ÖBB presents night train strategy following record summer
ÖBB has laid out its strategy for the coming year. At the presentation of its new time table on Thursday, ÖBB CEO Andreas Matthä said the operator wants its facilitate customers travelling farther, more often and in greater comfort.
According to Matthä, ÖBB experienced “the summer of the century” this year, with an increase in the number of long-distance travellers by 17.7 percent compared to the same period in 2019. For this reason, the Austrian operator wants to increase its seat capacity on long-distance trains by 30 percent in the current decade.
ÖBB is investing 4.1 billion euros in new rolling stock, which includes new Nightjets. The operator is upgrading its existing fleet of Nightjets in tandem. The first new Nightjet is expected to enter service in the summer of 2023. All 25 new train sets will hit the tracks in 2025.
New Nightjet destination in the upcoming timetable from Vienna include the Italian riviera via Munich. ÖBB will increase the number of service on the Vienna – Graz – Split route, with three weekly departures from May until October.
In the near future, the operator aims to extend the Nightjet services 237 and 40295 from Milan to Genoa. The German city of Stuttgart will also gain a Nightject connection as 237 service between Venice and Munich will be extended. The same goes for the Nightjet to Budapest, Zagreb and Rijeka.
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