At first glance, the night train concept presented by the Franco-German founding duo with the brand “Nox” (Latin for “night”) on 10 June 2025 is reminiscent of the start-up Midnight Trains, which was discontinued in 2024. A map showing the future route network is intended to hint at ambitions; in fact, the company aims to start with a single line. But let’s take a closer look: this concept offers more substance than that of Midnight Trains in several respects.
Nox is already communicating a price.
Nox seems to be certain that with a start-up mindset and no-frills operating concept like Flixtrain (where one of the founders comes from), the costs of night train operations can be significantly reduced: With ticket prices starting from €79 for a single-bed cabin and from €75 for a bed in a compartment of 2, Nox aims to keep up with current air fares. In fact, according to a study by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), low-cost airlines were charging an average of €79.33 gross per ticket on night train-relevant distances of between 500 and 1,500 km in autumn 2024.
However, it is clear that the €75-79 gross price at Nox can only be the entry-level price. A night train with an average occupancy rate of 75% and a maximum of 500 seats would only generate net revenue of around €27,000 per journey at these prices, which according to our calculations would be at least €9,000 short of covering costs. If you also want to offer potential investors the prospect of a profit that justifies the investment, the average price for Nox must also be effectively over € 100 and therefore in line with the average couchette ticket prices for night trains to and from Germany. According to a recent study by Zeit Online based on data from night-ride.com, these are between €69 and €158 depending on the route in summer 2025.
Nox has a plausible cabin layout.
Midnight Trains never showed more than hints, which later turned out to have been made for a train type they quickly abandoned. What you see in the Nox renderings, on the other hand, is easy to visualise spatially. Above all, it can be easily installed in used intercity passenger coaches, which are currently being taken out of service by the dozen all over Europe. The two-person and one-person cabins are arranged to the right and left of a central aisle. On one side, the space under the train roof and above the centre aisle is used for single or double beds arranged in the classic transverse direction. At aisle height, there is a seat underneath, in the double cab with two seats arranged opposite each other. The single cabins probably offer exactly half of this. On the other side, there are cabins with no air space to the ceiling. Here, two beds are arranged one above the other in the direction of travel. You can also sit here, but only if the upper bed is pulled up and the lower bed is converted into seats.
Interior visualisations (c) noxmobility.com
If, according to the founders, all beds are two metres long and the walls are fitted with technology for raising and lowering beds, this means that only 1st class Intercity coaches can be considered, in which only nine such cabin combinations can be installed per coach. The demand for single cabins will be rather high, so that 7 x 2 single-bed, 9 double-decker and 2 double-bed cabins will probably be offered. That would be 36 seats per carriage if open-plan carriages can be converted. If you convert compartment carriages that were built for an aisle at the side, two more seats are lost so that the aisle can be moved to the centre.
For comparison: in the new generation Nightjet, the couchette coaches offer 12 beds in a four-berth configuration and 28 single beds, i.e. 40 seats. This means that ÖBB can sell 10-15% more seats per carriage in the couchette category of the new Nightjets. However, you can’t sit properly in their mini-cabins. The single-bed cabin from Nox could therefore beat the mini-cabin of the nighhtjet in competition, while the double-decker cabin appears more attractive than the 4-seater couchette in the new Nightjet. And the double-bed suite may even be more attractive for couples than a sleeper compartment, or at least more attractive than one without en-suite WC & shower, which can still be found in older coaches.
However, the aim is not to be able to charge more than ÖBB, but to offer more favourable prices than air travel. With even fewer seats than in the Nightjet, however, this will not be possible for the time being due to the space concept. It would look better if you could work with new vehicles. Then it would be possible to arrange doors at only one end of the carriage, as with the Nightjet, which would allow 38 seats to be offered.
It would also be possible to work with a higher vehicle roof. Intercity trains effectively offer a maximum ceiling height of 265 cm. With 190 cm for the aisle and 10 cm for the ceiling and mattress in the centre of the vehicle, this would leave just 65 cm, which corresponds to the space available in a 6-seater couchette. Whether this is accepted by passengers should therefore be thoroughly tested first.
Nox has a timetable.
Unlike Midnight Trains, which boldly wanted to connect Paris with Edinburgh and Lisbon, but chose Paris as the hub, one of the least suitable cities for this purpose, the route network presented by Nox demonstrates a sense of reality (albeit with few surprises). Night trains already run on around two thirds of the 30 or so routes proposed. Most of the remaining new routes are also not unknown and have already been analysed for feasibility by others. In terms of route lengths, Nox remains under 1,200 km and close to the journey time optimum of 12 hours. This is also recommended in order to avoid the need for staff to work multiple shifts.
It is surprising that Nox wants to operate on its own account, but would compete with established night train operators on half of the routes, which currently receive state subsidies in order to be able to offer competitive prices. In the case of France, these subsidies cover around 50% of the costs on average. Ticket prices in Italy and France are also significantly lower than the margins calculated by Zeit Online for Germany. One may doubt that another provider would need as much subsidisation as the SNCF. However, it is equally doubtful that Nox would be able to travel to Lecce, Luleå or Reggio di Calabria under open access conditions, i.e. without any subsidies.
Can that work?
By dispensing with catering options, self-check-in and drastically reducing the number of service staff, as is already common practice in Scandinavia, Rambøll calculates that savings of up to 7% can be achieved. A further 2% if the staff are employed in Hungary, for example. With around 10% savings in personnel costs, the cost disadvantage of the 10-15% lower space utilisation could possibly be offset. However, what works in Scandinavia cannot always be transferred to the continent. Beyond that, however, the concept is more attractive than most of what is currently in operation.
According to the Berliner Zeitung, the operators want to achieve further savings by dispensing with any wing concepts. This refers to trains that consist of several sections that serve different routes and are re-coupled at night. Re-coupling requires additional staff and possibly additional locomotives. However, ÖBB would certainly be happy to dispense with wing concepts if the passenger potential could fill an entire train, or if there was storage space for two entire trains in Paris.
Otherwise, Nox wants to achieve greater savings by standardising the rolling stock. However, this will only take effect with a larger order of new coaches, which can then be amortised over 32 years instead of just 10. Nox must first prove that the cabin concept sells with converted used vehicles. And until then, nobody else must have managed to realise more comfort for more than 40 passengers per carriage.
Conclusion:
The Nox cabin concept is definitely an interesting alternative to the layout of the new Nightjet, as it shows that more privacy can be achieved without sacrificing seating. However, the concept does not yet reverse the trend towards more comfort and fewer seats. Even a full-length Nox night train will carry just 500 passengers, less than half the capacity of a TGV-M. This does not make the discussion about prioritising train paths for night trains any easier. As an operator, the best way to improve the economy of the night train is therefore to (re)close this increasingly large gap a little. For the rest, Nox in Germany also needs better political framework conditions, including reliable night train-specific track access charges at marginal cost level (as recommended by the EU Commission) and the same tax treatment of flights and trains in terms of VAT on international tickets. At the European level, EU guarantees to reduce the interest burden on new purchases and the definition of a technical standard allowing locomotive-hauled night trains to run again wherever standard tracks are in place would indeed be of great assistance.