Climate-conscious travelers are jumpstarting Europe’s sleeper trains

After being gently rocked awake in her sleeper cabin, Sarah Marks spent the morning of her 29th birthday watching the Alps zip past the windows of her overnight train to Zurich.

“The train comes in right next to the lake, with the mountains coming up behind it,” Marks said wistfully. “Very romantic, I have to say.”

By the time of that 2022 journey from Zagreb, Croatia, it had been four years since she had taken a flight— since around the time Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg began to spread the term flygskam, or “flight shame.”

They join an increasing number of climate-conscious Europeans, particularly younger travelers, who are shunning carbon-spewing airplanes in favor of overnight trains. In the process, they’ve spurred something of a night-train revival while discovering what many say is a slower, richer way of traveling, one that had been on the edge of extinction.

“Being able to fall asleep in one city and wake up maybe even in another country, it’s amazing to me,” said Marks, a Londoner who grew up flying several times a year. “When I switched the plane for the train, it was a no-brainer because, also, this is a superior experience.”

REINVESTMENT, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

Though still a niche and relatively pricey market, demand for sleeper trains is increasing. The online platform Trainline said overnight bookings in 2023 rose 147% compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic. And a climate survey by the European Investment Bank found that 62 percent of respondents supported a ban on short flights.

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