I’m not sure that an 8 hour route between these cities with ~900 km between them really makes our case here. I don’t think there’s really a strong argument to be made that taking the train is better than flying between these cities.
International trains in Europe are a weak point of our network, one which we desperately need to improve.
That no one travels from Germany to France is of course entirely false. Frankfurt to Paris would be a far stronger example, coming in at 3 hours 30 minutes for ~500 km.
The high speed Paris to Berlin train just started in December:
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/12/13/high-speed-train-from-paris-to-berlin-to-launch-this-winter-with-daily-connections-from-59
There are about 25 trains per day on the route, but I guess according to this American they’re all empty?
I’m not sure that an 8 hour route between these cities with ~900 km between them really makes our case here. I don’t think there’s really a strong argument to be made that taking the train is better than flying between these cities.
International trains in Europe are a weak point of our network, one which we desperately need to improve.
That no one travels from Germany to France is of course entirely false. Frankfurt to Paris would be a far stronger example, coming in at 3 hours 30 minutes for ~500 km.
Germany in general is a bad example for train travel.
Lille Marseille is a 1k km trip and is done in less than 5 hours I believe