Mélina Facchin, edited by Thibault Nadal 7:25 p.m., May 24, 2022, modified at 7:28 p.m., May 24, 2022
SNCF intends to launch a direct TGV between Paris and Berlin at the end of 2023, announced Tuesday the boss of the French company, who came to celebrate in Strasbourg, the 15 years of Franco-German cooperation at high speed.
Jean-Pierre Farandou also added that a night line could see the light of day.
While many French people prefer the train to reduce the carbon footprint, the SNCF will set up a direct TGV between Paris and Berlin from 2023 at the end of 2023. A journey that will be feasible in seven hours, specifies Jean-Pierre Farandou, the CEO of the SNCF.
After the opening of high-speed lines over the past 15 years between Paris and Frankfurt, Stuttgart or even Munich, Jean-Pierre Farandou, present in Strasbourg to celebrate 15 years of Franco-German high-speed cooperation, wants to go further.
Young people targeted first
"I would like us to double rail traffic in France and in Europe," he said, before explaining that the establishment of this line is aimed in particular at young people.
"We are also thinking of doing a Paris-Berlin both night and day. I am convinced that the young people will go there immediately and the not so young little by little, because this ecological awareness is in entering everywhere in all French families", he adds.
The revival of night trains
Jean-Pierre Farandou is convinced of this.
The French "are no longer afraid to travel 4, 5, 6 hours by train, especially the younger generations who want to take the train and less the plane".
For him, people prefer this mode "both for reasons of the cost of energy, but also for civic reasons, awareness of the impact on the planet and our choices in terms of travel".
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The CEO of SNCF is also betting on the revival of night trains.
After Nice, the Pyrenees or Vienne recently, other lines could see the light of day.