Railteam

Night trains have made a comeback in Europe thanks to their low-carbon footprint, but after years of neglect, the renaissance has had a bumpy ride.

Operators admit that the trains are outdated - with passengers facing the occasional delays, technical problems or malfunctioning toilets - while companies compete in an overloaded network.

A cooperation agreement for the transfer of knowhow on railway issues was signed on Monday between Greek State Minister responsible for transport Giorgos Gerapetritis and French Transport Minister Clement Beaune.

Ljubljana, 28 March – A EuroNight train taking passengers from Slovakia’s Bratislava via Vienna to Croatia’s coastal city of Split later this year will cross Slovenia, with stops in the Slovenian towns of Maribor, Celje, Sevnica and Dobova.

Countries in Europe on Dec. 23 began easing travel bans on Britain put in place to contain a new strain of COVID-19 that U.K. officials believe spreads faster, as the U.S. said it had now vaccinated one million people.

France and Britain will reopen cross-border travel on Dec. 23 after a snap 48-hour ban to curb the spread of a new coronavirus variant threatened U.K. supply chains.

Much of Europe swiftly banned British travelers and U.K. freight entering their nations after the discovery of a more transmissible variant of COVID-19 in Britain.

Long-distance rail travel has come to a halt across Germany, with regional trains also heavily affected, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and the southwestern cities of Karlsruhe and Mannheim. There are also cancelations in Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania, Hamburg and Lower Saxony, reported DW. 

Striking French rail workers disrupted train services for the seventh day this month on April 18, spurning government calls to end the industrial action over reforms at the state-owned SNCF railway company.

The head of French railway operator SNCF said on April 9 that rolling strikes that began last week have cost the company around 100 million euros ($123 million) as staff carried out further stoppages.

A rolling strike against railway reforms that is expected to cause traffic chaos is not justified, according to a small majority of French people in a poll published on Sunday, Reuters reports.

A showdown between French railway workers and President Emmanuel Macron's government grew more threatening on Tuesday after an internal labor union message suggested rail workers could paralyze services even outside of official strike days.