To non-Europeans, it can be surprising to learn that even after more than two centuries of passenger railway travel in Europe, the Continent is still creating new train services.
Don’t assume you have to rent a car or fly to get between Europe’s major cities. You can do it cheaper, and traveling by train, where you can remain connected with the landscape passing by, is better.
These three new rail services in Europe are now available—all at surprisingly low prices.
Ouigo low-cost trains
A train operator called Ouigo is refurbishing retired railway carriages and putting them back into service as low-priced alternatives to more expensive rail services. Ouigo already offers affordable service around the major cities of France and Spain, but on December 19 Ouigo launches a new route between Brussels and Paris three times daily.
The new Ouigo service goes between Paris Gare du Nord station and Bruxelles Midi station—both of them principal rail terminals in the heart of each city. The best part? One-way fares for the 3-hour journey are just €10 if you buy ahead.
Compare that price to taking an airline. The cheapest airfare we can find for the same city pair today is $259 on Brussels Airlines.
If you wanted to take Eurostar, the more established high-speed rail company, tickets can be had today for $43, but Eurostar fares are usually much more than that. Eurostar gets you there in about an hour and a half, but then again, even its outlier lowest prices are more than quadruple the standard price of Ouigo.
Paris–Berlin high-speed direct service
Budget travelers to Europe have long bemoaned the fact that there have been no easy rail connections between Berlin and the rest of Western Europe. For years, travelers going to Berlin had to change trains two or three times, often at odd hours. Services were often canceled as networks were redesigned, so many people simply decided it would be much easier to fly.
But on December 16, Deutsche Bahn ICE, Germany’s high-speed service (that’s often late, but improvements are being made), is finally starting a daytime high-speed route between Paris and Berlin.
According to Europe By Rail, the last direct service between the two cities halted nearly a decade ago. The new service between Paris Gare de l’Est station and Berlin Hauptbahnhof, both near the center of their cities, takes 8 hours and stops in Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, and Frankfurt along the way.
The starting price? Just €59 (about US$63) for making an advance purchase, which many tourists do.
According to Visit Berlin, use of the Deutsche Bahn rail system to travel between countries in Europe has increased by nearly 20% since the pandemic. Improvements like this, which officials are hailing as the very first high-speed, no-change connection that links the city centers of Paris and Berlin, are a big reason why.
Nightjet budget sleeper trains
Nightjet (pictured above) is a specially branded overnight train from Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) that operates in the middle regions of Europe, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. Nightjet trains have come online and offline as various infrastructure improvements have been carried out on the rail networks.
In 2024, newly designed cars came into service that contain some novel and cleverly designed “Mini Cabin” couchettes that aren’t much different from a Japanese capsule hotel yet still cost about what a spot in a standard shared compartment would cost. They’re a boon for budget travelers who want to see Europe without blowing the bank.
A train-focused YouTuber called Superalbs Travels documented his journey on the cars’ maiden voyage between Vienna and Hamburg, Germany. The video below gives you a good idea of what you’ll experience on the 12-hour trip. Astonishingly, the price for traveling the 740 miles between the two cities was just €75, or about US$80. That’s less than 11 cents a mile. (As a counterpoint, this other YouTuber hated it.)
Compare that to the €103 ($110) that Eurowings quotes for a Vienna–Hamburg flight with checked baggage, which is the lowest price we could find today for a ticket with a month’s advance purchase.
When you take an overnight train like Nightjet, you also save on the cost of a hotel for that night.
Nightjet offers an overnight service on that previously cumbersome Paris–Berlin route, too. It’s not hard to find a ticket for a couchette—so you can take the 14-hour trip lying down in privacy instead of sitting in a chair—for as little as €70.
ÖBB is now retrofitting more old-fashioned cars into these newfangled Nightjet carriages that will soon enter service in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
There are a lot more developments in European rail than these three examples, but these new services will prove to be some of the most valuable for budget travelers.
Advocates estimate that taking a train instead of flying the same route expends about a tenth of the CO2 emissions—or fewer. In Europe, where new modes of train travel are still under active development, you can plainly see that train travel can save you a lot of money as well.