The Berlin-Paris night train, canceled in 2014, has made a comeback

Canceled in 2014, the night rail connection between Berlin and Paris has made a comeback. The first night train linking the German and French capitals for nine years arrived this Tuesday morning at Gare de l'Est, after leaving Berlin Central Station on Monday evening at 8:18 p.m. He arrived to the sound of victorious music and under the eye of numerous targets on the Gare de l'Est platform. The twenty minutes late did not spoil the party.

“The night train from Berlin to Paris is back and has just arrived at the Gare de l’Est! A great step forward for the ecological transition of mobility, as much as a rediscovered pleasure of waking up elsewhere in Europe,” wrote Laurence Boone, the Secretary of State for Europe, on X (ex-Twitter). “The foundation of Europe is concrete projects, which bring people and young people together! And today, a magnificent joint ecological project,” welcomed the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune.

Clément Beaune was one of the passengers on this inaugural train. Operated by the Austrian national company ÖBB, spearheading the development of night trains in Europe, with Nightjet trains, the Berlin-Paris is managed in partnership with SNCF and its German alter ego, Deutsche Bahn. It offers several options, from a berth to a seat, including a sleeping car with a private bedroom for one, two or three people. “This new Nightjet line now connects Berlin and Vienna to Paris but also Berlin and Vienna to Brussels thanks to the partnership with the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges (SNCB),” recalled the SNCF in a press release. And ÖBB does not intend to stop there since the company is planning a Zurich-Barcelona line passing through Lyon and Montpellier by the end of 2024.

For the moment, three connections per week are planned between the French and German capitals, with departures on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Paris and Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from Berlin, stopping in Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Erfurt and Halle. The service should become daily from October 2024.

Since 2020, faced with the craze for modes of transport that emit less CO2 than planes or cars, France has chosen to relaunch night trains. In 2016, there were only two lines of this type remaining in France: one going from Paris to the Pyrenees - Latour-de-Carol or Portbou via Toulouse - and Albi and the other from Paris to Briançon, in the Alps. The objective is to have ten by 2030. The “Yes to the night train” collective is calling for it to open 25 and to invest more massively, while France has no plans to buy new trains. before 2025.

The French government has invested 100 million euros for the relaunch of the night train: 76 million for the renovation of 93 old Corail cars brought up to date and 24 million for the necessary station installations. But without new trains, it is impossible to open new lines. “The construction of new trains, however, takes five to eight years. Meanwhile, Europe is moving forward: Austria is starting to put into service more than 200 brand new night cars, which it had ordered in... 2018,” underlined the “Yes to the night train” collective.