticized by fans of the sleeper service and by environmental groups who argue that train travel is more sustainable than flying.

Austrian railways as well as operators in Scandinavia run what they say are profitable routes.

"Night trains are the future of climate-friendly mobility in Europe," said Leonore Gewessler, Austria's transport minister.

Berlin's new U-Bahn links East and West

A long-awaited subway extension that tunnels under one of Berlin's best-known boulevards and improves transport links from the German capital's central railway station opened Friday.

Having dumped budget flights, Europe has fallen back in love with the rails. Photo / Axel Heimken, AP

The 2.2-kilometre (1.4-mile) new section of the U5 line runs from its previous terminus at the Alexanderplatz, once communist East Berlin's central square, to the Brandenburg Gate. There, it joins up with a short subway section opened in 2009 that runs to the central station; until now, the line had little practical use and was used sparsely and mainly by tourists.

The new section tunnels under the Unter den Linden boulevard, where construction work has helped snarl traffic in recent years. There are three new stations, including stops at city hall and next to Berlin's Museum Island complex, although the latter isn't expected to open until next summer.

The opening of the subway extension was originally planned for 2017, but Berlin's sandy soil complicated construction. Officials have put the cost at up to 540 million euros ($920 million).

Plans to extend the U5, which connects the eastern suburbs with the city center and was one of only two East Berlin subway lines before German reunification, date back to the 1990s.

- Associated Press