2023-12-12 15:01:00
On December 10th, the winter train plan came into effect in Germany. Among the new routes, a well-forgotten old night train appeared, which again, after a nine-year break, connected two large European capitals – Berlin and Paris. Until the end of 2024, Nightjet trains will depart three times a week. From Berlin – on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 20 hours and 18 minutes.
The timetable shows the eighth track of the Central Station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof). The time to the final goal is about fourteen hours. If there are no delays, then you can start your day in Paris at half past ten on the platform of the Gare de l’Est station. At the end of next year they plan to make the movement daily, or rather nightly.
First passengers
Passengers on the first flight of the Nightjet train between Berlin and Paris on the evening of Wednesday, December 11, were the transport ministers of the two countries, Volker Wissing and Clement Beaune, as well as managers of the railway companies of the four European countries participating in the project.
According to Deutsche Bahn, if you book tickets in advance, a seat in a seated carriage can now be purchased for 29.90 euros, and in a sleeping carriage – for 93 euros.
Clement Beaune and Volker Wissing travel to Paris from Berlin on the new night trainPhoto: Carsten Koall/dpa/picture alliance
This new night train highlights the importance of cooperation and closeness between Germany and France and demonstrates the importance of common efforts to protect the earth’s climate. Policymakers are aiming for intra-European rail travel to become more competitive and offer more alternatives to air travel.
The Austrian company ÖBB is a partner in the German-French project, which in 2016 bought this unprofitable segment of Deutsche Bahn and retained part of the night routes – for example, from Vienna to Berlin.
Trans-European express trains
The first steps towards the revival of long-distance overnight routes were taken by the previous federal government, when, during the German Presidency of the European Union in 2020, the joint project “TransEuropExpress 2.0” was developed and approved.
According to this infrastructure plan, new night lines should connect thirteen major European cities. Among them are Vienna and Amsterdam, Zurich and Barcelona, Berlin and Warsaw, Amsterdam and Rome.
TEE Express in Frankfurt am Main in the 1970sPhoto: Kurt Zarski/picture-alliance/dpa
The first European high-speed system, the Trans-European Express (TEF), operated from 1957 to 1987. At the peak of its development in the mid-1970s, it consisted of more than four dozen trains, both day and night, running between 130 European cities.
In 1967, the Belgian-French feature film “Trans-European Express” (also spelled “Trans-European Express”) was shot, the plot of which unfolds on such a train between Paris and Antwerp. Another West German film, 1977’s Rheingold, takes place on the famous German TEF express “Rheingold” where childhood friends meet. He works as a waiter in a dining car. She regularly travels to visit her mother from Zurich to Dusseldorf…
Nothing is known yet about plans for any cinematic remakes, but there is information about further steps to implement the European transport project.
The Rheingold Express on the Middle Rhine in the 1980sPhoto: picture alliance/dpa
High speed trains between Berlin and Paris
At the end of 2024, in addition to the Nightjet night express trains, daytime high-speed trains – German ICE and French TGV – should also begin running between Berlin and Paris, but the parties have not yet agreed on the route.
The German Ministry of Transport proposes that these trains pass through Saarbrücken. France prefers the option through Strasbourg. These steps are taken as part of an overall European vision to increase the capacity and number of passengers of high-speed trains in Europe.
Will night trains become profitable?
The revival of the night train system in Europe is now being carried out primarily to achieve political goals in the field of climate protection. According to industry experts, it does not yet expect to make a profit. Night trains are considered unprofitable. It is for this reason that the City Night Line Perseus train service between Berlin and Paris was stopped in 2014.
A compartment in the sleeping car of the new generation Nightjet night trainPhoto: Andreas Stroh/IMAGO
France will support the project for the first two years – 10 million euros each, after which, as they hope in Paris, the line should become profitable. In Germany, a special study will soon be carried out to find out the preferences of passengers on modern night trains and determine the conditions for increasing competitiveness.
Night trains from Berlin to Paris consist of two parts, which after Mannheim in the German state of Baden-Württemberg will follow different routes. The final destination of one half of the Nightjet Express is Brussels – via Cologne, Aachen and Liege. Belgium will not charge for the use of highways or electricity for the next two years.
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