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TRAVEL NEWS

The big changes for train travel across Europe in 2024

Whether it be new 'nightsleepers' or eastward expansions, a whole host of new intra-European train routes and schedules are set to be launched in 2024. Here are the details thanks to The Man in Seat 61.

Published: 8 November 2023 17:41 CET
Updated: 27 December 2023 10:00 CET
The big changes for train travel across Europe in 2024
A passenger arrives to board the first Nightjet train between Vienna and Paris at the Central Station in Vienna, Austria on December 13, 2021. Photo: JOE KLAMAR/AFP.

If you’re a fan of so-called ‘slow tourism’, are worried about your carbon footprint, or just prefer train travel as opposed to flying everywhere, the coming year will offer some rather significant opportunities for you to travel around Europe.

In fact, 2024 is set to be a bumper year for railways around the continent, with a whole host of new, reintroduced or extended intra-European routes set to be launched, shortening journey times and opening up new travel possibilities.

READ ALSO: The domestic flights in Spain that could be cancelled to reduce emissions

Mark Smith, a former railway worker in the UK and widely accepted as the man in the know when it comes to all things train travel around Europe, has outlined some of the major changes to be aware of on his X/Twitter account.

For the train lovers among us, his website seat61.com is an near-encyclopaedic source of information if you’re trying to go between European cities using the railways. Here are the most significant changes to train routes and timetables around Europe as we head into 2024.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: How Austria will expand train services in new timetable

The new ‘Nightjet sleeper’

2024 will see a new Nightjet sleeper service between Brussels-Berlin & Paris-Berlin operate 3 times a week from December 10th 2023, and will become a daily service from October 2024.

This provides a key east-west link, and will help with connecting journeys from Paris, London, and Brussels to Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow & Prague.

From December (of this year) the Nightjet will depart from Paris Gare de l’Est at 19:12 on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays, arriving at Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 08:26.

The service will be operated by Austrian rail operator ÖBB, and according to Seat6, and the new (or rather, reintroduced) route will use an “air-conditioned Comfortline sleeping-car with nine 1, 2 & 3-berth standard compartments with washbasin and three 1, 2 or 3-berth deluxe compartments with shower & toilet.” 

Shared toilet and shower facilities can be found at the end of the corridor for passengers in non-deluxe compartments. Refreshments and breakfast will be served, and fares will start at €49.90 in 6-berth couchettes, €59.90 in 4-berth couchettes, €89.90 in a 3-bed sleeper, €109.90 in a 2-bed sleeper or €159.90 in a single-bed sleeper, all per person per berth, according to Seat61.

European Sleeper

The European Sleeper, which runs between Brussels/Amsterdam to Berlin, will be extended to Dresden & Prague from 25 March 2025. For the existing routes, prices for Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam or Amsterdam to Berlin by sleeper are:

From €49 in a seat, €79 with a couchette in 6-berth, €99 with a bed in 4-berth. From €109 with a bed in 3-bed sleeper, €129 with a bed in 2-bed sleeper, €159 with a bed in single-bed sleeper.

READ ALSO: What’s it like driving from Scandinavia to the UK with a young family?

Krakow connections

From December 10th 2023 there’ll be two Berlin-Krakow trains running, and there’ll be another new train to Krakow from Vienna. As Mark Smith at Seat 61 says, this Berlin-Krakow link opens up a number of new journeys. Brussels or Amsterdam to Krakow, for example, will become possible in a day.

Berlin to Krakow services will be run by EuroCity train, leaving Berlin Hauptbahnhof 16:52 and arriving at Wroclaw 20:53, Katowice 23:03 & Krakow Glowny 23:54.

READ ALSO: What’s the latest on the rollout of the EU’s new ETIAS and EES travel rules?

There will also be a new train from Krakow to Vienna Hbf, departing 16:10 and arriving in Vienna at 21:34.

A second Vienna-Berlin-Hamburg ICE service will also begin in 2024, and the Warsaw-Vienna sleeper Chopin, currently also running to Graz, will be extended to Salzburg & Munich.

Seat61 says that a knock-on effect of the Brussels-Vienna Nightjet being combined with the Paris-Vienna one is that it will now cover Munich Ost & Salzburg en route (it currently goes via Nuremberg and Passau), so these two major destinations will be linked to Brussels in 2024.

Nightjet

The brand new Nightjet trains will go into service on Hamburg-Vienna & Hamburg-Innsbruck lines next year, with more routes to follow throughout 2024. Munich-Innsbruck-Verona EuroCity trains will start being replaced with new-gen Railjet trains starting in April 2024.

The Berlin-Vienna/Budapest sleeper will change its route in 2024, taking a more direct route to Poland through Prague.

From 2024, both Barcelona-Paris TGVs will be 1 hour earlier. 

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DROUGHT

Will drought restrictions affect summer holidays in Spain?

Whether it be limits on swimming pools, street cleaning or even daily water consumptions limits, several parts of Spain are considering their drought restrictions ahead of the summer season.

