Taking a night train across Europe is romantic and climate-friendly, and demand is strong. Yet the much-touted revival of overnight lines is hampered by ageing rolling stock, patchy funding and overstretched infrastructure. Night trains combine nostalgia with climate-consciousness. A passenger who chooses to cross the continent in a sleeper car produces 28 times fewer emissions than someone who opts to fly. Media attention on the lines has grown, startups have emerged, and governments have talked up their green-mobility ambitions. But despite the excitement, night train services remain scarce – especially in central and western Europe. Tickets sell out months ahead, and reliability remains in question. High costs, fluctuating subsidies, ageing fleets (some carriages are nearly 50 years old) and operational hurdles have led to route cuts. Only a handful of countries — notably Austria — and a few startups are holding the network together. The so-called “night train revival” is …