After nine years out of action, a night train between Berlin and Paris will leave the German capital once again on the night of December 11. Tickets are available for just 29 euros per passenger.
Hopping around Europe by train just got easier. After a nine-year hiatus, the Berlin-Paris night train, run by Austrian rail operator ÖBB, will leave Berlin Hauptbahnhof three times time per week from December 11, 2023. From October 2024, the trains will begin running daily. The train is already proving popular, with tickets for journeys in the coming week selling out minutes after they were made available on the internet.
Passengers will leave Berlin Hauptbahnhof just after dinner, at 8.18pm, stop over in Halle (Saale), Erfurt, Mannheim and Strasbourg, before finally arriving in Paris just in time for a petit déjeuner at 10.24am. The new Nightjet service will also run from Berlin to Brussels, stopping over in Halle (Saale), Erfurt, Cologne, Aachen and the Belgian capital.
Both of these new train connections mean that a journey from Leipzig or further east will be much more efficient if you are planning to travel on to London, adding another excellent connection for those wanting to save time during the long stretch of Germany across to the most western parts of the continent.
“It cements the links between two European capitals which have so much business with each other, and it’s also just a lovely way to travel. You can leave Berlin in the evening and be in Paris by around 10 am the next morning, then hop on a mid-morning Eurostar service and be in London by lunchtime,” Nicky Gardner, author of the book Europe by Rail, told The Guardian.
Thanks to international train aficionado The Man in Seat 61, prospective Nightjet passengers were already able to get a sneak peek of what the train’s cabins and berths look like.
Tickets go for as little as 29 euros if you book a seat in a six-person cabin well in advance. To stretch your legs out properly you’ll have to pay a little extra, around 90 euros for a bed in a cabin of four to six people and around 180 euros for a more private cabin for between one and three people.
The new Nightjet services are part of a growing trend for the return of night trains and speedier services across Europe, with Deutsche Bahn also set to launch a fast, direct Berlin-Paris train in tandem with France's national rail service SNCF.
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