Overview
- French media report the government has decided not to renew start-up aid for the two international night routes operated with ÖBB and Deutsche Bahn.
- If the funding ends, the services could stop as soon as December 13 or by January 1, according to user groups and broadcast reports.
- The trains currently run roughly three days per week rather than daily, a shortfall that campaigners say undermines financial viability.
- Load factors are around 60%, yet the routes remain loss-making due to limited nightly rotations and higher operating costs typical of sleeper services.
- The collective "Oui au train de nuit" organized a protest at Paris’s Gare de l’Est to defend the lines, while SNCF Voyageurs and the Transport Ministry have not commented.