Paris to Nice by night train: a service on track for completion this spring

Transport ministers announced last July they would be putting night trains back on France’s tracks. Travelling from Paris to Nice should now be possible by Spring and many other night line services will be resumed in the country by 2030.

Dozing off in Nice to wake up in France’s capital will once again be possible. In 2017, it was deemed too costly to keep running this service, however with more funding acquired, plans for this night time service are back on track. Both citizens and politicians have all supported the return of these trains.

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In France, the development of high-speed trains began to replace night trains and the service deteriorated. That has to change.
Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari

At the moment only two night time train routes are available: one links Paris and the Hautes-Alpes and the other links l’Occitanie and the Pyrenees. However, a night line will once again link Paris and Nice together too. Journeying between these two cities will take around 11.5 hours and include several stops along the French Riviera. In order to travel from the Côte d’Azur to Paris by train, tickets must be booked via TGV Inoui.

An eco-friendly service

As the health crisis has forced many of us to rethink our relationship with the planet, and more people are becoming too ashamed to fly (a feeling known as “flygskam” in Swedish), night trains offer a more environmentally conscious way to travel. This is just one of the many reasons why the European Union has invested more money into the revival of this rail service.

At the end of 2020, an agreement was signed by rail companies in several European countries, including: France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. As a result, night trains from France to Vienna and Berlin will be up and running by 2021 and 2024 respectively.