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Changes to Swiss Night Trains

Had a memo recently saying that night trains in and out of Zurich are back

That might be handy when you are able to travel to Switzerland.

From the release (all below is a quote):

What night train service offer is currently available?
The resumption of night trains currently discontinued is planned as follows from 26 June 2020:

From 26 June 2020 onwards:

Nightjet (NJ) from Graz to Zurich.
Nightjet (NJ) from Wien to Zurich.
From 27 June 2020 onwards:

Nightjet (NJ) from Zurich to Berlin.
Nightjet (NJ) from Zurich to Hamburg.
From 28 June 2020 onwards:

Nightjet (NJ) from Berlin to Zurich.
Nightjet (NJ) from Hamburg to Zurich.
EuroNight (EN) from Praha (Prague) to Zurich.
EuroNight (EN) from Zagreb to Zurich.
From 29 June 2020 onwards:

Nightjet (NJ) from Zurich to Wien.
Nightjet (NJ) from Zurich to Graz.
EuroNight (EN) from Zurich to Praha (Prague).
EuroNight (EN) from Zurich to Zagreb.
From 30 June 2020 onwards:

EuroNight (EN) from Budapest to Zurich (seating carriages only).

From 1 July 2020 onwards:

EuroNight (EN) from Zurich to Budapest (seating carriages only).

The EuroNight (EN) couchettes and sleeping cars from Zurich to Budapest will remain suspended until further notice.

Tickets are available to purchase on SBB.ch and at SBB counters with immediate effect.
You can find up-to-date information about the reinstatement of night train connections on the ÖBB Nightjet website.

Posted by
911 posts

Other than the obvious - that the trains run at night - what makes these trains different from other trains that SBB runs?

Posted by
33820 posts

The SBB doesn't run them (mostly). They run on Swiss rails and with Swiss crews within Switzerland but they are run by Öbb, the Austrian railways.

They are, like most night trains, much slower.

Posted by
911 posts

Ok, that still doesn't clear it up. They go slower so you can sleep? Sorry, I don't live where taking trains is common so pretty ignorant.

Posted by
1300 posts

If you are asking for a general introduction to night trains then this probably is as good a place to start as anywhere:

https://www.seat61.com/sleepers.htm

Although I notice a couple of the service listed above say "seating carriages only", and I suppose a night train would just be one that goes at night. like the old "night mail crossing the border", but broadly when people talk about "night trains" here they really mean those specially configured for sleeping, so they have carriages made up of beds or "berths" in sleeper and/or couchette compartments.

Posted by
911 posts

Nick, thank you. Just getting back to this topic. Much clearer now. I kept seeing mentions of night trains reading about Swiss train passes and was afraid I'd do something wrong. Not that I'm likely to do it anytime soon given the current situation. Thanx again.