The state railway company of the Czech Republic, České dráhy, is reorganizing its night train offer. In future, this will appear under the “ČD Night” brand. The launch of a new connection between Prague and Zurich via Germany has also been announced.

Company boss Michal Krapinec announced that 246 million Czech crowns (about 10 million euros) will be invested in the expansion of night train connections. They also want to modernize existing rolling stock and purchase new sets.

České dráhy currently operates daily night trains with sleeping and couchette cars from Prague to Warsaw, Žilina, Budapest via Bratislava and via České Budějovice and Innsbruck to Zurich. In December 2022, a new night connection will be launched via Dresden, Frankfurt and Basel to Zurich. In the coming year, the state railway operator will then have five regular night lines in the network. Numerous other connections are already being offered in cooperation with partners such as ÖBB. These are, for example, the routes: Štýrský Hradec - Vienna - Vienna - Breclav - Bohumín - Wrocław - Berlin, Štýrský Hradec - Vienna - Breclav - Bohumín - Warsaw, Budapest - Bratislava - Bratislava - Breclav - Bohumín - Warsaw, Budapest - Bratislava – Breclav – Bohumín – Berlin and Prague – Brno – Košice.

“We want to give night traffic another boost. In our case, it's not just a new look, a logo and a few colorful images, but also concrete, concrete changes," emphasized Krapinec, who also announced tough competition for airlines. At the same time, the ČD boss is calling for kerosene to be taxed and for night trains to abolish or at least reduce the usual track usage fees.

The new night train connection to Zurich leaves Prague main station at 18:25 p.m. Afterwards there are stopovers in Praha-Holesovice, Usti nad Labem hl.n., Decin hl.n., Bad Schandau, Dresden Hbf, Dresden-Neustadt, Riesa, Leipzig main station, Naumburg(Saale) main station, Frankfurt(Main) main station, Mannheim main station, Karlsruhe main station, Baden-Baden, Offenburg, Freiburg(Breisgau) main station, Basel Bad Bf, Basel SBB, before Zurich main station the next morning 9:05 am is reached. The return journeys leave Zurich main station at 19:59 p.m. and will arrive at Prague main station at 9:35 a.m. the following day.