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A new train connection brings vacationers from Frankfurt main station to the Atlantic. France friends can rejoice.
Frankfurt – A group of young people checked in at the head of platform 22 at the stand of a surf camp organizer. The scenery is characterized by a relaxed mood and laughter that can be heard again and again – and that despite the early morning. On Saturday morning, shortly after half past six, there is already considerable activity on the northernmost platforms of Frankfurt Central Station. A surprising number of travelers arrive with backpacks, many with voluminous wheeled suitcases. The long-awaited vacation in France begins for everyone at 6.56 am.
As the destination of their train journey, the advertisement in Frankfurt documents for the first time a terminal station around 1,300 kilometers away not far from the French Atlantic coast: Bordeaux. The TGV, a double-decker high-speed train operated by French state railways SNCF, will cover the direct distance in around seven hours and 40 minutes.
Welcome to all vacationers in France: Unlike previous train journeys to the metropolis in Aquitaine, there is no need to change trains in Paris, including the one-hour change of station from Paris Est to Paris Montparnasse by metro.
New train connection from Frankfurt to Bordeaux: An arduous hour in Paris is no longer necessary
The vacationer TGV will commute weekly every Saturday at 6:56 a.m. until August 26 from the Main to the port city on the Garonne, from where another 60 kilometers by bus have to be covered to the Atlantic coast near Cap Ferret. The return train will also leave the port city on the Garonne every Saturday at 3:58 p.m. and arrive back in Frankfurt before midnight.
This TGV will be the first direct train to run from Frankfurt to Bordeaux until the end of August. © Matthias Pieren
A surprising number of the good-humored passengers on the premiere train pulled out their smartphones on Saturday morning to photograph the train advertisement with the destination Bordeaux. “Following our good experiences with the direct TGV connection between Frankfurt and Marseille introduced eleven years ago in the cooperation between DB and SNCF, this is another milestone for Frankfurt, which has always been an important hub in European train traffic,” says a railway spokesman in conversation with this newspaper.
At 300 km/h from Frankfurt main station to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic
So now it’s off to the Mediterranean at high speeds of up to 300 km/h – and the Atlantic coast. But why is the direct TGV to Bordeaux – which passes Paris – with a travel time of 7:40 hours about half an hour longer than the previously fastest train service with a scheduled transfer time of one hour in Paris?
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“To date, trains have run non-stop between Strasbourg and Paris and between Paris and Bordeaux, with just one stop in Poitiers. In France, these trains mostly travel at 300 km/h,” explains the spokesman. “The new direct connection between Strasbourg and Bordeaux, on the other hand, stops in Lorraine, Meuse, Champagne-Ardenne, Marne la Vallée-Chessy, Massy, St. Pierre de Corps, Poitiers and Angoulême. This means that other destinations within France can also be reached with this train service.”
The last continuous long-distance connection from Germany to Bordeaux was on the road exactly twenty years ago. In 2003, a car train drove from Berlin via Düsseldorf to the Atlantic coast and back again. In the 1990s there was even a night train from Frankfurt via Dijon and Avignon to Cerbere/Port Bou on the French-Spanish border. (Matthias Pieren)
From Frankfurt to Paris or Milan, you can also take the train: holiday trips by train are becoming more and more popular – these are the cheapest tickets.
2023-07-13 03:35:06
#high #speed #Atlantic
