We, the undersigned ministers, members of Parliament, civil society organisations, and industry groups call on EU Commission President Von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President Šefčovič and Commissioner Vălean to act upon the recent renaissance of night trains and present a European strategy for developing a comprehensive night train network.

Nick Brooks says national rail companies have an unfair advantage that could stymie efforts to expand services. “Politicians must be clear: the night train market will be effectively closed for a very long time,” he says. “This would run contrary to the goals of the single EU Rail market – which is madness when a clear and efficient alternative model already exists.

• Paris to Barcelona (in both directions) is one of the most popular cross-border transport corridors in Europe.
• Unfortunately, there are still very few high-speed trains on this route, and these are often very expensive.
• There is a very reasonable night train connection available as well, with one single change of train in the French border town of Latour-de-Carol.
• But WHY is this rail connection not shown on any website or app, and WHY is it not sold anywhere in a single booking transaction?

The Belgian measure in which night train operators will pay nothing for track access fees and energy over the next two years should be adopted across Europe, says ALLRAIL, which represents new entrants in passenger rail. The organisation celebrates the launch of European Sleeper last week, the “first ever – independently owned – scheduled long-distance rail operator to depart from Belgium”.

A few days ago, history was made in Belgian passenger rail: European Sleeper was the first independently owned scheduled long-distance rail operator to depart from Belgium. Its new night train is commercially driven - not a Public Service Obligation (PSO) - and links Belgium, the Netherlands with Berlin in Germany.