Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
As Europe's rail giants scrapped their sleeper cars, one tiny country went all‑in. Austria's ÖBB has built the continent's largest night train network, carrying millions across borders while everyone else hit the brakes. Here's how Austria quietly conquered the night.
#PlanetA #Austria #Trains
Credits:
Reporter: Katharina Schantz
Camera: Henning Goll
Video Editor: Andreas Hyronimus
Supervising Editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Michael Trobridge, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann
Fact Check: Kirsten Funck
Thumbnail: Em Chabridon
Read more:
Study on ecological footprint of night trains:
bmv.de/SharedDocs/DE/Publikationen/E/studie-bilanz-nachtzugverkehre.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
Study on night trains' potential to replace planes:
researchgate.net/publication/371213883_Understanding_preferences_for_night_trains_and_their_potential_to_replace_flights_in_Europe_The_case_of_Sweden
One EU study on night trains:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/601977/IPOL_STU(2017)601977_EN.pdf
And another:
https://op.europa.eu/webpub/eca/special-reports/high-speed-rail-19-2018/en/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:48 Room tour
05:40 Night train history
07:00 Dinner break
08:18 Austria's advantages
11:50 The industry's qualms
14:36 Private players
16:09 Conclusion
We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. We'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.
Follow Planet A on TikTok: tiktok.com/@dw_planet
As Europe's rail giants scrapped their sleeper cars, one tiny country went all‑in. Austria's ÖBB has built the continent's largest night train network, carrying millions across borders while everyone else hit the brakes. Here's how Austria quietly conquered the night.
#PlanetA #Austria #Trains
Credits:
Reporter: Katharina Schantz
Camera: Henning Goll
Video Editor: Andreas Hyronimus
Supervising Editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Michael Trobridge, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann
Fact Check: Kirsten Funck
Thumbnail: Em Chabridon
Read more:
Study on ecological footprint of night trains:
bmv.de/SharedDocs/DE/Publikationen/E/studie-bilanz-nachtzugverkehre.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
Study on night trains' potential to replace planes:
researchgate.net/publication/371213883_Understanding_preferences_for_night_trains_and_their_potential_to_replace_flights_in_Europe_The_case_of_Sweden
One EU study on night trains:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/601977/IPOL_STU(2017)601977_EN.pdf
And another:
https://op.europa.eu/webpub/eca/special-reports/high-speed-rail-19-2018/en/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:48 Room tour
05:40 Night train history
07:00 Dinner break
08:18 Austria's advantages
11:50 The industry's qualms
14:36 Private players
16:09 Conclusion
We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. We'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.
Follow Planet A on TikTok: tiktok.com/@dw_planet
