As Europe Speeds By on Rail, America Is Stuck in Traffic

How civilized to catch a train, enjoy a meal on board and then go to bed in a cozy cabin while the moonlit world zips past.

Recently, I’ve boarded sleeper trains in Brussels and disembarked in Vienna; bid “Gute Nacht” to Munich and “buongiorno” to Venice. Closer to home, the Caledonian Sleeper shrinks the 400-mile journey between London and Edinburgh to just 40 winks — with supper, a nightcap and breakfast en route.

Such journeys are possible on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, but the future and fate of night trains in Europe and the United States are set on very different tracks.

In 2025, Europe’s sleeper train network has been enjoying a renaissance. Revitalized in the age of flygskam (the Swedish word for the feeling of climate guilt associated with the emissions from airline travel), the continent’s expanding offering of nocturnal routes aims to compete with short-haul flights on speed, cost, comfort and climate impact. The European Union has plans to double high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and link all major cities in the bloc.

But as Europe embraces the night train, the United States seems to be sleepwalking into a transport dead end, slashing funding for public infrastructure and firing transit workers. Long-distance public transport in America may be heading inexorably toward a binary choice: fast, exclusive and environmentally ruinous or slow, tortuous and run-down.

America has long been in thrall to cars, of course. “Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?” Jack Kerouac asked in “On the Road.” In 2025 the answer seems to be home, or to the local airport.