Another new night train may soon be joining Europe’s growing fleet.
Proposals are underway for a direct connection between Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden.
The project is currently awaiting approval from the Swiss Parliament. If it gets the green light, the service will run three times a week, starting in mid-April next year.
New night train to connect Basel, Copenhagen and Malmö
This week, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) unveiled plans for the new night train, which will travel from Basel to Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmö in Sweden
A spokesperson for the company said the new service is “making climate-friendly travel to Northern Europe even more accessible”, and added that it “meets the growing demand for sustainable, cross-border mobility”.
The EuroNight will run three times a week in both directions, with the first service slated to depart on 15 April, 2026.
The sleeper will leave from Basel at 5:35pm on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The journey will take 16 hours, arriving in Malmö at 9:35am, according to SBB.
From Malmö, trains will depart at 6:57pm on Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays and arrive in Basel at 11:30am, a journey time of 16 hours 30 minutes.
The train will cover a distance of around 1,400 kilometres. En route, it will stop in Freiburg (Breisgau), Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Frankfurt (Main) Süd and Hamburg in Germany, and Padborg, Kolding, Odense, Høje Taastrup and Copenhagen Airport in Denmark.
Due to scheduling constraints, the service won’t stop at Copenhagen Central Station, but travellers can reach the Danish capital from Høje Taastrup or Copenhagen Airport in around 15 minutes using the S-Bahn urban railway.
The sleeper will be able to accommodate around 350 passengers in sleeping, couchette and seating carriages.
Tickets for the EuroNight service are expected to go on sale starting 4 November.
New sleeper train awaits government funding
Night trains are fast becoming one of the most popular ways to travel around Europe. But their progress is being halted by problems of high running costs.
Recently, Austrian national rail operator ÖBB announced its night trains linking Paris with Vienna and Berlin will be discontinued from mid-December following the French government’s withdrawal of funding.
The proposal for the new sleeper from Switzerland to Sweden is still pending as the rail company is awaiting approval for government financial support.
The Swiss government has earmarked CHF47 million (€50.6 million) through 2030 to support international night train services as part of the CO2 Act, which aims to halve the country’s emissions in the next 5 years. However, this still needs to be approved by parliament in the winter session.
Should the funding not be approved, SBB says it will inform customers and refund any tickets that have already been booked.