Stuttgart to Paris by train in only 3½ hours

It took twenty years of planning and labor but now it's reality: In June the TGV will begin servicing the route Paris - Stuttgart (via Strasbourg and Karlsruhe), shortening travel time to an incredible 3:30 hours. Considering that the flight from Munich Airport to Paris-Charles de Gaulle takes 1:45 hours plus transport to and from the airports, this offers a real alternative in international travel.

The trains will run at a speed of 320 kph (within France) but at the most 300 kph (within Germany), this due to the relative proximity of the stops. Strangely enough, this reflects the history of the two countries: While France had become a large, continguous state by the Middle Ages and has kept the centralistic form of government then instated, Germany was a loose conglomerate of small sovereign states through the middle of the 19th century, and even in modern times local politicians insist on a stop on "their" territory. The train itself has set the - up to now unconfirmed - record of 553 kph.

This route is a first step towards an ambitious EU project, the Magistrale Paris - Bratislava meant to connect Western and Central Europe, providing the various countries can modernize their infrastructure. Germany, for example, has been debating the planning and construction of the stretch between Stuttgart and Ulm for ten years.

The Deutsche Bahn has a special offer of €29 Stuttgart-Paris (one way) including the reservation fee, subject to limited availability; the normal price is €95 Stuttgart-Paris with Bahncard discounts applicable.

P.S. Paris-Frankfurt will be serviced as well, travel time there four hours and a bit.

Thanks! My wife and I may celebrate our 10th in marriage in Paris this May!

Hel-LO! Starting in June! But you can surprise her with the tickets on the anniversary.

Alles Klar.

Good news. According to mappy.com, it would take over six hours to drive the same route. As both roads and airspace become increasingly congested and as climate change worsens, we will rely on the trains more and more to shuttle people around Europe. France has really been leading the way with high-speed long distance routes, such as the new Paris-Marseilles track opened in 2001, which covers the 750kms in just three hours. Just waiting for the three-hour Munich-Berlin route now...

Not too bad, but too expensive at 95 euros each way..

Intresting to know..

But, a person living in Munich would first have to travel to Stuttgart first. (Via plane,train,car)

The 29 Eur offer is a limited offer and is 1 way. I suspect the return price is "Full price"

The price of 98 Eur. mentioned above is only if you have a bahn card. If you don't have one then the price will be over 200 Eur.
With all the lowcost carriers, and the city deals from the big carriers, 200+ eur for a 3.5hr train ride (5 if you leave from Munich)
isn't worth it..

Current prices for a June 20-25 MUC Paris trip (includes all taxes)
------------------------------------------------------
Lufthansa - 112 Eur
Airfrance - 107 Eur
DBA - 153 Eur
Air Berlin - 153 Eur

I disagree; I think it's a realistic price, it's just that our concept of price has been numbed by the ridiculously low prices charged by some budget airlines. To drive would cost around €70 on petrol plus €32 in tolls, before you even start to consider the cost of purchasing and maintaining a car, or the wear and tear of a particular journey. Sure, you can probably fly for less, but that's because the airlines are living in a dreamworld where they don't have to pay for the damage they cause, the infrastructure they require or even duty on the fuel they use. That can't last forever, and when airlines are forced to charge realistic prices then the €95 will seem like pretty good value, especially if the half-price Sparpreis offer applies.

Obviously. But people do live in Stuttgart as well, you know. And Munich to Stuttgart is only two hours twenty by train and there would presumably be a direct price for Munich to Paris. Moreover, direct trains will also now operate from Frankfurt to Paris. This topic is in the "Life in Baden-Württemberg forum", so I'm not really sure what your point is.


Nonsense. The price is €95 each way Stuttgart-Paris and €99 Frankfurt-Paris, to which additional discounts apply if the traveller has a Bahncard.

wish they'd had this service when I lived in Stuttgart...

When did this become Toytown China? Seriously, it's just the marketplace. The budget airlines are paragons of efficiency, keeping their planes in the air and full of people every possible hour. Trains have much, much higher fixed costs. Statistically, train travel is the outlier on price (if you want to compare the cost of driving, then fill the car with people first and divide the cost).

I love train and will take one over flying and even pay a little more whenever practical, but it is a luxury.

France to open fastest rail link

According to the SZ's article:


So if we wait long enough, we won't have to bother with Stoiber's Transrapid to get to the airport. We can hop on the TGV at Muc Hbf and be in Paris in 4.5 hours!

You wanna go to Paris?

Damn that's great news...I might have to add another trip to Paris on my whirlwind Germany trip this summer!

A French high-speed train (TGV) has smashed the world record for a train on rails by a big margin, reaching 574.8km/h (356mph).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6521295.stm

As of June this year Frankfurt will take around 4 hours (down 2 hours) and Saarbruecken 1h 50 mins to get to Paris!

Richard Branson eat your beard!

I like this. I might try and do that sometime this summer. I could get on the TGV in Mannheim too, which would make the trip even shorter. Or in K-town which would not necessarily be faster but cheaper (seeing as I can get to K-town for free on my semester ticket).
I talked to a co-worker about this before, he also said he might try to get tickets for the discounted offer when they go on sale on 4/10. I don't know if I am going to, though, because I don't know when I will be able to go / afford it.

While beating the record for a wheeled train, it still came up 42Mph short in beating the fastest train in the world, a Japenese Maglev.
Let the French retune and refine.. I'm sure they'll get it on the next try..

