As part Europe’s night train revival, the overnight connection between Paris and Berlin will go back into service in December. This is ahead of a high-speed TGV service that is due to link the two capitals at the end of 2024.
Austrian rail operator OBB’s Nightjet service between Paris and Berlin is set to launch on 11 December, departing from Berlin with a return journey the following day.
Starting with three trips per week, it will offer a daily service from autumn 2024, OBB and the German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said in a statement.
The line, which was shut down in 2014 as part of a larger phasing out of sleeper service across Europe, is being revived as the EU looks to promote less polluting forms of travel, and as travellers look for alternatives to short-haul flights.
French rail operator SNCF has not commented on the line. Deutsche Bahn has only confirmed its “cooperation with OBB on night traffic”.
More European connections
OBB spokesperson Bernhard Rieder told the AFP French news agency the Paris-Berlin night train would stop at Strasbourg in France and Mannheim, Erfurt and Halle in Germany along the way,
It will leave Gare de l’Est at 7:12pm and arrive in Berlin’s Haupbahnhof at 8:26 the next morning. The train from Berlin will leave at 8:18pm and arrive in Paris at 10:24am.
Both sleeping berths and less expensive reclining seats will be available, priced from 34.90 to 79.90 euros, according to German media.
In 2021, ÖBB launched a new Nightjet route between Vienna and Paris, going through Salzburg and Munich, which joined its existing service between Brussels and Vienna.
In December, the company will also launch a service linking Brussels and Liège to Berlin.
High-speed Paris-Berlin link
Earlier this year, the French and German rail operators announced a direct high-speed TGV that would link Paris to Berlin in seven hours, which would start running in end of 2024.
After negotiations over its route, French transport minister Clément Beaune announced at the end of last month that it will eventually run through Strasbourg and Karlsruhe, after technical barriers are lifted.
"Even if it takes a little longer than I would have liked, this line will eventually go via Strasbourg," he told journalists at the Strasbourg European Fair last week.
When announcing the link between the two capitals in 2022, German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said climate challenges meant rail needed to play a stronger role in European transport.
“With the new high-speed connection Berlin-Paris, another attractive alternative to flying is on the way," he said.
(with newswires)
