Night trains to run between Switzerland and Germany

The Austrian Federal Railways is set to take over roughly half of Deutsche Bahn's night train business. Keystone

In cooperation with the Swiss Federal Railways, the Austrian Federal Railways (OBB) is expanding its night train service starting December 11. Six new connections will be offered, including a daily train running between Zurich-Basel-Berlin-Hamburg.

Tickets can currently be purchased at Swiss Federal Railway stations, and online beginning October 28, the two companies announced on Friday in a joint press statement.

With the new 2017 hours, the five night trains will leave from Zurich with the following itineraries: Zurich-Basel-Berlin-Hamburg, Zurich-Vienna, Zurich-Graz, Zurich-Budapest-Prague, and Zurich-Villach/Zagreb.

For the Zurich-Hamburg line, a night train with sleeping cars will leave from Zurich at 8:00pm, and from Basel at 9:00pm, arriving in Berlin the next morning at 6:00am, and then in Hamburg at 8:30am.

Going the other direction, the “Nightjet” train will leave Hamburg at 9:00pm, and Berlin at 11:00pm, arriving in Basel at 7:20am the next morning, followed by Zurich at 9:00am.

On all legs of the journey, passengers will be able to choose train cars with full beds (1-3 people per compartment), convertible bunk-bed style sleeping berths (4-6 people per compartment), or seats.

Last December, the German railway company Deutsche Bahn announced that they were cancelling their sleeping-berth car service and were searching for a buyer. The company has since negotiated with the Austrian railway, which has invested EUR 40 million (CHF 43.8 million) in the purchase and renovation of 42 Deutsche Bahn sleeping cars and 15 sleeping berth cars.