Published: 8 May 2024 12:27 CEST
Will drought restrictions affect summer holidays in Spain?

Many parts of Spain have been suffering from ongoing droughts for the better part of the last three years. The situation has been particularly bad in Catalonia and Andalusia, as well as parts of the Canary Island of Tenerife.

This past winter, reservoir levels in Barcelona fell to just 16 percent and the region declared a drought emergency in February 2024. This was the lowest level that had ever been recorded. Water restrictions were put in place, affecting Barcelona and 201 other municipalities in the region in total, over 6 million people and almost 80 percent of the Catalan population.

In Andalusia, at the start of the year, reservoir levels had plunged to an average of just 20 percent capacity and restrictions were put in place there too.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What and where are the drought water restrictions in Catalonia?

As well as agriculture and industry, water restrictions also have the potential to affect holidaymakers in Spain this summer because the rules mainly affected those with private swimming pools and gardens, although in many areas, particularly in and around Barcelona, personal usage was limited to 200 litres per day.

Typically, spring is the rainiest time in Spain and everyone was hoping for a return to normal conditions. Luckily there has been rainfall over the past few months and reservoir levels have risen slightly. 

The Ter-Llobregat Reservoir, which serves nearly six million people in the metropolitan area of Barcelona and part of Girona, is now up to 25 percent and heavy rains in Andalusia meant the levels there have risen to an average of 30 percent capacity.

Because of this, on Tuesday May 7th Catalonia announced that it would loosen restrictions and lift the state of emergency. The personal limits have risen to 230 litres per person per day and the agriculture, livestock and industry sectors will have a little more water for their needs.

Patrícia Plaja, spokesperson for the Government of Catalonia said: “The increase in reserves allows the restrictions of the last three months to be lifted and for us to exit the emergency phase,” however she also warned that “the drought is not over.”

The levels are still very low and although Spain’s regions are no longer at the highest level of drought emergency, they are still experiencing drought and some restrictions are still in place and likely will in some form over the summer.

Various measures have been put in place over the last few months to try and help rectify the situation. Barcelona announced it would fight the drought with a floating desalination plant and dictated that hotel swimming pools should be open to the general public. 12 desalination plants are also slated to be installed on the Costa Brava.

Though the situation has definitely improved ahead of the long dry summer months, tourists still need to be aware of the situation.

People spend the day at the WaterWorld aquatic park, in Lloret de Mar, Catalonia. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP)

Will drought restrictions affect summer holidays in Spain?

Though the signs are cautiously optimistic following the rainy Easter period, drought restrictions in some parts of the country could still affect summer holidays in Spain.

Public and private community pools can now be topped up once again in Catalonia, but cannot be completely refilled if they were completely empty. Single use private pools are prohibited from both being refilled completely and topped up.

This means that if you’ve rented a private villa in the region that advertises a pool, you may want to check if it will be filled or not as chances are if it has to be re-filled, it may not be possible.

Cleaning streets and watering grass in public and private gardens with drinking water remains prohibited. This may mean that parks and gardens will appear browner and dryer than usual and streets may be dirtier (and slightly smellier than usual). Cars can only be washed at specialised establishments, you cannot wash them yourself.

Local government in Tenerife recently declared a state of emergency due to the critical water situation on the island. There are restrictions in place in several areas of the island, though it seems the brunt of water restrictions are focused on irrigation systems used in the agricultural sector for now.

Water authorities in the Valencia region, however, have indicated that no urban water restrictions are expected to be necessary this summer nor at any point this year, except in small municipalities in inland Castellón.

Andalusia’s Minister of Sustainability and Environment, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, announced on Tuesday that “the filling of swimming pools will be allowed” in Málaga province this summer, something that was until recently unclear due to the ongoing restrictions.

Owing to the Easter rains and subsequent refilling of the region’s reservoirs, the Junta gave the green light to the filling of pools throughout Málaga province, including the Axarquia area, one of the hardest hit by drought conditions. Until now, the filling of community pools was allowed, but has now been extended to pools in neighbouring urbanisations and private homes, something many tourists will be thankful for this summer.

However, there are still some municipalities in which water consumption per person per day is still restricted to 180, 200 or 225 litres depending on the area and the local rules.

“The amount of water is being maintained… it would be another matter if we had a May in which it rained a lot, but at the moment it doesn’t look like that is going to happen,” said Fernández-Pacheco.

In Cádiz and Almería, locals are still waiting to see if the restrictions will also be eased further ahead of summer. Regarding swimming pools, Fernández-Pacheco pointed out that this latest decision concerns the rules in Málaga only. “The Junta will study area by area,” he said.

This means that summer rules remain up in the air until the region’s drought committees meet again. The next meeting is scheduled for sometime in May.

However, if developments in Catalonia and Málaga are anything to go by, some restrictions, particularly on pools, could be lifted following the recent rains but daily per person consumption limits could remain in place.

Though it seems likely that some restrictions could be eased ahead of the busy summer season, the affected regions, which are also often popular tourist destinations, are still at risk of drought regardless of short-term rainfall.

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