You will finally be able to prefer the train. This Monday at 9:55 a.m., a train left from Gare de l'Est in Paris to connect Berlin for the first time via a direct high-speed rail connection. In “only” eight hours, the two cities can now be reached from city center to city center.
A real challenge which should launch the Europe of trains and compete with air transport. For this premiere, the CEO of SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, and the director of production of Deutsche Bahn (DB), Anja Shöllman, were present. The train is expected at 6:03 p.m. in the German capital.
One (German) train per day in each direction
In the opposite direction, an inaugural train will leave Berlin on Monday at 11:54 a.m., again in the presence of managers of the two railway companies. He will arrive in Paris eight hours later, at 7:54 p.m.
This connection, provided by ICE, the German high-speed trains which have 444 seats and can travel at 320 km/h, and not the French TGVs, will serve the cities of Strasbourg in France and Karlsruhe and Frankfurt in Germany at a rate of 'one train per day in each direction.
SNCF Voyageurs and Deutsche Bahn announced this new direct connection in May 2022, initially promising it for the end of 2023. In September 2024, the inauguration date was finally set for December 16, with an entry price of 59.99 euros in second class and 69.99 euros in first class.
One hundred times less CO2 per passenger than the plane
Prices will in fact be subject to “yield management”, a pricing system which modulates the amounts according to the occupancy rate of the trains.
The two railway operators insist on the ecological argument, emphasizing that a Paris-Berlin train ride emits 2 kg of CO2 per passenger, or one hundredth of a plane trip which emits around 200 kg.
They are also betting that the eight-hour journey will not scare away travelers, against a backdrop of enthusiasm for the train. “There are more and more people for whom this does not pose a problem, so much the better! », Launched Jean-Pierre Farandou when the project was announced in May 2022.
With this high-speed line, the number of daily connections between France and Germany will increase from 24 to 26.
