It’s not every day that a train receives such a welcome. Saturday July 8 at 2:35 p.m., 500 passengers walked the ground of the Saint-Jean station under the eyes of the photographers. “But is there a star on the train? asks even a passerby. No, no celebrity in sight, except this train, the first to arrive from Frankfurt, Germany…
It’s not every day that a train receives such a welcome. Saturday July 8 at 2:35 p.m., 500 passengers walked the ground of the Saint-Jean station under the eyes of the photographers. “But is there a star on the train? asks even a passerby. No, no celebrity in sight, except for this train, the first to arrive from Frankfurt, Germany, and to end its journey in Bordeaux.
“Our German customers are particularly fond of the Atlantic coast and Bordeaux in particular”, explains Christine Dejean, market director of SNCF Voyageurs and kingpin of this new summer line between France and Germany. The season is open: there will be a round trip between Frankfurt and Bordeaux every Saturday, until August 26. This line was not imagined by chance: according to hotel and campsite reservations, there were nearly 500,000 German tourists coming on vacation to the region in 2022.
“One million Germans every year”
“And so many come to see family and friends, so 1 million Germans come every year”, specifies Brigitte Bloch, president of the Bordeaux Métropole Tourist Office, who welcomes this “first direct link between Bordeaux and abroad”.
After the English, the Germans represent the second most frequent foreign clientele in New Aquitaine. “With an increase of 10.7% compared to 2019”, notes the Regional Tourism Committee. A clientele that comes more and more, especially in summer, for the ocean beaches. “In general, they like the outdoors and coastal campsites,” explains Aurélie Loubes, general manager of the Regional Committee, and many come to surf too! In this first Frankfurt-Bordeaux, there was also a group of around forty young surfers in summer camp.
German tourists mark the occasion with a photo in front of the train.
V. H.
Sustain the line?
For the representatives of Deutsche Bahn (DB), who worked on the creation of this line, hand in hand with the SNCF, this binational train meets a real need: “Today, on board, there were those who were already coming to Bordeaux and who are very happy to finally have a train that takes them there directly, and those who dreamed of discovering the area and who took the plunge thanks to this new line. This destination, initiated by the SNCF and the DB, is still in the experimental stage all summer. If the results are there, the line could be made permanent, like the Frankfurt-Marseille route in place since 2012.
The Frankfurt to Bordeaux route on this seasonal line is already full for the month of July.
To know
The 500 passengers boarded the train in Frankfurt at 6:56 a.m. and stopped a dozen times, such as in Strasbourg or Angoulême. On board, the staff is binational, announcements are made in French, German and English, and the bar car menu offers dishes from both countries. Journey time: 7:39 a.m. The train then leaves for Frankfurt at 3:58 p.m. and arrives at its destination around midnight.
2023-07-09 12:10:02
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