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Petition: Link the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe with Night Trains

We ask the Spanish, French, and Portuguese governments (the latter of which is now taking presidency of the Council of the EU, in the first half of 2021 – The European Year of the Rail) to consider not only resuming the recently stopped Portugal-France night train connection, but also extending it to a major train hub in europe, such as Paris (or potentially Brussels), instead of reaching just Hendaye in the French-Spanish border.

We urge the Spanish and Portuguese governments to order their national rail companies to join the declaration of December 8th made by SNCF, DB, ÖBB and SBB in favor of building a new European night train network. 

Additionally, we urge the Spanish government to study new night train links between the Iberian Peninsula and centre/east Europe, such as Barcelona-Frankfurt-Berlin and Barcelona-Milan-Rome.

This is the appeal which Back-on-Track raises with a large petition on change.org. As it is said:

In March 2020, the last night trains ran the Lisbon-Madrid-Hendaye route, connecting the portuguese capital to the spanish one, and the french border. In May, Renfe announced the end of those connections. This policy goes against the current trend in Europe, where night trains are actually experiencing a revival, scoring new planned connections such as Zurich – Amsterdam, Vienna – Munich – Paris, Berlin – Brussels, Berlin – Paris being set up.

Choose your preferred language and sign the petition here (they are all pooled together):

EnglishPortugueseSpanish CatalanFrench – German

5 thoughts on “Petition: Link the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe with Night Trains”

  1. We were hoping for the possibility to plan a roadtrip by (night)train to France, Spain and Portugal next year!

  2. Jonathan Humphreys

    Improving green travel is an important part of the EUs vision – therefore, improving rail travel across the continent plays an important part in that. Ensuring that tourists and business people alike can get around without contributing to air pollution (whether from air travel, or motor car) will assist in this.
    Yet we see train companies cutting important parts of this rail link.
    In the 1950s, the Beeching report cut services and lines across the country, leaving countless communities cut off. Reducing the number of services, and ensuring that travellers cannot complete journeys in a feasible length of time using the railways, risks driving people away from the trains.

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