(photo SNCF)
by Ron Bernthal
French rail operator SNCF and Deutsche Bahn are planning to launch a direct high-speed train between Paris and Berlin in 2023. The new rail line was announced in late May, 2022, by the head of the French company, who came to Strasbourg to celebrate 15 years of Franco-German high-speed cooperation.
“We want to launch a TGV Paris-Berlin in December 2023,” SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou told AFP. “”It makes sense because we see that people are accepting longer and longer journeys. There are really people who are willing to spend five hours, six hours, seven hours on a train In this case, Paris to Berlin is presently seven hours.”
“A few years ago, we thought it was a little long and we were afraid we’d have no passengers. There are more and more people for whom this is not a problem, so much the better,” Farandou said. “taking the train is a way to reconcile mobility and nature protection.”
“To start with, there will be one return trip per day on this link via Frankfurt. It will be operated as a partnership between the SNCF and Deutsche Bahn with German ICE high-speed trains,” said Alain Krakovitch, director of TGV-Intercités at the SNCF. “In the future, a second daily round trip could also be completed with French TGVs. “It is quite symbolic of the evolution of our society, and the fact that many of our fellow citizens prefer the train,” said the manager.
The Paris-Berlin daytime high-speed train will be in addition to a night train connection between the two capitals. It will be operated by Austrian railroads ÖBB in cooperation with SNCF and Deutsche Bahn and will also start in 2023.
“It will be at the same time, the night train and the day train. We will have the choice according to taste,” Jean-Pierre Farandou said. “We are making Europe somewhere, the Europe of everyday life,” he added. “We are making peace in Europe with the railway.”
Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Wikipedia)
“I am convinced that we need more railroads in Europe and a strong Europe needs a strong interconnection on the rails,” said Richard Lutz of Deutsche Bahn. “The development of railways is essential to achieve the climate objectives.” SNCF and Deutsche Bahn have been running TGV and ICE (high speed trains) between France and Germany since the opening of the first section of the Paris-Strasbourg high-speed line in June 2007. Over the past 15 years, the two companies have transported 25 million people on the Paris-Frankfurt, Paris-Stuttgart-Munich and Frankfurt-Marseille routes, with the train now beating the plane on the Paris-Frankfurt route.
