The Berlin-Paris night train, canceled in 2014, will be relaunched on December 11 and will pass through Strasbourg. This was indicated by the Austrian company ÖBB, a pioneer of night trains. She will operate this connection three times a week. The train will become daily from October 2024.
The first night train from Paris to Berlin will leave next December
The return of this line was announced in December 2020 by the French, German and Austrian public railway companies. It is part of the slow European revival of night trains, a means of transport that is coming back into favor due to its low environmental impact. The nighttime Paris-Berlin will stop along the way in Strasbourg, Mannheim, Erfurt and Halle.
Concretely, trains departing from Paris will have 12 cars, 6 for Berlin and 6 for Vienna, with seats, berths and sleeping cars.
ÖBB to serve Berlin and Vienna from Mannheim
The ÖBB company will reorganize its service to form a sort of large “X” by integrating the Berlin service into its existing Paris-Vienna and Brussels-Vienna night trains. The trains will therefore connect Paris or Brussels on the one hand, to Berlin or Vienna on the other. They will be recomposed in the middle of the night in Mannheim, on the banks of the Rhine.
Deutsche Bahn, for its part, confirmed the date, welcoming the development of its “cooperation with ÖBB in night traffic”.
Paris-Berlin by day not before the end of 2024
Separately, SNCF and Deutsche Bahn announced last year a Paris-Berlin daytime, high-speed operation from the end of 2024, which should not initially pass through Strasbourg.
This seven-hour connection will initially be operated with German ICE high-speed trains. The route of the new link has been the subject of numerous debates in recent months, with the German partners favoring a passage through Saarbrücken, and not through Strasbourg, citing work on the network.
The Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune, assured that this link would pass “gradually” through Strasbourg, at a later date, not before 2025 at best.
Trenitalia had announced its intention to serve Berlin
The Italian competitor had indicated that it wanted to benefit from the liberalization of the rail market in Europe. Trenitalia was announcing, days before the Austrian Railways announcement, a high-speed rail service that will connect Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and possibly Berlin
