He is back. Nine years after its shutdown, the Berlin-Paris night train resumed service on Monday December 11. Departure at 8:28 p.m. from Berlin central station, under the cameras and flashes of German “railway enthusiasts”, train enthusiasts who watch for all the latest news. Arrival scheduled for 10:26 a.m. in Paris, after a fourteen-hour journey, with an enthusiastic welcome from the French railway operators, despite a good quarter of an hour of delay and waiting in the winter drizzle.
The Nightjet – this is the name of this night train – will leave Paris the same evening, at 7:12 p.m., to reach the German capital at 8:26 a.m. the next day. Made up of six cars, it offers a choice of three levels of comfort. Sleeping cars (72 seats, from 94.90 euros when booking well in advance) are the most popular, with wide bench seats (for one to three people per cabin). They are equipped either with a bathroom (shower, toilet), or with a small sink with access to a shower in the corridor. The sleeper cars, with four or six beds (108 seats in total, from 59.90 euros), resemble those of the Corail cars of the 1970s. The cheapest option for traveling remains the seated place, with 132 reclining seats, from 29.90 euros.
The trip requires a little organization, due to the lack of a daily connection between the two capitals: you must plan to leave Paris on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday evening, and to return, departing from Berlin, on Monday, Wednesday or Friday evening. Departing from Paris, the weekend will therefore necessarily be delayed. The train will only run every day, if all goes well, from October 2024. A much less flexible option than the plane.
With the return of this connection, nostalgia is coming to the stations. “ The first time I came to Berlin was thirty-three years ago, with my parents: they wanted to show me what was left of the Wall.”, remembers Clément Beaune, the French Minister for Transport, on the platform of the Hauptbahnhof, Berlin’s central station. Gare de l’Est, in Paris, Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of SNCF, reminded “having already restarted this train, in 1991, two years after the fall of the Wall”. He was then director of operations in eastern France. There were also regrets: “It was a mistake to have stopped”sighed Manja Schreiner, Berlin senator (CDU) for mobility, transport and climate protection.
Some hiccups at startup
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