In 2007, Alleo was founded, a subsidiary of the French National Railways (SNCF) and the Deutsche Bahn AG (DB). The joint venture offers high-speed connections between France and Germany. Recently, the company was renamed 'DB-SNCF in cooperation'. Both French TGV and German ICE trains are used on DB-SNCF routes, meaning passengers can expect the same high quality service on either fleet of trains. On French soil, these two train combinations race on a 300 km long new line at speeds of up to 320 km/h. With the short travel times between major cities, DB-SNCF is a great alternative to air travel.
Cross the Rhine with DB-SNCF
Up to eleven TGV and ICE trains operate daily between Paris and ten German cities. Ulm, Stuttgart, Saarbrücken, Munich, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern, Frankfurt am Main, Baden-Baden and Augsburg are approached. With the new LGV Est Européenne high-speed line, the train journey from Saarbrücken to Paris takes 1 hour 45 minutes and Frankfurt-Paris only 3 hours 48 minutes. Since 2012 there is another direct connection with a daily train pair from Frankfurt / Main to Marseille with stops in several important French cities.
Facilities onboard DB-SNCF trains
The TGV and ICE trains have free WiFi, a French-German board crew and passengers can buy metro tickets on the train before arriving in Paris. All trains have a dining/bar cart. Particular advantages are enjoyed by families in the special family area (Espace Famille) of the 2nd class. This glass-walled area includes six seats, play area, pushchair storage, changing table, large folding table and height-adjustable seating. For first-class business travellers, the SNCF salon in the French stations of Marseille, Lyon and Paris and the DB lounges in the German stations of Munich, Stuttgart, Mannheim and Frankfurt invite you to relax and work. They offer daily newspapers, WiFi, fax and photocopy machines, refreshments and snacks. In the train compartments of the 1.
In the first two years alone, around 2.2 million passengers used DB-SNCF's service. The utilization of cross-border ICE and TGV high-speed trains was between 90 and 100 percent from Thursday to Sunday. In the first ten years (from 2007 to 2016), the high-speed connections of more than 16 million passengers were used, and customer satisfaction of 92 percent speaks for the outstanding service provided by these two countries. Since the tickets should be pre-ordered, these can best be booked online via the DB or SNCF portal, but also via the Trainline website or app.