Let's drive night trains forwards – not backwards!

Night trains offer an environmentally and socially just way to travel long distances, a mode of transport that connects people and places through slower, more intentional mobility. They make it possible to rest your head in one place and wake up surrounded by new landscapes, valuing conscious connection over hypermobility.

As the best alternative to air traffic, which must be drastically reduced for the sake of people and the planet amid intensifying climate breakdown, night trains need to expand, not disappear. Yet today, travellers have far fewer options than in the 1970s. Just this year, the Paris–Vienna night train was cancelled, while other key connections, like Lisbon–Madrid or links between southern and northern Europe, have been missing or under threat for years.

We need to change the direction of travel.

Let's move towards a future of just, slower and grounded mobility, one that puts people and the planet back on track.