From €10 tickets to mega luxury: Europe’s most exciting new train routes for 2025

The rail revival continues at pace, with European train companies rolling out new routes every month.

Exciting new journeys are opening up in 2025, making it easier to explore the continent by rail. 

We’ve hand-picked five of the best that are sure to have you making plans for next year.

European Sleeper is a relative newcomer in the train world, with its first Brussels to Berlin service debuting in May 2023. But with the company set to launch perhaps its most exciting route yet in February 2025, it seems it’s just getting started.

European Sleeper will inaugurate the journey on 5 February, whisking passengers from Brussels to the floating city of Venice.

The trip takes around 20 hours, departing Brussels at 5pm and arriving in Venice at 2pm the next day. For the return journey, it leaves Venice at 3pm and arrives in Brussels at 11am.

En route, the service travels through four stunning European cities, including Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Munich in Germany, Innsbruck in Austria, and Bolzano in Italy, before skirting the foothills of the Dolomites to arrive in Venice. 

There’s a restaurant car on board for dinner service and a lounge bar for drinks. It will operate twice a week during February and March, perfect for spring breakers or those on their way to the region’s ski resorts. It’s also perfectly timed to coincide with Venice’s flamboyant carnival that runs from 14 February to 5 March next year.

The train has three classes of travel - sleeper cabins, couchette cabins, and upright seats. 

At the time of writing, all sleeper cabins are booked through to the end of March, when the published schedule ends. However, couchette cabins, seating five to six people with fold-out beds and priced from €139.00, are available. 

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