Official information and timetable details are not yet available, but Deutsche Bahn (DB) and French rail operator SNCF are promising a significant improvement in train services on the ‘Main Line for Europe’ route. With the opening of the new station in Stuttgart and the completion of the missing section of the high-speed line to Ulm, the number of direct connections between Paris and Munich is set to increase in December 2026.
Cities such as Augsburg and Ulm are also expected to benefit from this. Today, there is one TGV train per day in each direction, operated jointly by DB and SNCF: in the morning from Munich to Paris and in the evening back, with stops in Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg. The TGV covers the 400 kilometres between Strasbourg and Paris non-stop at speeds of up to 320 km/h in 1 hour and 46 minutes.
SNCF’s long-distance transport director, Alain Krakovitch, spoke in the French newspaper ‘Les Echos’ about five fast direct connections between Paris and the Bavarian capital in the future. In addition to TGV trains, ICEs are also expected to be used for this purpose. It is still unclear whether these trains will run in addition to the existing connections or whether some of the ICEs currently commuting between Karlsruhe and Munich will be used from Paris or extended to Munich. It is also conceivable that some of the TGVs currently commuting between Paris and Stuttgart will continue to Munich.
With ‘Stuttgart 21’, direct trains to Paris will not only run more frequently, but also faster. Currently, the TGV (via the old route) still takes almost an hour between Ulm and Stuttgart, but from the end of 2026, this is expected to be 28 minutes. As Stuttgart will no longer be a terminus station, the journey time to Paris is likely to be reduced by more than half an hour. The train journey from Augsburg to Paris would then take around 4 hours and 40 minutes instead of the current 5 hours and 12 minutes, and the journey from Ulm to the Seine would take three and a half hours instead of the current 4 hours and 4 minutes.
The great success of the new direct ICE connection between Berlin and Paris, which was only launched in December, is also likely to have been a decisive factor in the announcement by the two railways. According to dpa, Michael Petersen, member of the Deutsche Bahn Management Board for Long-Distance Traffic, said that advance bookings for the first quarter of 2025 were already above average and that train occupancy was ‘very high on average – 90 per cent is not uncommon.’ An SNCF spokeswoman said that if demand develops positively, the possibilities for expanding cross-border services will be analysed.
The additional and faster trains between Munich and Paris will strengthen the ‘Main Line for Europe’ as one of the continent’s most important rail corridors. ‘Stuttgart 21’ will close a significant gap between Paris and Munich; all that will then be missing is the new Ulm–Augsburg line, which is expected to reduce travel times by a further 15 minutes in the 2030s, and a connecting curve at Appenweier to the Rhine Valley Railway east of Strasbourg.
The ‘Main Line’ will also be strengthened in terms of timetables: up to now, two changes have usually been necessary between Paris and Vienna – mostly in Stuttgart and Munich or Salzburg. With a train operated by Austrian Westbahn between Stuttgart and Vienna since December 2024, the journey can be made with one change. With five direct connections between Paris and Munich in future, it will then also be possible to travel from the French capital to the Austrian capital five times a day with just one change. The ÖBB’s ‘Nightjet’ offers a direct night service from Vienna to Paris, although this does not run from Augsburg or Ulm.
Peter Stöferle, IHK Schwaben