French rail operator SNCF and Germany’s national railway company, Deutsche Bahn AG, are planning to launch a direct high-speed train between Paris and Berlin.
"We want to launch a TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) Paris-Berlin in December 2023," SNCF CEO, Jean-Pierre Farandou, told AFP. The TGV is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF.
"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-Berlin is seven hours,” Farandou said.
Initially, there will be one return trip per day on this link (via Frankfurt), with a German Intercity Express high-speed train, according to TGV-Intercités Director, Alain Krakovitch.
A second daily trip could also be added using French trains, he added.
The pre-existing daily TGV linking Frankfurt to Marseille via Strasbourg and Lyon had been a success already, said Krakovitch.
"I am convinced that we need more railroads in Europe and a strong Europe needs strong interconnection on the rails," said Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn, adding that travel by rail was also better for the environment.
Over the last 15 years, SNCF and Deutsche Bahn have transported a total of 25 million people on the Paris-Frankfurt, Paris-Stuttgart-Munich and Frankfurt-Marseille routes. According to Euro News the train on the Paris-Frankfurt route now beats the flight in terms of travel time.
