Full steam ahead for Austria’s night trains
With regard to the target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, night trainswhich run on renewable energy are an attractive alternative. Thomas Sauter-Servaes, Zurich University of AppliedSciences transport expert
VIENNA: It looks like a scene from the halcyon days of the railways: travellers finding their sleeper berth, turning on thereading light and stowing their cases under the bed.
But it’s still a common nightly ritual at Vienna’s main station, whereovernight train routes have endured in the age of low- cost flights – and areeven expanding.
From early evening onwards, the departures board at Vienna’s “Ha up tb ahnh of” station becomes a roll call of destinations to whet the appetite of anyglobetrotter: Venice, Rome, Zurich, Berlin, Warsaw...
It’s an unusual sight in a continent where budget airlines and fastertrains have become the norm and led to the closure of many slower overnightroutes.
But Austria’s state railway company OeBB is looking to expand its network.
It already runs 26 such routes, either on its own or in partnerships withother operators.
In late 2016, OeBB bought the night train operation of its German counter part Deutsche Bahn, which was looking to off load a department it judged in sufficiently lucrative.
Around 60 per cent of DB’s overnight routes were preserved, including arevamped ViennaBerlin service which started a few months ago.
Pointing to the “moderate growth” in passenger numbers – more than 1.4million used the services in 2018 – OeBB has ordered 13 new trains equippedwith stateof-the-art sleeper carriages.
It’s no surprise then that Austria has become the poster child for railenthusiasts, who say it provides an example of how overnight train travel canprovide an alternative to air travel and even help in the fight against climatechange.
“With regard to the target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, night trainswhich run on renewable energy are an attractive alternative,” according toThomas Sauter- Servaes, transport expert at the Zurich University of AppliedSciences.
But as with all those who have researched the sector, he admits thatcross- border overnight rail travel can represent a logistical and financial challenge.
The profits per passenger take a hit from the extra space that sleep er compartments require, on top of the higher labour costs for those who have towork on the trains overnight and money spent on laundry.
And that’s before you take into account the hefty fees sometimes charged byother network owners for use of the rails, the technical difficulty ofdecoupling and then re- attaching carriages, and navigating the myriad ofdifferent rules a train has to adhere to over a long journey.
Sauter- Servaes points out that international air transport has a bigcommercial advantage in being exempt from VAT and fuel taxes.
Among those preparing to board at Vienna station to spend a night on therails on a recent evening, some told AFP they had chosen a night train with theenvironment in mind. “It’s a small gesture, and it won’t stop me taking the plane for my holidayin Madagascar this autumn, but it’s better than nothing ,” said Austrian traveller Yvonne Kemper.
David, a 42-year- old from Germany, said he was using the Hamburg servicebecause he needed to get to Goettingen in Germany for a business trip -- amedium- sized town which, typically, is served by night trains but has noairport.
OeBB spokesman Bernhard Rieder explained that Austria’s attachment to nighttrains is down to “a tradition stemming from Austria’s mountainous terrain,which limited the development of high- speed lines”.
He added that “the night train sector is distinct in that it can’t functionwithout strong crossborder cooperation.”
“Night trains are and will continue to be a niche market, but that doesn’tmean a niche market can’t be profitable.”
But Poul Kattler, from the panEuropean “Back on Track” group whichcampaigns for more crossborder night trains, says the sector should be moreambitious.
“If national railway companies were more aggressive in the market and theEU built a truly common rail policy, we could offer a real transport alternative and a very popular European project,” he says.