The new generation night train has now officially received approval to operate in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, the European Union Railway Agency (ERA) announced on Friday. The decision also includes approval for the version for daytime traffic – i.e. the new Railjet.
As part of the timetable change on December 10th, the new Nightjet will be put into real use, as has been widely reported. Initially, the new Nightjet generation will serve the routes from Vienna or Innsbruck to Hamburg and back. The new ÖBB night train will then gradually be used on other existing routes – for example, it runs from Vienna to Genoa or to Brussels. From next autumn onwards, ÖBB boss Andreas Matthä recently announced to guests of honor, train fans and journalists at the train launch at Vienna Central Station that there will be trips to the EU metropolis every night instead of just three times a week.
Picture gallery: This is what the new ÖBB Nightjet looks like
New Nightjet presented (Photo: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT) Bild 1/9
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The new rail and night jets are equipped with modern technologies: In addition to the completely new mini cabins, which are intended to offer single travelers significantly more comfort, the lightweight bogies bring sustainability to rail, according to Siemens.
These were developed in Graz and are 30 percent lighter than conventional running gear, which results in significantly lower energy consumption over the train’s entire service life of around 30 years. The windows for optimized mobile phone reception were also developed in Vienna and are used on both night trains and day trains. The trains are also built in Austria – at Siemens in Vienna.
