it’s December in Europe.

In fact it’s December everywhere. But what does December in Europe mean?

Christmas?

Nope! it’s when the next twelve months’ train timetables kick in with a bang!

And truly, this year, they’re a sight for sore eyes!

Lots of juicy titbits from the Oui au Train de Nuit mailing list in France:

• The night train from Paris to Tarbes and Lourdes (southern France) is back on track since yesterday evening!

• The new Paris — Vienna night train kicks off tomorrow! It trundles via Strasbourg and Munich

• After 9 months of track works, the Paris — Briançon (South-eastern France, Citadel, Ski-ing) kicked off again last night too. With renovated couchette cars! This is Briançon:

• The Paris — Portbou (Spanish border) night train has a new stop at Narbonne (to pick up rugby players and fans of Marine Le Pencil)

• A new shower zone has been inaugurated at Paris Austerlitz station, perfect for giving yourself a deep clean after your night train pulls in and before you have to rush off to work

• The recently returned Paris — Nice night train is totally killing it, with an average of over 90% occupancy over the last few months. You make money when your train is 90% full.

• Poland’s PKP train company is looking at bringing back the Paris — Warsaw night train in the next two years! Totally awesome, dude. This plus European Sleeper (of which I am a shareholder) is considering bringing in a Warsaw — Brussels — Ostend (Belgian seaside) night train too

• Italy has ordered 70 new night train wagons for its trains that go to Sicily (involving rolling the train onto a ferry between the mainland and the island!)

• The Berlin to Malmö (Sweden) night train has been up and running since summer, and has now been extended to Stockholm

• Norway is looking at an Oslo — Copenhagen night train for around 2024 (the day train currently takes around 8 hours, i.e., most of a day)

• The private Czech operator RegioJet is looking at a Berlin — Ljubljana — Zagreb for the end of next year! They’re also looking at Krakow — Zagreb.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that it’s Go Gadget Arms! again with night trains in Europe.

C’est fantastique!