With the occasion of celebrating 15 years of partnership, the two major European railways SNCF and Deutsche Bahn (DB) announced the introduction of a high speed train connecting Paris and Berlin in December 2023.
The railways can look back on a successful development of their cooperation in cross-border high-speed traffic, which started in 2007. At a ceremony to marking the anniversary in Strasbourg, Dr Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn, and Jean-Pierre Farandou, President of SNCF, summarized the successful Franco-German cooperation. Over the 15 years of cooperation, more than 25 million people boarded the fast TGV and ICE trains to travel to the respective neighbouring country.
Our planned new direct connection between the hearts of our two capitals will inspire even more people to travel by train.
Dr Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn
“The high-speed traffic between Germany and France is an outstanding example of how attractive connections promote cross-border rail traffic. I firmly believe in the great potential of the railways in and for Europe. Our planned new direct connection between the hearts of our two capitals will inspire even more people to travel by train,” said Dr Lutz.
“Our two companies have been working together for 15 years in a unique partnership in which we combine our know-how to get the best out of German and French high-speed transport. In view of the climate crisis, rail is the mode of transport par excellence and offers the best alternative for business and leisure travel between our two countries”, added Jean-Pierre Farandou.
He also highlighted the fact that the introduction of a Paris – Berlin route was long due. While in the past people have been reluctant to spending too much time on a train, people are accepting longer and longer journeys. “There are really people who are willing to spend five hours, six hours, seven hours on a train. In this case, Paris-Berlin is seven hours. A few years ago, we thought it was a little long and we were afraid we’d have no one”, he explained.
With a view to the major challenges of climate change, rail must also play a greater role in intra-European transport. For 15 years now, the cooperation between DB and SNCF has shown how it can work.
Dr Volker Wissing, German Federal Transport Minister
Growing and attractive offers have recently led to a clear trend in long-distance traffic between the two countries: train instead of plane – that’s what more than half of travellers chose in 2021 on the Frankfurt -Paris connection and decided to travel by train. Between Stuttgart and Paris it was even nine out of ten travellers.
The German Federal Transport Minister, Dr Volker Wissing, also stressed the importance of rail travel for climate: “By train in an environmentally friendly way through Germany and Europe – that is what our TransEuropExpress 2.0 concept stands for. With a view to the major challenges of climate change, rail must also play a greater role in intra-European transport. With the new high-speed connection between Berlin and Paris, there is another attractive alternative to flying. For 15 years now, the cooperation between DB and SNCF has shown how it can work.”
DB and SNCF currently offer a total of twelve daily direct connections in each direction between France and Germany: six times from Frankfurt to Paris, five connections from Stuttgart and one from Munich. The fastest connection is Stuttgart-Paris: the journey time for the 600 kilometres is 3:10 hours.
DB and SNCF are also celebrating the birthday with a special offer: from May 25 to June 8, there are a total of 15,000 tickets for 29.90 euros in 2nd class and 39.90 euros in 1st class on both railways. They apply to journeys on the ICE or TGV route to France and in the opposite direction. The travel period is between 8 June and 30 September 2022.
