Sleeper trains are undeniably the transport of the moment right now. New routes have received a flurry of media attention, and travellers are bumping a night on the rails to the top of their bucket lists.

In fact, passenger data from France suggests night trains could continue to see record traveller numbers – if only supply could meet the demand.

According to a recent report by French climate campaign group Réseau Action Climat, the biggest challenge facing the success of sleeper services is a lack of trains.

France’s night trains see record passengers in 2024

Night trains in France are on track to be one of the country’s most popular forms of transport. 2024 was a record year for the sleeper services, with more than a million passengers using them in France.

Night trains were 76 per cent full on average, and even more than 80 per cent full on the two main routes, Paris-Toulouse and Paris-Nice.

The line between Paris and Toulouse attracted nearly 100,000 additional passengers between 2019 and 2024 (growth of 64 per cent).

Night trains are becoming an increasingly popular option with business travellers, who made up 30 per cent of users in 2023.

On the only two international lines (Paris-Vienna and Paris-Berlin), passenger numbers were also high, despite numerous delays and a three-month suspension of services in 2024.

According to a survey by the Europe on Rails collective, 72 per cent of French people would be willing to take the night train if the ticket price was acceptable and the connection available.

France is struggling to meet night train demand

While these soaring passenger numbers should be a positive sign, France’s limited fleet of trains can’t cope with the demand.

In fact, this is forcing travellers to choose alternative, often more polluting forms of transport, or cancel their trip completely, the climate group’s report found.

To relieve congestion on existing lines and open new ones, it found, France needs to expand its fleet far beyond the current 129 sleeper cars.

Plus, lines need to expand to connect cities other than Paris to other European hubs.

Night trains are a multi-beneficial solution

The report stresses that getting night trains back on the right track would have multiple benefits.

Firstly, they are an effective way of connecting rural or isolated areas with cities without requiring passengers to change mid-journey.

Although longer than flying, night trains are also a more environmentally friendly way to get between Europe’s major cities.

Of the 10 main air links from France to the rest of Europe, at least six could be made by night train (Paris-Madrid, Paris-Barcelona, ​​Paris-Milan, Paris-Rome, Nice-London, Paris-Venice).

Choosing a sleeper service over a high-speed TGV daytime equivalent can also save you money.

The night train from Paris to Toulouse, for example, starts at nearly €30 cheaper than the TGV, and you don’t need to pay for a night in a hotel.

How France can revolutionise its night train offering

The report proposes two options for expansion with a deadline of 2035.

The less ambitious goal is to reach a fleet of 340 sleeper cars, which would allow for the reopening of lines such as Paris-Barcelona or Nice-Strasbourg.

This scenario would make it possible to transport 3.6 million passengers and save 400,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, it says.

The more ambitious proposal is to expand to 600 cars, which is the fleet size recommended by the Ministry of Transport’s 2024 report on night trains.

This would allow for the reopening of lines such as Paris-Venice or Bordeaux-Lyon, making it possible to transport 5.8 million passengers and save 800,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

By 2040, the report proposes an expansion to 1,200 cars, which would pave the way for international lines without going through Paris (e.g., Lyon-Rome, Nantes-Barcelona, ​​Marseille-London).

These would carry 12 million passengers and save 2 million tons of CO2 equivalent.

“The record ridership in 2024 demonstrates the French people’s appetite for night trains,” Réseau Action Climat writes.

“Political will was there when it came to reversing the trend in 2020 and relaunching night lines. It is needed again today to change the scale.”

Travellers heading to or through Switzerland this summer may find themselves unexpectedly grounded.

The country’s national airline, Swiss, has confirmed it will cancel around 1,400 flights from now through October as it confronts an ongoing shortage of pilots.

The cuts will affect multiple short-haul routes from Zurich and Geneva, including flights across Europe. Some long-haul services, such as those to Shanghai and Chicago, will also operate less frequently.

And some routes, including its summer service to Hurghada in Egypt, have been suspended entirely.

What Swiss is doing to address the shortfall

Swiss says it ‘deeply regrets’ the situation and has introduced a range of short-term fixes to address its pilot shortage. Those include a voluntary retirement deferral program, a vacation buyback scheme and encouraging part-time pilots to increase hours.

The airline is also working with its pilot union, Aeropers, to improve roster flexibility and reduce last-minute, fatigue-related absences – all measures meant to help the national carrier alleviate its need for about 70 more full-time pilots.

Swiss has promised to notify passengers of changes as early as possible. Affected travellers will be rebooked on flights with Swiss, the Lufthansa Group, other carriers in the Star Alliance network or – in the worst-case scenario – any other available airline.

Passengers can also rebook or request a full refund.

Could this be Europe’s summer of cancellations?

Swiss is not the only airline facing turbulence. Carriers across Europe are trimming schedules and forming contingency plans to cope with a mounting shortage of cockpit crew.

KLM has publicly acknowledged difficulties staffing long-haul flights this summer, even though it claims to have more pilots than ever on its roster.

