Good news for your next stays in Europe! SNCF (the French train company) and Deutsche Bahn (the German train company) have announced they were to launch a direct Paris-Berlin train in December 2023.
“It makes sense as we notice people agree to complete always longer trips. There really are people ready to stay for five, six, seven hours in a train”, SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou told the AFP.
The connection between Paris and Berlin is estimated to 7 hours, a route part of long-haul travels that no longer seem to frighten travelers.
“A few years ago, we found it a bit long and feared there will be no one. There are more and more people for whom this is not a problem and this is good!” Jean-Pierre Farandou explained to the AFP before announcing: “We will give it a shot with our German peers and make this train roll”.
Both train companies plan a first daily round-trip test between the French and German capital cities, via Frankfurt, with the German high-speed trains (ICE). If the journey is conclusive, another round-trip with French high-speed trains (TGV) will be relaunched. Daytime connections will be added to the night-train project between Paris and Berlin, also planned for late 2023, and exploited by the Austrian railroads (ÖBB), still in partnership with SNCF and Deutsche Bahn.
