Are night trains in higher demand in 2026?
We checked 22 representative sleeper connections in May 2026 – and compared them with the same snapshot from a year ago. Did night trains gain in popularity?
The short answer: availability is almost exactly where it was a year ago. There is no apparent "Gulf war" effect that would drive people into the hands of night train operators because of high kerosine prices. Also fares barely moved.
On average, only about a tenth of bookable dates in the summer period are already sold out (11% for couchettes, 13% for sleeper compartments). While the situation for sleeper compartments is almost exactly the same as last year, couchettes lost a bit in popularity (11% sold out vs. 18% in 2025). Accordingly, their average price dropped by about 10€. Sleeper fares stayed the same.
Recommendation: Check our practical night train search engine for all offers and prices:
We can again testify that "constantly booked out night trains" are a myth. One month before the start of the busy summer period, it's still easy to book a place in that period. Given that a lot of people book their holidays months in advance, one would expect many more sold out dates if that claim was true.
However, some routes actually shifted quite a bit in demand. And there are as always exceptions to the rule. Check the following tables to get a better glance at the routes we compared.
Some routes got notably cheaper
The Vienna–Italy trains stand out. Both the Vienna → Venice and Venice → Vienna connections are around €34–36 cheaper for a sleeper than last year, with couchettes down too. Both routes had seats available on nearly every departure date last year, and that hasn't changed – the prices just came down.
Berlin–Zurich also shifted. Both NJ 408 and NJ 409 are easier to book than last year – more departure dates have sleepers available – and a bit cheaper too (around €10 less for a sleeper, €26–32 less for a couchette).
Connections to the North went the other way
NJ 470 (Zurich → Hamburg) got even harder to book and more expensive at the same time. Last May, about half the departure dates still had a sleeper available. This May it was closer to a quarter. And the average price went up by around €50. NJ 471 in the other direction also lost quite a bit of availability, with prices up by a similar amount. This might have to do with the new Nightjet rolling stock brought into operation last December.
The Amsterdam connections got more expensive too. NJ 402 and NJ 403 (Zurich ↔ Amsterdam) saw sleeper prices rise by around €38–39. NJ 40421 (Amsterdam → Vienna) is at once harder to book and pricier than last year.
Rome–Munich: reliably bookable, but pricier
The NJ 294 and NJ 295 between Rome and Munich were bookable on nearly every departure date last summer – and still are. What changed is the price: sleepers are around €25 more expensive per direction than a year ago.