“Sick leave and part-time work have increased in recent years. We lose around 50 full-time jobs a year due to all the part-time work,” Eimerd Bult, head of KLM’s flight service, said last September, as reported by Dutch newspaper the Telegraaf.

Air France pilots are temporarily operating KLM flights on certain routes, including Amsterdam to New York, from July until October this year.

British Airways and easyJet, meanwhile, are aggressively recruiting new staff, battling one another with competitive perks to poach from their rivals and lure back retired pilots.

British Airways, for example, has offered to foot the bill for pilot training – which can cost as much as €100,000 – for up to 60 prospects per year.

This comes after the airline suspended several short-haul routes this summer, including flights from London Gatwick to Santorini and Mykonos, and select routes from Heathrow to Greece and Croatia.

Why are there so few pilots?

The pandemic paused new pilot training and accelerated retirements, a one-two punch the industry has yet to recover from. In the US alone, the FAA projects about 4,300 pilot retirements each year through 2042.

Europe faces a similar crunch. Although some airlines previously had long waiting lists for pilot slots, today they’re easing language and nationality requirements to widen the pool.

The problem isn’t just retirement, though. It’s the pipeline.

Boeing’s long-term outlook estimates that the world will need 674,000 new pilots over the next two decades. By 2032, consulting firm Oliver Wyman says the sector could lack nearly 80,000 pilots globally.

Europe alone could be 19,000 pilots short of demand.

What does this mean for summer flyers?

Travellers with short-haul bookings, especially those involving connections, should brace for disruption as European carriers thin their summer schedules.

Experts caution that these tighter schedules may result in fewer direct flights, longer layovers and more competition for seats. Travellers are advised to book early, allow extra time for transfers and monitor airline notifications closely.

Though rebooking and refund policies are in place, securing the best alternative could come down to how fast you move.

This autumn, Deutsche Bahn (DB), Germany’s national railway company, will begin rolling out a new digital infrastructure that it says will streamline international rail bookings.

The move is part of a long-awaited push to simplify travel across Europe’s patchwork of national railway networks.

“[You will] be able to book an international journey just as easily as a domestic one,” Michael Peterson, DB’s board member for long-distance transport, told German press agency DPA.

“This brings us closer to a major goal,” he continued: seamless cross-border rail travel across Europe, powered by a unified digital system and regulations backed by the EU.

What’s changing, and when?

Starting this autumn, DB will adopt a new data-sharing standard known as OSDM (Open Sales and Distribution Model). This EU-endorsed interface is intended to give European rail operators instant access to each other’s ticketing systems.

Using the OSDM as a framework, DB says it aims to offer integrated ticketing for virtually all major European railways by the end of 2026, including local transport, through its website and DB Navigator app.

Rail expert Jon Worth is quick to point out that this will not be a single ticket, but rather “a better way to stitch together tickets from different railways,” however.

DB will initially integrate with Austria and Switzerland’s national operators – the ÖBB and SBB, respectively – with other operators to follow in the coming months.

Currently, booking international train tickets through DB’s platform can be confusing, limited and, in many cases, expensive.

While passengers can already buy some cross-border tickets running through Germany, many popular routes still require piecing together fares from different companies or making sense of multiple national rail sites. No single rail provider can cover a journey from Berlin to Barcelona, for example.

Why does this matter?

Aside from convenience, the new system could begin to address a gap in passenger rights.

Currently, travellers using separate tickets for different legs of a cross-border trip risk losing protection if a delay causes a missed connection. Addressing this issue – and ensuring full passenger rights throughout the journey, including rebooking and reimbursement – is such a priority that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has made it a cornerstone of her second term.

“Cross-border train travel is still too difficult for many citizens,” she wrote in 2024.

“People should be able to use open booking systems to purchase trans-European journeys with several providers, without losing their right to reimbursement or compensatory travel.”

But such protection isn’t yet guaranteed.

Worth says that the OSDM doesn’t compel rail operators to sell unified tickets. It also doesn’t ensure consistent enforcement of passenger rights.

“What DB is doing is welcome for Germany, in particular, but it is insufficient,” he explains.

“To get genuine portals on which you can book any train anywhere in Europe, we need more than a technical standard – which is what DB is implementing, essentially – but [rather] binding rules for data sharing, commissions for ticket re-sale and better passenger rights if something goes wrong in a multi-operator rail journey.”

Cross-border rail travel still faces some friction

The initiative comes amid increasing pressure from Brussels.

EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas has said he plans to propose legislation to create unified platforms and make full passenger rights mandatory.

That’s causing some concern for DB – “already one of the best” rail operators in Europe, according to Worth.

Peterson warned that a digital standard other than the OSDM could undermine years of investment. “That costs money, that costs time,” he said.

Despite the lingering challenges, DB is optimistic. The company recently launched a direct high-speed ICE route between Berlin and Paris and plans further expansions.

In 2024, DB also saw a 22 per cent increase in cross-border ticket sales compared to pre-pandemic levels – its best year yet.

Now, with better tools, more collaboration and upcoming legislation, Europe’s railways could finally begin to catch up with the expectations of climate-conscious travellers – and deliver on the promise of a truly connected continent.