From the New York Times:

“Passenger numbers have doubled since Nightjet began operating in 2016, and ÖBB said it carried 1.4 million people on the service last year”.

Middle-aged men’s least favourite human was in the mix as usual:

“After the climate activist Greta Thunberg sailed the Atlantic in treacherous waters just to avoid flying to a United Nations summit in New York this summer, many travellers in Europe pledged never to fly again, or at least to drop short-haul flights for trains and buses”.

Other nudges towards trains are creeping in European consciousness, and wallets:

“Germany will raise its tax on flights to domestic and European Union destinations beginning in April, while the value-added tax on train tickets will be reduced in January.”

And why not a couple of “funny” comment from the comments section to round off the day:

“We just finished two weeks of trains in Germany and France. No chance for the NightJet but we would do so in a second if we could or needed to.

“So with speeds up to 180 mph I could put my expresso or beer down and not have it be disturbed or spilled. Then we land in San Francisco and take BART. Pretty damn big difference. The US is slipping further and further behind. Sad but predictable…”

And:

“When you travel on European or Japanese modern rail systems and Bullet Trains you instantly realise that the USA is now near 3rd world standards on infrastructure…”

Ouchy ouch.