International train connection
The first direct ICE travels from Berlin to Paris
So far, Berlin and Paris are only connected by rail with a night train. Now a direct ICE is added. The premiere trip from Berlin Central Station started with much fanfare.
From Berlin to Paris with the ICE without changing trains: From now on, once a day you can travel from the German capital to the French capital via Frankfurt Süd, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg – and back.
The premiere trip on the German side started shortly after 12 p.m. at Berlin Central Station – with much fanfare. Among others, railway boss Richard Lutz, Transport Minister Volker Wissing and the French ambassador to Germany, François Delattre, said goodbye to the ICE. Arrival was planned almost eight hours later at 7:55 p.m. in Paris Est.
“The good German-French cooperation is the backbone of a united Europe. The new ICE direct connection between Berlin and Paris is a symbol of this,” said railway boss Lutz, according to a statement. French Ambassador Delattre said the new connection underlines the strong cooperation between France and Germany and brings the populations closer together. Transport Minister Wissing emphasized: “It’s about encounters, about exchange, about growing together and mutual understanding. It’s about friendship in practice.”
From the end of December, the ICE 3, operated in cooperation with the DB and the French railway SNCF Voyageurs, will start at Berlin’s Ostbahnhof and make intermediate stops at the main station and in Spandau.
In the opposite direction it starts at 9.55 a.m. Arrival at the main station is scheduled for 5:56 p.m. every day. On Monday in Paris, SNCF boss Jean-Pierre Farandou and Transport Minister François Durovray, among others, sent the ICE on its way from the Ostbahnhof.
In France, the ICE is supposed to travel at speeds of up to 320 km/h
The ICE 3 offers 444 seats and reaches a top speed of 320 km/h in France.
According to Deutsche Bahn, the new offer has been well received by passengers. This is proven by the booking figures so far. Tickets are available for second class from 59.99 euros – but only if you book early enough.
However, from mid-April the new direct connection will be suspended for two weeks “due to construction work on the route between Frankfurt and Fulda”, as a railway spokesman confirmed after a report in the “Tageszeitung”. From April 18th to May 1st, the trains will only run to or from Frankfurt am Main. Alternatively, passengers could travel to Berlin up to five times a day with a change from Paris.
So far there are only night trains operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) as a direct connection between Berlin and Paris. The connection was launched in December 2023 and lasts around 14 hours.
dpa
Source: Stern
