New high-speed train to link Paris and Berlin launching in December

A new high-speed train connecting Paris and Berlin will be launched in December, allowing travellers to visit the capitals on a daytime service after the introducion of a popular night route.

The French operator SNCF and the German Deutsche Bahn have announced they will be running the service between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Paris Gare de L’Est, stopping in Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, and Frankfurt Süd. The service will take about eight hours in total, taking an hour longer than initially promised.

While the current fastest train between Paris and Berlin only takes a fraction more time at just under nine hours, it requires passengers to make two or three changes, causing the journey to be more of a nuisance and can often be unreliable.

This will be the first time in rail history that the service will directly link the two capital cities from city centre to city centre.

Launching on 16 December, there will initially be one service of the high-speed route each day, with the train leaving Paris at 9.55am and arriving in Berlin just after 6pm.

For those departing from the German capital, the train will leave at 11.54am and will arrive in Paris just before 8pm.

Reservations for the new service will open on 16 October and will initially cost passengers as little as €59 (£49.20) for a one-way second-class ticket and from €69 (£57.55) for a first-class seat.

The two train operators have collaborated on services since 2007, linking cities such as Frankfurt and Stuttgart to Paris, transporting 32 million travellers over the years.

With this new service between Paris and Berlin, the number of daily connections between Germany and France will increase from 24 to 26, with the operators predicting a boost of more than 320,000 additional seats per year for customers.

Both operators say they hope the service will be a more sustainable journey than flying, as well as an improvement on the train services between the capitals that are already in place.

Alain Krakovitch, the managing director of TGV-Intercités, part of the SNCF group, said: “This new link is further concrete proof of the Franco-German friendship, and contributes to an objective shared by our two countries: to promote low-carbon mobility. For SNCF Voyageurs, it also represents continuity in our ambition.”

“This European development is essential,” he added. “This summer, more than 20 per cent of our customers travelled on our cross-border or intra-European offers.”

Michael Peterson, the Deutsche Bahn board member for long-distance passenger transport, also said that the new high-speed collaboration is strengthening European connections, while offering more climate-friendly travel.

“SNCF Voyageurs and DB are sending a strong signal that Europe is growing together by rail. The new ICE [high-speed train] connection will give a further boost to the booming international long-distance transport sector,” he said.

“We will continue to work together with our cooperation partners to enable more and better international rail connections. This is the only way Europe can achieve its climate targets.”

While high-speed travel between French and German cities has been a favourite among those travelling for business, with the ability to work onboard the trains, the operators are also pushing for more tourists exploring Europe to use their services with a number of deals available, from age discounts and low-cost fares.

The new daytime service comes after the launch of the Nightjet sleeper train operated by Austria’s ÖBB in December 2023. While it has experienced its own technical issues, it has remained a popular option for European travellers.

The seven-car sleeper trains comprise of two seating cars, two sleeping cars with two-person compartments, and three couchette cars made up of four-person compartments, as well as mini cabins for solo travellers.

However, in August, ÖBB had to temporarily suspend services from Berlin and Vienna to Paris and Brussels to allow for several weeks of major infrastructure work to rail lines. The services are expected to resume services in late October.

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