Direct Birmingham–Manchester Airport service to start in 2027
London Northwestern Railway (LNR) is to introduce a new hourly service between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Airport from May 2027, providing a direct rail link from the West Midlands to the airport for the first time in decades.
The service will initially begin operating between Birmingham New Street and Crewe from December 13, 2026, with the extension to Manchester Airport following in May 2027. The new route will serve 17 stations, including Darlaston and Willenhall, which opened in March 2026.
From May 2027, trains will run via Wolverhampton, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe before continuing to Manchester Airport, calling at Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, Wilmslow and Styal. The full route will be Birmingham New Street, Tame Bridge Parkway, Darlaston, Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Stafford, Stone, Stoke-on-Trent, Longport, Kidsgrove, Alsager, Crewe, Sandbach, Holmes Chapel, Wilmslow, Styal and Manchester Airport.
The new service will remove the need for passengers travelling from the West Midlands to Manchester Airport to change trains at Crewe, Wilmslow or in central Manchester.
LNR says the service has been developed in collaboration with Network Rail, Transport for Greater Manchester, Northern and Transport for West Midlands. The operator is owned by WM Trains, which was brought into public ownership in February 2026.
Chiltern transfers to public ownership with more trains from December
Chiltern Railways transferred to public ownership on September 20, becoming the latest UK operator to be brought under government control. Passengers will also see an increase in services from December, with 25 additional trains each weekday.
The new timetable will provide a half-hourly service throughout the day between London Marylebone and Birmingham, while additional trains will also operate elsewhere on the network. The increase will provide almost 10,000 extra seats each weekday, nearly 5,000 on Saturdays and more than 3,000 on Sundays.
Six additional Chiltern Explorer trains will enter service with the December timetable, completing the planned fleet of 13. The trains will provide additional capacity between London and the West Midlands, with air conditioning, improved accessibility and enhanced Wi-Fi.
The transfer to public ownership is part of the government's programme to bring Britain's passenger rail operators under public control ahead of the creation of Great British Railways. Chiltern connects London Marylebone with destinations across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands.
The new timetable is intended to tackle overcrowding, particularly on peak services, while a £12 million refurbishment programme for Chiltern's existing Class 168 fleet will continue, with upgraded Wi-Fi, power and USB charging at every seat and refreshed interiors planned by 2028.
Nox Mobility to launch Hamburg–München night train
Germany is about to get a new night-train operator, with Nox Mobility announcing that its first service will run between Hamburg and München from March 2027.
The Berlin-based start-up will launch its first trains on March 23, initially operating three times a week in each direction. The service will call at Bremen and Augsburg, providing both cities with a new overnight connection to Germany's two largest metropolitan areas.
The Hamburg–München train will leave Hamburg Hauptbahnhof at 9:22pm and arrive in München at 8:14am the following morning. The return service will leave München at 9:20pm, reaching Hamburg at 8:27am. Tickets are already on sale, with fares starting at €65 one way.
What makes Nox different from a conventional night train is the amount of personal space on offer. Rather than a traditional shared couchette or sleeping compartment, every passenger will have their own ‘Nox Suite’, with a large seat, table, luggage storage and power sockets. The seat can be converted into a two-metre-long reclining space for sleeping.
The company describes the concept as combining a hotel room, workplace and train journey in a single overnight trip. Future trains will go further, with private rooms for one or two people planned from 2029, while Nox also envisages offering services such as showers, co-working spaces and hotel rooms at the destination through its own booking platform.
The starting fare of €65 puts Nox above the cheapest fares advertised for the existing ÖBB Nightjet between Hamburg and München, which currently start at €34.90. But the comparison is not quite like-for-like: Nightjet offers several accommodation categories, including seats, couchettes and sleeping cars, while Nox is building its first service around an individual passenger space.
The choice of Hamburg–München also makes sense as a starting point. Nox says more than 1.2 million passengers flew between the two cities in 2024, making it one of Germany's busiest domestic air routes. The overnight train will also give Bremen and Augsburg a direct long-distance overnight connection that they do not currently have on this route.
Starting with a wholly domestic service should also make life somewhat simpler for a new operator. Nox can concentrate on establishing its trains, rolling stock and customer proposition without immediately having to deal with the additional complexity of international operations. That will become rather more challenging if the company's ambitions are realised: Nox says it ultimately wants to connect 100 European cities by 2035.
The company was founded in 2025 by Thibault Constant, Janek Smalla and Artur Hasselbach, and secured €2 million in pre-seed funding earlier this year. Its first completed carriage is being shown at InnoTrans in Berlin this week, with ticket sales opening alongside the unveiling.
For now, though, the proposition is considerably more modest: three nights a week between Hamburg and München, with a private space for every passenger. If the first trains prove successful, Nox says it intends to increase the service to seven nights a week during spring or summer 2027 before expanding further.
DB and Trenitalia update plans for Frecciarossa services from München to Italy
Deutsche Bahn and Trenitalia have provided a further update on plans to introduce direct Frecciarossa services between München and Italy from summer 2027.
The new services, being developed in cooperation with Austrian operator ÖBB, will provide direct trains from München via Innsbruck and the Brenner route to both Milano and Roma.
Two train pairs are planned: one between München and Milano, and another between München and Roma. The München–Milano journey is expected to take around six and a half hours, while München–Roma will take around eight and a half hours.
The Milano trains will call at Innsbruck, Bolzano/Bozen, Trento, Rovereto, Verona and Brescia, while the Roma service will call at Innsbruck, Bolzano/Bozen, Trento, Rovereto, Verona, Bologna and Firenze.
The plans were presented at InnoTrans in Berlin on September 23, with the first converted Frecciarossa trains already undergoing testing. Test running has taken place in Germany on the Berlin–München–Kufstein route, while testing in Austria has included the Kufstein–Brenner route and Salzburg–Wien. The launch remains subject to the necessary approval of the trains.
The trains will be ETR 1000 Frecciarossa sets, each 200 metres long with 462 seats. They will offer Standard/Premium, Business and Executive classes, together with Wi-Fi and an onboard bistro.
The opening of the Brenner Base Tunnel is expected to reduce the journey times by around an hour. From December 2028, the plans envisage extending the new München–Milano and München–Roma services to Napoli, while additional services are also planned to extend the network to Berlin.
The Frecciarossa ETR 1000 is already used on international services to France and Spain, and the new München services will extend its operation further into the German and Austrian networks.
The Summer 2026 edition of the European Rail Timetable is available in print and digital formats and is the perfect partner to our Rail Map Europe.
Image courtesy of London Northwestern Railway/WM Trains.
