An Overview of Sustainability-Related Strengths and Weaknesses of Night Trains in Europe

Abstract

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Night trains are being revived in Europe, after decades of neglect and massive closure of lines. One of the main arguments used by companies and public authorities is that they are more practical, comfortable, and environmentally friendly. This study looks at the environmental, economic, and social aspects of night trains in Europe, to assess their overall sustainability. Since night trains run on existing infrastructure, it looks at their specific strengths, weaknesses but also opportunities and threats of this specific industry. For the environmental aspects, it focuses on the impacts of emissions, energy use, noise and vibrations and land use. For the economic aspects, the main issues are operational costs, employment, and pricing. The social issues addressed are quality of travel time, comfort, and safety. Given the broad geographic and thematic scope, this study provided a general overview, as obtained from the relevant literature. The main sources examined are scientific, technical and policy reports on cross border night trains in Europe. The results indicate that, while night trains are clearly sustainable from the environmental point of view, there are significant economic challenges to solve to make them competitive against other alternatives. The social aspects, being somewhat subjective, may be solved more easily with adequate information and awareness raising. Overall, it can be concluded that night trains are a viable and sustainable form of transportation, once the economic challenges are addressed, ideas to achieve this are also provided.