Berlin-Paris high-speed rail route symbolizes Europe's thirst for train travel | Hacker News Reader

Berlin-Paris high-speed rail route symbolizes Europe's thirst for train travel

lemonde.fr

33 pointsrustoo14 comments

8 hours is long, but if you factor in ground transportation and station-locations it makes sense.

Flying: Berlin to Brandenburg (34 mins) + security (1 hr) + flight (2 hrs) + Orly/CDG to Paris (46 mins) = 4.33 hrs

(and that's the happy path -- in reality it's closer to 5.5 hours, with lots of transfers)

Train is A-to-B with lots of legroom.

And that is precisely why, unless you go between two directly connected cities, car is even more convenient than train. You don't happen to live in the train station in Paris. And neither do you happen to stay at the train station in Berlin.

Google Maps tell me Paris-Berlin is 9h35 minutes by car. I can now leave at the exact time I want. Maybe pick up something on the way by making a little detour. And arrive at my destination and have a car there.

I did that just yesterday (a road trip from Luxembourg to the french riviera): 960 km road trip (600 miles). Closest train station is a one hour drive. Closest highway is a 45 minutes drive. Closest airport a 1h30 minutes drive.

And of course once at my destination I then get to use my own car, not a rental one.

P.S: No security check lines. No being packed like sardines.

Except for city centers, there's nowhere cheap to park (especially overnight parking).

I used to live in upstate NY, and driving was definitely more convenient and fun (I would learn so much listening to long podcasts), but I would never drive to NYC because of the parking issue.

I'd take 8 hours on a train where I can relax, read a book or do some work over 9 hours driving.

...which is almost 10h wasted in front of a wheel in an exhausting high attention mode, as opposed to pulling out a book or laptop and checking the dining car out in a train.

Spandau is hardly the centre though

8 hours is long no matter what you factor in.

Plus long rail journeys that are expensive and on non refundable tickets, you turn up early. We’re having this debate in the UK with our new high speed line. Saving 30 mins off a journey is moot if tickets will be stricter and people turn up 30 mins early

An hour through security?!

I'm including security and waiting at the gate.

It's the same in the US. I have TSA Precheck but always arrive 1 hr early, even though getting through security only takes 7-10 mins.

It's been a long time coming. It's ridiculous that there wasn't a direct rail connection between the two most important EU capitals yet.

Well, there still isn't. It's not really a new line, just an indirect connection via existing high speed lines that takes over 8 hours. I don't think that's gonna be very competitive with air travel which takes less than 2 hours.

Apparently the highest average speed rail line in the world averages 318 km/h and the straight line distance between Paris and Berlin (through Belgium and Luxembourg) is about 875 km, the time could be about 2.75 hours, which wouldn't be too bad.

In reality the lines wouldn't be able to go straight and you might want to avoid going through any countries other than France and Germany. The best case scenario would probably be a little over 3 hours, which still wouldn't be too bad.

The route is surprisingly Z-shaped mostly due to geography, since the Ardennes lie on the direct line. Also the development of the rail network in either country took no account of the other country.

> the Ardennes lie on the direct line.

Trains somehow go from Aachen to Brussels. Ardennes is hardly an obstacle.

That's further north than the direct line - I know I have fond memories of hitchhiking Brussels->Aachen with my girlfriend in the 1970s. Direct Paris/Berlin train needs to go along the Sedan/Bastogne axis that is not very flat.

This is a great direction! I would love to be able to take trains across Europe instead of flying.

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