SNCF and Deutsche Bahn intend to launch a direct TGV between Paris and Berlin at the end of 2023, the boss of the French company announced on Tuesday, who came to Strasbourg to celebrate 15 years of Franco-German cooperation at high speed.
“
We want to launch a Paris-Berlin TGV in December 2023
,” SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou told AFP.
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“
It makes sense because we see that people are willing to take longer and longer journeys.
There really are people who are willing to stay five hours, six hours, seven hours on a train
,” he explained.
“
In this case, Paris-Berlin is seven hours.
“
A few years ago, we thought it was a bit long and we were afraid of having no one.
There are more and more people for whom this is not a problem, so much the better!
“, he launched, emphasizing that “
taking the train is a way of reconciling mobility and the protection of nature
”.
“
We are going to try, with our German colleagues, to run this train
”, noted Jean-Pierre Farandou.
To begin with, there must be one round trip per day on this link via Frankfurt, operated in partnership between SNCF and Deutsche Bahn with German ICE high-speed trains, said Alain Krakovitch, TGV-Intercités director at SNCF. .
It could later be supplemented by a second round trip with French TGVs, he added.
"
It's quite symbolic of the evolution of our society, and of the desire of many of our fellow citizens to favor the train
," noted the manager.
Climate goals
“
The observation that we are making today is that Paris-Milan and Paris-Barcelona have astonishing occupancy rates: at Paris-Milan, the offer has doubled with the arrival of Trenitalia (the public company Italian, which came to compete with the SNCF TGVs in December, Ed), and despite that, the trains are full
, ”he explained.
“
We must be able to have the same thing on Paris-Berlin!
»
The daily TGV linking Frankfurt to Marseille - via Strasbourg and Lyon - in 7 hours 48 is also a success, noted Alain Krakovitch.
The Paris-Berlin high-speed day train will be added to a night train connection between the two capitals which is to be operated by Austrian railways ÖBB - in cooperation with SNCF and Deutsche Bahn -, also from the end of 2023.
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“
It will be at the same time, the night train and the day train.
We will have the choice according to taste
, ”summarized Jean-Pierre Farandou.
"
We make Europe somewhere, the Europe of everyday life
", he launched.
“
We are making peace in Europe with the railway!
"
I am convinced that we need more railways in Europe and a strong Europe needs a strong interconnection on the rails
", added his colleague from Deutsche Bahn, Richard Lutz.
The development of rail is "
essential to achieve climate objectives
", he stressed.
SNCF and Deutsche Bahn have been running high-speed trains, TGV and ICE, between France and Germany together since the opening of the first section of the Paris-Strasbourg high-speed line in June 2007. The two companies have together transported, in fifteen years, 25 million people on Paris-Frankfurt, Paris-Stuttgart-Munich and Frankfurt-Marseille, the train now beating the plane on the Paris-Frankfurt axis.