As commuters to New York’s airports look forward to connectivity by futuristic air taxi, Paris is improving its own airport transport options with a new train connection to the French capital’s Gare de l’Est.
The fast service, nicknamed CDG Express, is slated to launch at the end of March 2027, running every quarter of an hour, and taking its passengers to the heart of the City of Lights in around 20 minutes, slashing current journey times (to neighbouring station and Eurostar/Thalys hub Gare du Nord by RER) by over 40%. It will run from 5 am to midnight every day of the week.
The cost to passengers is yet to be announced, but children under the age of 16 accompanied by adults will benefit from free trips, and Parisian residents in possession of a Navigo card (a personal and nominative card giving access to discounts) should travel for 30 to 40% less than visitors to the Île-de-France region.
While New Yorkers are bracing for aerial ride-hailing around their home city, some Parisians and tourists are looking forward in addition to the opening of a new pedestrian tunnel connecting the afore-mentioned train hubs, Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est.
Both in the 10th arrondissement, near iconic landmarks such as Place de la République and the canal St Martin (made famous by the film Amélie Poulain), the two large cardinal point stations are in fact only half a kilometre apart, but the nearly 800,000 passengers per day they handle can find it hard to navigate between them.
According to the government transport authority Ile de France Mobilités, a public consultation project in 2023 found participants complaining of “the many noise and olfactory nuisances that they suffer daily in this space,” and “in favour of the establishment of a new balance that gives priority to pedestrians and bicycles over two-wheelers and cars.” Better signage is also planned.
Coucouuu toiiii😻 pic.twitter.com/4BDq59ghJi
— Pilliam the cat 😼 (CHATELET HATE ACCOUNT) (@Pilliam_travel) April 16, 2026
Critics have questioned the cost-effectiveness of the tunnel, which is being excavated by hand and jackhammers rather than using a large tunnel-boring machine because of existing infrastructure limitations. Nonetheless, the underground walkway is set to open in the first half of 2027, coinciding with the inauguration of the CDG Express. Whether well-to-do Parisians will be persuaded to use the subway link in a district that was long-considered louche remains to be seen.
And in another development for Paris, a new metro line, number 17, is in the pipeline, set to link Saint-Denis to Charles de Gaulle Airport by 2027, and the airport to the exhibition and conference centre “Parc des Expositions” in 2028.
