New Munich-Paris high speed rail service planned

Germany's Deutsche Bahn (DB) and French railway SNCF have announced that they are looking into expanding direct, high-speed rail connections between Paris and major German cities.

The two national railway operators say they are encouraged by the success of the direct ICE connection between Paris and Berlin, which began operating daily in December. 

In light of the traffic the new train line is seeing, the companies say they are looking into expanding that connection further, and also plan to add more direct connections between Paris and Munich.

When will new Germany-France routes launch?

DB announced that new direct connections are planned between Munich and Paris to launch from the end of 2026. 

Asked for confirmation, a DB spokesperson confirmed to The Local that "an expansion of the connections between Munich and Paris is planned with the commissioning of the new station in Stuttgart from the end of 2026, details of which we will communicate at a later date."

SNCF’s long-distance transport director, Alain Krakovitch, told French newspaper Les Échos, that five direct connections are set to travel between Paris and Munich from December 2026. 

Both German ICE and French TGV trains are to be used on the route, according to plans. 

Currently, a TGV has commuted directly between Paris and the Bavarian capital once a day without changing trains in Stuttgart.

READ ALSO: The ski destinations you can reach by train from Germany

The success of the daily Berlin-Paris trains

DB board member Michael Peterson told DPA that the new ICE connection between Berlin and Paris without changing trains has been very well received.

"We have above-average advance bookings for the first quarter and the average occupancy rate of the trains is very high," said Peterson.

Roughly three-quarters of all travellers on the line travel the entire route, i.e. between Berlin and Strasbourg or Paris.

The high occupancy of the trains on the new connection is being interpreted as showing a high demand for long distance and international train options.

"The boom in international long-distance transport proves that people also want to travel across borders by climate-friendly rail - and are willing to accept longer journey times to do so, as the success of the Berlin-Paris or Frankfurt-Marseille connections shows," Peterson said.

DB and SNCF worked together to launch an overnight sleeper train service between Berlin and Paris which launched in December 2023.

Then, as of December 2024, they launched high-speed daytime connections between the two capitals via Strasbourg.

READ ALSO: How to get reduced-price ICE train tickets in Germany this January

With reporting by DPA.