STILL RUNNING: An Italian sleeper train at Syracuse in Sicily in 2013

A campaign is under way to save Europe’s night trains and motorail trains which Deutsche Bahn wants to axe.

Although used by many British travellers, a new petition is being aimed at the German minister of transport Alexander Dobrindt and MP Martin Burkert, who is chairman of the transport committee of the German federal parliament.

The petition asks politicians to step in because the DB board has decided to close all night and motorail trains by 10 December 2016 “at the latest”.

DB is accused of acting in spite of protests, including representations to the DB supervisory board.

The campaigners say it is now up to the owner – the Federal Republic of Germany – to overrule these decisions and provide that DB will do the one thing it gets billions ox taxpayers’ money: help people travel comfortably and safely.

Campaigners have also printed 10,000 post cards that can be ordered and which you can hand out to fellow travellers.

They promise further “activities” in the next days, weeks and months.

Their slogan is: Stop the managers, not the night trains!

The petition says:

“I ask you as representatives of the owner of Deutsche Bahn - the citizens - to strive for maintaining the night and motorail trains.

“Why is this important?

“Deutsche Bahn AG wants to terminate all night and motorail trains with sleeping, couchette and seated cars by the end of 2016, at the latest. Instead of them, ICE or IC trains and bus coaches shall be on the roads during the night.

“This would mean an unacceptable cutback of service and a gap in the European transport offer:

“By taking night trains for connections like Hamburg-Zurich or Amsterdam-Munich, one gains the day for work or leisure. On longer routes like Copenhagen-Lyon or Berlin-Rome, night and motorail trains save a stop to spend the night in a hotel.

“If night and motorail trains will be dismantled, more traffic would hit the roads, and there would be more short and middle distance flights. This contradicts the obligations of the Paris Climate Summit of 2015 and the self-declared climate protection goals of Deutsche Bahn AG.”

Railfuture members will be among the European Passengers Federation members considering the position at their conference in Berlin in April.

British campaigners can also sign the petition which can be found at:

Rettet die Nacht und Autozuge

See also:
Back on Track