Some start-ups, but also established railway companies, have suspected a real night train boom. However, this has not really happened to date. With Green City Trip, another private provider is throwing in the towel. This also has an impact on the Tui Group.

The Austrian Ministry of Transport, which describes itself as the Ministry of Climate Protection, invests an enormous amount of money in subsidizing night trains. Apart from the fact that the Austrian Federal Railways are purchasing new sets and modernizing older ones, the passengers don't really benefit from it. Traveling by night trains is an expensive pleasure and in many cases more expensive than alternatives using your own car or plane. Nevertheless, proponents of night trains present them as a real savior for the climate and the future of travel.

It always depends on the perspective whether something is climate-friendly or not. Especially when it comes to night trains, a rather one-sided presentation dominates because it ignores the fact that many carriages are left standing around during the day and cannot be used for other purposes. When it comes to the origin of the traction current, it is often ignored that in many EU countries it is generated from coal-fired power and is therefore not at all climate-friendly. Diesel locomotives have to be used on some routes because there is simply no contact wire or there are too few electric locomotives that can handle different power frequencies. But there is a much simpler reason: it can simply be cheaper to run under contact wires with diesel than to use expensive traction current. However, the case mentioned is more common in cargo traffic and less often in passenger traffic.

Despite the partnership with Tui, it didn't pay off

In the free market economy, supply and demand usually regulate the price. If you believe the proponents of night trains alone, then the operation of such train services would be a real gold mine. At least that's what some start-ups believed, and smaller providers are increasingly coming down to earth. The booking numbers are rather weak, which is partly due to the fact that you are hardly known and tickets cannot simply be bought at the train station or on the homepage of the respective state railway, but only via your own website. Added to this is the fact that many potential passengers do not want to take extremely long train journeys at an often very high price when there is a faster and usually cheaper alternative by air. The main competitor is and remains your own car. Traditionally, many Europeans tend to prefer to sit in the car forever rather than get on a train.

The night train operator Green City Trip is now giving up operating its night trains. The conditions weren't bad at all, because the Tui Group was a strong sales partner. In some cases, some connections were operated exclusively on behalf of the German group of companies. These were marketed as Ski Express. But it obviously wasn't enough, otherwise the company wouldn't give up operating its own night trains.

Tui-Ski trains will run during the day in the future

The Dutch start-up has canceled its planned expansion and is completely withdrawing from its own operation of night trains. In the future, they want to drive during the day in cooperation with Go Volta. However, the sets are not owned, but rather leased. They also want to become active in Germany and thus compete with Flixtrain and smaller providers of Deutsche Bahn AG.

The night trains are said to have had a occupancy rate of 93 percent. No precise information was given about the income, but it is said to have been insufficient, so that losses were incurred with the night trains. Due to the discontinuation of the nightly connections under our own brand, the collaboration with the Tui Group will also end.

However, he has agreed with Go Volta that they will continue to work together. However, the Tui Ski trains will no longer run at night, but during the day. For travelers, this should mean that ticket prices will be reduced. However, the advantage of being able to sleep in a bed on the train and arrive at your holiday destination well rested is lost. It remains to be seen how potential customers will react to the changed offer. Especially among winter sports enthusiasts from Germany, many could switch to their own car, as this offers more flexibility on vacation.