For the first time, Paris and Berlin will be connected today by a direct high-speed rail link, a bet towards a rail Europe over airline competition.

This new link, with one train a day in one direction and one in the other, will be inaugurated today with the departure of the first train at 9:55 am from the Gar de l’Est train station in Paris. Arrival in Berlin is scheduled for 18:03.

The inauguration of the link will take place in the presence of Jean-Pierre Faradoux, president and CEO of SNCF, the French railway company, and Anja Shelman, production manager of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn (Deutsche Bahn, DB). No minister will be present, as the resigning government is only handling current affairs pending the appointment of François Bayrou’s new government.

In the opposite direction, the first train will leave Berlin today at 11:54 am, a trainload of directors of the two railway companies will also leave there. It will arrive in Paris eight hours later, at 19:54.

“For the first time in the railway history between the two countries”, the two capitals “will be linked directly from the city centre to the city centre by high-speed train”, SNCF stresses.

The connection will be provided by ICE, the German high-speed train, rather than the French TGV.

They will also serve Strasbourg and, in Germany, the railway stations of Karlsruhe and Frankfurt

There is currently no train that directly connects Paris and Berlin. It takes more than eight hours to travel by rail from one capital to the other, with at least one change.

SNCF Voyageurs and Deutsche Bahn announced this new direct connection in May 2022. They had originally promised it for the end of 2023. In September 2024, the opening date was finally set for 16 December, with a ticket price of €59.99 in second class and €69.99 in first class.

Prices will in practice be determined by a system that sets the amount based on the occupancy rate of the trains.

The two rail companies insist on the ecological argument, pointing out that a Paris-Berlin train journey emits 2kg of CO2 per passenger, compared to 200kg for an air journey.

They also bet that the eight-hour journey won’t scare travellers as the love of trains grows. “There are more and more people for whom the long journey is not a problem and they think it’s even better!”Jean-Pierre Faradoux said when the plan was announced in May 2022.