Not sure we can make it. But of what I read the maglev record was 580 km/h. Am I wrong ?

But I am still impressed by the technology. One thing I read due to the record is that when the TGV come in germany he gets a lower voltage so he can't go 320 km/h...

Yeah it was almost 580km/h. DK was writing the speed in mph. I haven't converted but it probably works out to be the same.

574.8km/h (356mph).

I don't think the TGV will go to SB, K-Town, Mannheim and Frankfurt as that bit will be operated by an ICE. The fast part of the track starts around Metz and continues south towards Strasbourg so it's still slow boat up to there. But I do think the TGV will go to Stuttgart but I think they have to build a new bridge over the Rhine and like the slow track to Frankfurt that could be years from now! Still it should be more fun than flying!


http://www.tgvesteuropeen.com/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=77

The article I read on it a few weeks ago mentioned it would go to MA and KL as well. Hmmm...

Nice article but makes the return trip crappy since you would have less time to mull your trip over. Besides who wants to go to Stuggart?

You can take a slow train back. Make a stop in Heidelberg too, it's a pretty town.

Not unless I knew there were hot german chicks there.

BLT, thanks for following up. The standard speed will be app. 320 kph on the Paris - Strasbourg stretch, according to what I heard on Brit and German news.

that is correct. the northern german route does not use the TGV.


the southern route will be serviced by the TGV. both are just as fast. i'm looking at MA-Paris East in 3 hours 46 minutes. wow!

On Sunday, June 10th, Deutsche Bahn in Mannheim will have a big party to celebrate the new fast route to Paris. There will be live music, etc.

Has anyone been able to work out what happens to the timetable in November/December when the service between Munich and Paris is supposed to improve in some as-yet-ill-defined way?

... unless they're on strike?

Check out Railteam for more info:

Ã? would like to travel to Paris by train later this year...but only if it is seamless...!

Here´s hoping...

The TGV will commence services from Munich's Hbf 9 December with one direct train daily departing @ 06.20 and arriving in Paris at 12.34 (journey time 6 hours 14 minutes).


(source: TGV.com)

Has this happened?

It has indeed ...

Bonjour, TGV!

Zum ersten Mal ist ein französischer TGV aus Paris am Münchner Hauptbahnhof angekommen. Die Trasse ist erst seit kurzem für den Hochgeschwindigkeitszug freigegeben ...

Yes. See New high-speed rail service from Munich to Paris

Take us 3.5 hours to get to Paris, and you folk (in Munich) 6.20 hours to get there? We are only 2.5 hours away from Munich with the train? How now brown cow?

The train stops in Stuttgart for 15 minutes, which explains the time difference. Although there is now a direct service from Munich to Paris, it isn't actually any quicker than before (i.e. after the high-speed link opened but before the new timetable earlier this month). The only difference is that before you had to change trains in Stuttgart, whereas now you can stay on the same train.

I just looked up the distance from Munich to Paris – it's 850km. To do that in a little over six hours is pretty damn good, although the German stretch is definitely slowing things down. The Munich-Stuttgart stretch is relatively slow, especially to the west of Ulm. These are kinds of upgrades we could be doing instead of throwing money down the Transrapid drain.

This is a great news! Soon me and my bf will be moving to Stuttgart in July for his job. Hopefully we could take the train back to visit his family in France!!! Thanks a lot!!!

This is great news. By July you will only need a small bank loan to buy a ticket.

Flying will still be cheaper but it is the traveling time difference we are paying for I suppose. The last time I took the train up north from Stuttgart my kids and I had to stand half of the way because there weren't any available seats. Miserable...I'm flying.

Spend €1.50 on a seat reservation and you'll have a seat.

As discussed above, there are plenty of cheap deals to be had on this train route. And if you do have to pay more, it's the comfort and lack of stress that one pays extra for, as well as the much shorter journey time and the smug satisfaction that comes from not destroying the planet and disturbing hundreds of thousands of people.

Flights like the Stuttgart-Paris route need to be taxed out of the sky.

Because trains don't use energy.

About one-tenth that of planes.

Ok, so honest question: if the use one-tenth the energy of planes, why does it cost nearly the same or more to go by train?

I suppose partly because they need infrastructure all along the several hundred kilometres and not just at each end of the journey.

Because the airlines enjoy vast subsidies. They pay almost nothing towards the infrastructure they require – they don't even pay tax on the fuel they use. Of course Deutsche Bahn gets a certain amount of direct funding, but that's nothing compared to the indirect subsidies the airlines receive. Look, for example, at how much money the government was prepared to pour into the Transrapid scheme.

See Landing us in it.

Hi, just joined this forum. Love all the comments and would agree that it is just great to see Europe coming together like this with these high speed cross border trains. I would just love to see the white German ICE arrive in Ebbsfleet or St Pancrass London too, same goes for the TGV. I would welcome it 100%, and what a fantastic sight that would be. The ICE is just such a beautiful design. They are both just awesome looking trains. I'd use the services for sure as I often travel to Germany and I've had it being treated like cattle at airport check ins.

Yeah it's only goin to get faster (hopefully)...Check out the Railteam website. They are building a high-speed line from Paris to Budapest. Also it's planned that by December 2009 there will be a high-speed line between Munich and Vienna/Zurich. So one day we can look forward to the abolition of such preposterous flight paths like Munich-Stuttgart!

The Paris to Budapest line is the end result of several different high speed lines coming together when finished. The new line from Paris to Stuttgart is part of that line.