A few weeks ago, I was convinced that night trains in France were no longer. I remember reading about their demise a couple of years ago. Or so I thought.

Turns out I was wrong! There are still four of them!

Long story short, I went down a rabbit hole, joined a few mailing lists, and discovered that there is a bit of a night train resurgence happening across Europe, despite the sector being given up for dead only a couple of years ago. It’s bubbling under the surface, but it’s such a big movement, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before it hits the mainstream.

Things change fast. Really fast.

So, why this? And why now?

The climate happened, for one. It’s hard to avoid one’s daily dose of the coming climate apocalypse in today’s media environment. It can be done, but you have to swallow a lot of Fox or a lot of Rupert. Leaves an oily aftertaste, I find. These increasingly in-our-faces horror scenarios do seem to be having a slow burning effect on the general population, including even the most cynical oil barrel huggers out there. Ok, I made that last bit up, but you can always hope, right?

The start of a backlash against criminally cheap plane tickets is underway too, sometimes coming from the strangest places.

And then there is flygskam, the Swedish concept of flight shame. Feeling bad about flying. Deciding to take the train instead.

It’s really huge in Sweden, and Sweden is not cut off from the world. Flygskam is coming for us all, folks!

Being humans, the Swedes now also excel at tagskryt, also known as train-bragging.

When it comes to short-haul flights in Europe, I’ve slowly started pestering some friends about their unsustainable addiction to this kind of convenience. Some of them may be reconsidering their friendship. I never liked you anyway, Bob! Unfriend me, you gas-guzzling climate criminal!

I’ll have more to say about night trains soon. Until then, sweet night train dreams to you all.