Private company

CityNightLine

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Swiss transportation company

CityNightLine AG (timetable and platform sign abbreviation: CNL) was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and the Czech Republic.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1995Founded1
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Photo: NAC, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

CityNightLine AG (timetable and platform sign abbreviation: CNL) was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and the Czech Republic.2

The story

CityNightLine AG was a joint project/creation undertaken by the Deutsche Bahn (DB) (German Federal Railways), the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS). CityNightLine's first train departed on 28 May 1995. SBB-CFF-FFS and ÖBB have since ended their collaboration with CNL. As the predecessor joint CityNightLine company the new daughter company of DB is incorporated under Swiss law, based in Zurich.

CityNightLine was acquired by Deutsche Bahn AG in 2007 and merged with DB NachtZug to form the "City Night Line" which until 2016 offered night services in former CityNightLine and NachtZug territories, of which includes the majority of CityNightLine's operations at the time of the merger. At the end of 2016, CityNightLine stopped operating, carriages were sold to the Austrian Railways which extended their night train network under the brand Nightjet. Nightjet trains still connect Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Milan, Rome and other cities.

From Wikipedia’s article on CityNightLine, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

  • rail transport

Listed on Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1995Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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