EUROPE: Further expansion of Austrian Federal Railways’ Nightjet overnight train network beyond the routes already announced is on hold amid ongoing operational and approvals challenges, according to ÖBB.
On September 9 the operator ran a special train for invited guests from Wien to Roma using its latest Siemens-supplied coaches ahead of the launch of regular services using the new rolling stock on the Wien/München – Roma route on September 10.
Welcoming the new fleet to Italy, ÖBB Chief Executive Andreas Matthä said the revamped rolling stock would create ‘a game changer for night train travel in Europe. It brings a huge leap in comfort and also offers significantly more privacy for our travellers. We are very pleased that we can now travel from Wien and München to Roma with this state-of-art modern night train.’
However, there are still a number of hurdles limiting the service from fulfilling its potential, which reflect a continent-wide challenge to ensure interoperability and cost-effective operation of overnight trains.
ÖBB reports that certification issues are preventing its Siemens Taurus locos from accessing the Italian high speed network, requiring the overnight trains to use conventional lines between Roma and Firenze’s SMN station, where a reversal is required. While ÖBB’s Class 1216 electrics have a notional maximum operating speed of 230 km/h, the Italian authorities have restricted them to 160 km/h, effectively precluding their use on RFI’s Alta Velocità/Alta Capacità routes.
As a result, the Roma service takes more than 4 h to complete the journey between Firenze and Roma Tiburtina, giving a relatively late arrival of 11.05 in the Italian capital. Use of 200 km/h electric locos provided by operating partner Trenitalia is also out of the question, because these are not configured to haul the Siemens Nightjet coaches.
Expansion on hold
Speaking exclusively to Railway Gazette International on the launch service, Kurt Bauer, Head of Long Distance Passenger Services & New Rail Business at ÖBB, reported that the Siemens trainsets were now in use on services between Wien/Innsbruck and Hamburg, and on the domestic Wien – Bregenz route.
Bauer explained that ÖBB needed 10 Nightjet formations from its initial batch of 13 for those services, with 20 more trains due to be supplied in future tranches. The first trains of the second batch will be delivered in 2025.
However, he admitted that this will not be enough to renew the whole Nightjet fleet. ‘Our plans are not to replace all older night carriages, and not to grow the night services network any further. The plan is to add more capacity on each route we are operating within the network. So we need the new rakes and older carriages to increase capacity.’
The end vehicles of the semi-permanently coupled Siemens formations are fitted with conventional RIC couplers, meaning that ÖBB will be able to run combined trains of old and new vehicles, adding car transporter wagons where required.
Harder than in the past
Regarding certification for use across borders, Bauer said the Siemens cars had so far been approved for use in Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, adding that ‘they will be certified for the Netherlands, and then we are going to decide further. We would like to do certification for the Czech Republic, because we want to run the new Nightjets from Austria to Berlin.’
Yet Bauer was frustrated that type approval remains a fraught undertaking. He said there are no plans at present to seek certification of the new Nightjets in France ‘because of the cost associated with the process’. He suggested that this was a ‘huge drawback’ compared to historical operating practices when ‘it was possible to go basically anywhere with the RIC coach’.
Meanwhile, ÖBB is making steady progress with approval of the driving trailer vehicles for the Nightjet formations. Currently, resource-intensive top-and-tail operation with two Taurus locos is being used for the Italian service; Bauer anticipated the cab cars would be approved for use in Austria and Germany next year and for Italy in 2026.
Engineering works pose headaches
Planning and delivery of overnight sleeping car services is also becoming more — not less — difficult, according to Bauer.
‘A huge difficulty for our Nightjet network is infrastructure maintenance and overhauls, usually executed during the night. As our Nightjet network is formed to have some shunting between the departure and the arrival points, and not simply going from A to B, finding alternative routes is usually complicated’, he explained.
Two major engineering blockades are looming over the next couple of years which could take key routes for night trains out of action for long periods. One is the Passau – Regensburg closure from late 2025, followed by the Salzburg – Rosenheim route in 2026. These works will require a wholesale recast of the Nightjet timetable, Bauer predicted.
