One year later, the CityNightLine AG company, domiciled in Zurich and until then a joint venture operated by Deutsche Bahn and the state-owned railways of Austria and Switzerland, ÖBB and SBB, became a wholly owned subsidiary of DB Fernverkehr AG.

The management of services, rolling stock and pricing of CityNightLine and its then DB counterpart (NachtZug), however, remained separate.

[4] Following the emergence of low-cost airlines and the expansion of the international high-speed rail network, DB realised it had to adapt its night train services to the changing requirements of the transport market.

The target was to establish overnight services as a supplementary product to high-speed trains over long distances (between 800 and 1500 km).

To achieve that objective, the existing train categories CityNightLine (CNL), DB NachtZug (NZ) and UrlaubsExpress (UEx) were amalgamated to form one new product called City Night Line (CNL), which was integrated in the fare systems and sales processes of the different departure countries.

The line network was then redesigned to reflect these new objectives: routes which ran parallel to long-distance services were discontinued, other routes were systematically extended, destinations with strong seasonal fluctuations and tourist destinations were replaced by daytime services.

[1] In October 2016, DB and ÖBB announced that the Austrian railway company will inaugurate six new night train services under their ÖBB nightjet brand by 10 December 2016 of which several will run through Germany, partially on identical routes as the German night trains before.

All saver fares for long-distance services and the corresponding discount options (such as BahnCard) could have also been used on City Night Line routes.

The special offers for long-distance services which have meanwhile been introduced (such as the Lidl-Ticket or Tchibo-Ticket) were normally valid, but not always on all City Night Line routes.

Tickets for group travel can be purchased up to twelve months in advance, provided that the relevant timetable has already been published.

The reservation is simultaneously valid as the charge for the additional night-time services and the prices vary according to comfort category.