To Paris in eight hours: Rail launches new connection

High-speed trains already run on some routes between Germany and France. A gap in the existing service is now being closed.

From mid-December, rail travelers will be able to travel on a direct connection from Berlin to the French capital Paris. The journey time should be around eight hours, as Deutsche Bahn told the German Press Agency. “This will be the first time that the two capitals will be connected by high-speed daytime travel,” it said. The connection will be offered by Deutsche Bahn and the French SNCF. The two companies plan to present details today at a trade fair in Berlin.

DB and SNCF have been operating the German-French high-speed service in cooperation since June 2007. ICE and TGV then run on the Frankfurt – Paris and Stuttgart – Paris lines. At the end of 2007, a daily connection was extended beyond Stuttgart or from Munich. In March 2012, a daily connection from Frankfurt to Marseille was introduced. Since 2023, there will also be through trains between Frankfurt and Bordeaux on Saturdays in summer.

Since December 2023, there has also been a night train between Berlin and Paris, operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).