From October 16, travellers seeking romance, viennoiserie, or both, can reserve seats on the new daily, direct train from Berlin to Paris run by Deutsche Bahn and SNCF. The service will begin running in December.
Francophiles and their friends will be pleased to know that from October 16, it will be possible to book a seat on the new direct, daily train running between Berlin and Paris. Tickets will start at 59 euros one way, second class, with the service set to hit the tracks in December 2024.
Run jointly by Deutsche Bahn and SNCF, the direct train will leave Berlin Hauptbahnhof every day at 11.54am, travelling over Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg and terminating in Paris Gare de L’Est at around 8pm. On their return, Berliners can leave Paris at 9.55am and be home shortly after 6pm.
Until now, passengers travelling between the two European capitals have had to change trains two or three times during the journey. Consistent delays at Deutsche Bahn mean that multiple changes often lead to significant disruptions.
Once bookings open, rail operators are expecting great demand for the 530 seats available on each train.
Relaunched in 2023 after a nine-year hiatus, December 2024 will also see the Berlin-Paris night train run every night, rather than just three times a week. The train leaves Hauptbahnhof at 8.18 pm and arrives in Paris at 10.24 am.
Alongside connecting the two capitals, the new route will improve existing connections between Germany and France, including the Frankfurt-Marseille and Frankfurt-Bordeaux trains.
European train travel and night trains have seen renewed popularity since coronavirus and new routes from Germany, including to Rome, Stockholm and Prague, have been regularly springing up.
Despite this, a recent study by Greenpeace slammed the lack of direct train connections between major European cities. The environmental organisation found that train stations in Munich and Berlin could run twice as many direct international services as they currently do and that there are “almost six times as many direct flight connections between European cities as direct train connections”.
Thumb image credit: Catarina Belova / Shutterstock.com